THE PAPYRUS TRILOGY - set of 3 splendid novels by Serbian author Zoran Živković. Here's my write-up of each:
THE LAST BOOK - Book 1
"Nothing about the death seemed violent, so there was no reason for an investigation. But the owner of the Papyrus Bookstore panicked. No one had yet lost their life in her store. She called the police as well as an ambulance."
The above are the first lines in Zoran Živković's The Last Book, by far the author's best-selling novel to date - 20,000 copies have sold in Italy alone, nothing short of a monumental achievement for a literary author whose sales are usually much more modest.
The novel's rousing success is understandable. Crime fiction, specifically a murder mystery featuring a detective, counts as among the most popular genres for readers of all ages and backgrounds. The novels by the likes of Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbø and Jussi Adler-Olsen are routinely translated into dozens of languages and sell by the millions.
I can imagine fans of Mankell's Inspector Kurt Wallander or Nesbø's Inspector Harry Hole or Adler-Olsen's Inspector Carl Mørck reading that the Serbian author's The Last Book features an Inspector Dejan Lukić attempting to crack a series of mysterious murders taking place at a bookstore. Whoa! Start those presses rolling. And in addition to murders and a police inspector, The Last Book also includes references to Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose and a secret, mystical hooded sect meeting underground - double whoa! Not only start those presses rolling but keep them rolling.
And similar to Kurt Wallander, Harry Hole and Carl Mørck, the featured main character in an entire series of best-selling novels written by those three internationally acclaimed crime fiction authors, Inspector Dejan Lukić also appears in each volume of Zoran Živković's The Papyrus Trilogy. However, it must be acknowledged, the second and third volumes of the trilogy, The Grand Manuscript and The Compendium of the Dead, have not recorded sales equal to The Last Book.
You may ask: why is this? Well, as it turns out, for a very specific reason - Zoran Živković is not writing crime fiction of the Mankell or Nesbø type but is rather writing Central European fantastica of the Gogol or Bulgakov type. Added to this, The Last Book reminds me of the quirky metafiction found in John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse including such stories as Frame-Tale with instructions to cut and twist and tape the sentence "There once was a story that began" into a Möbius strip to form an unending story comprised of one unending sentence.
This being said, to discover how exactly Zoran Živković makes the transition from murder mystery, references to The Name of the Rose and members of a hooded, mystic sect to a tale of the metafictional fantastic, you will have to read for yourself. Thus, at this point, I will circle back in order to share a bit of color commentary on the first several chapters.
Vera Gavrilović is owner of the Papyrus Bookstore. Inspector Lukić enters into a romantic relationship with Vira that starts at the local tea shop and end up in Vera’s bed, a tender, endearing development that adds much sweetness to the tale. Also worth mentioning, unlike the typical hardboiled detectives in crime novels, not once does Inspector Lukić drink coffee or hard liquor, rather, under the guidance of Vera, the inspector sticks with mugs of fig tea, beetroot tea and lotus tea. Ah, the soothing effects of love.
And not only does our Inspector Lukić focus on his job as detective, he’s a great reader and lover of literature – in addition to The Name of the Rose, another classic comes up in conversation more than once: Crime and Punishment, written by none other than the master who had a profound influence on author Zoran Živković: Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The tight connection between character and author is revealed more completely at the end.
Of course, central to a murder mystery is crime. What and who caused the sudden death of those unfortunate otherwise healthy frequenters to the Papyrus Bookstore? The doctors and all concerned are completely baffled. The victims died one at a time but there must be a connection. Terrorists and terrorism becomes a distinct possibility. Enter Commissioner Milenković from the National Security Agency. Another layer of intrigue is added to the tale - government surveillance becomes so all pervasive it even extends to continual surveillance of the police, including Inspector Lukić.
Fortunately, there is a clue, a common denominator for all the deaths: a book, or more precisely, the last book. A thorough investigation of each and every book in the Papyrus Bookstore must be conducted. At one point, Inspector Lukić examines the photos he’s taken of three hundred books on nine key shelves and collates them by various categories on his computer. But not long thereafter the good inspector discovers his computer has been hacked. The plot thickens.
Did I mention color commentary back there? So happens we have yet again another transition paralleling the shift from crime thriller to fantastic metafiction. It's when color blind Vera Gavrilović at the end of the tale is able to see colors for the very first time in her life. Now, is your curiosity piqued? I certainly hope so. I urge you to pick up a copy of The Last Book to see how it all fits together. I can assure you there will be a few stunning surprises.
THE GRAND MANUSCRIPT - Book 2
Once again Zoran Živković features his literature loving Inspector Dejan Lukić attempting to crack a case, this time a famous writer of detective novels has mysteriously vanished along with the much sought after manuscript of her new detective novel.
The Grand Manuscript hooked me right from the first chapter. Whoa, baby, I could hardly put the book down! However, before crime fiction fans of Tana French or Lee Child or Jo Nesbø get too excited, allow me to quickly point out the Serbian author has written this novel within the tradition of Franz Kafka and Mikhail Bulgakov Middle-European fantastika. In order to elucidate more concretely what is meant here, I'll shift to a number of key themes bringing to mind not a classic of film noir nearly as much as a drawing of M.C. Escher.
REFLECTING ON REFLECTIONS
An upset literary agent calls Inspector Lukić to her apartment building and our hero rides the elevator up with the distraught lady. "Thanks to mirrors on three walls and the ceiling, the elevator looked considerably more spacious than it actually was. When she raised a finger to press the button for the fifth floor, I was disconcerted to see the same movement multiplied all around me. For a moment I couldn't tell which was the real person among all the likenesses. I wasn't even sure which one of me was real."
Reflections in a mirror – one of Western philosophy’s key metaphors. How much does our mirror reflection ground our sense of identity? In what way are we related to the disembodied subject that is the object of our perception? Among the questions our good Inspector Lukić ponders as he moves through his looking-glass world.
SIMPLY IMPOSSIBLE
“My internal counter seemed to be seriously out of whack. Now there were only sixty-nine stairs.” Inspector Dejan Lukić confronts Escher-like impossibilities at nearly every step (no pun intended). Of course, walking up and down a staircase where even a police inspector must abandon logic brings to mind Escher's celebrated Ascending and Descending. And readers are well to recall Zoran Živković wrote an entire novel, Escher's Loops, as literary counterpoint to M.C.'s bizarre artwork.
DREAM AND NIGHTMARE
Inspector Lukić is in that apartment elevator. The doors close; he feels trapped. Even though he’s on the top floor, the elevator begins to ascend - the inspector can detect he’s going up much faster than the elevator’s usual speed. He tries to anchor himself by looking in the mirror but observing his reflection only increases his instability. He squats down as the elevator continues to ascend at an unbelievable speed and watches the red carpet turn to light blue, the rippling surface of water. An enormous human face appears below: literary agent Miss Akentijević speaks of the missing novelist's jaded attitude regarding writing another detective novel. The dream continues with other faces appearing, each relaying a disturbing message. And the dream finally ends with the elevator floor disappearing altogether and our protagonist falling out into the cosmic void.
Dejan Lukić’s nightmare rivals the most spectacular nightmare in all of Russian literature, the one found in Nicolai Gogol’s Ivan Fyodorovich Sponka and his Auntie. And similar to Ivan’s, Dejan’s nightmare adds to our understanding of the novel’s characters and themes as well as the tale’s overall narrative structure. A prime example why Zoran Živković cites the great Russian author as a major influence.
MAGIC OF THE MODERN WORLD
Frequently Inspector Dejan Lukić pauses to answer his cell phones. Indeed, during this case he carries as many as four cell phones. One of the phones was given to him by a person unknown and works without a SIM card and battery. Dejan knows there must be a rational explanation since such phones "certainly aren’t magical.”
You may ask: where does the inspector find real magic? At one point he informs a lawyer for a publisher: “I’m not a fan of novels that lose all value once you find out who did it.” In other words, his abiding interest is not in popular detective novels but in the magic of great literature. Added to this, the more pages we turn, the more the fantastical within literature makes its appearance - several individuals even claim the first person to read the Grand Manuscript with the title of Find Me will be granted immortality. Now that's real magic!
REALITY AND ILLUSION
A tearoom offers herbal teas for all ailments. When asked what ails him, Inspector Lukic replies: “Illusions.” All through the novel I was hoping Dejan would be making good use of that special tea since he is faced with an entire series of possible illusions (who knows, perhaps they will turn out to be real!), illusions in the form of conventional reality crossing over into another dimension and such a dimension just might include metafictional fiction in a postmodern universe. Worth mentioning: for a richer experience of reading The Grand Manuscript, one is best having read the first book in The Papyrus Trilogy: The Last Book.
FASCINATING FACES
In addition to the above Escher elements, The Grand Manuscript contains features one finds in quality detective fiction, including memorable characters. Not only does Inspector Milenković from the National Security Agency make a return appearance but this time he's joined by young, hip agency officials with long hair and wearing colorful t-shirts. A twenty-something female photographer complete with lip rings, nose ring and multicolored streaks in her short, dark hair is also part of the agency. Among the other members of the colorful cast: intriguing owners of a new tea shop and a stylish knockout publisher's lawyer with large blue eyes and coal-black hair.
IDIOSYNCRATIC INSPECTOR
Lastly, Dejan Lukić is no ordinary police investigator - not only does he possess formidable sleuthing skills but he's something of a refined aesthete, appreciating the aroma of his herbal tea as much as the fragrance of nearby flowering trees bathing in the glow of streetlights. For lovers of literature and the arts, Dejan just might become your favorite detective.
As for the question of the missing author of detective novels and her illusive manuscript with the quizzical title Find Me, you will have to read for yourself.
THE COMPENDIUM OF THE DEAD - Book 3
He’s back! Inspector Dejan Lukić, gentlemanly police investigator who also happens to be an aesthetically attuned lover of literature, makes his return appearance in the third part of Zoran Živković’s trilogy that began with The Last Book and The Grand Manuscript. And similar to the first two volumes, the mysteries the good inspector is called upon to solve in Compendium of the Dead orbit around books. As Dejan himself remarks: “Why did everyone on the police force immediately think of me the minute anybody mentioned books?”
Before we go any further, since Compendium of the Dead is both a work of Middle-European fantastika in the tradition of Kafka and Gogol as well as a detective story, permit me to mention I’m in complete agreement with novelist Stephen King who has stated more than once in his New York Times book reviews that dust jackets and book reviewers generally give away far too much, especially when it comes to books that can in any way be categorized as mysteries or thrillers. Thus keeping to the spirit of not divulging too much, I’ll convey some detail pertaining to the first several chapters and then shift to commenting on the novel's themes in a more general philosophical context.
Dejan Lukić informs us he is perplexed why the director of City Cemeteries Administration called the police and asked specifically for him. Oh, yes, as Raymond Chandler has his private eye Philip Marlowe narrate in the first-person, so too Zoran Živković has Inspector Dejan Lukić tell the tale. As Dejan discovers shortly after meeting Director Hristina Leleković, there’s good reason he alone was summoned to the premises: downstairs on the basement level, in the most important section of the buildings, the Archive, a room maintained under twenty-four hour surveillance and maximum security, as impossible as it might appear, an unknown someone somehow left an envelope with four words written across the middle in red pencil – “For Inspector Dejan Lukić.” And in that envelope is a highly unusual book.
Events move apace. No sooner does the good inspector return to Police Headquarters and speak with a young lady working in the police lab so as to have the envelop and book checked for prints then he receives a call from the National Library - his presence is needed immediately for a crisis worse than life and death. Upon arrival he is lead down to the Department of Old and Rare Books by the Deputy Head. Another mysterious book and identical note addressed to him.
Back again at Police Headquarters, Dejan soon learns of a impossible catastrophe: the young lab technician he spoke with earlier has vanished into thin air without a trace. None of the sophisticated police monitoring devices and equipment can account for her disappearance - she is just plain gone.
And then a third call from an old poet requiring the immediate presence of one and only one person: Dejan Lukić. The inspector races off anticipating what he might find - and, as expected, quizzical book and note number three. When Dejan makes his next stop, the plot really begins to thicken. Again, so as to let a reader make their own discoveries of what happens next and then next and then next, I'll shift to several themes:
Tight Trio - The Last Book and The Grand Manuscript are frequently referenced. This to say, reading The Papyrus Trilogy in sequence is ideal and will prove a much richer, rewarding experience. As in the first two volumes, once again the National Security Agency responsible for domestic terrorism plays their part, only Commissioner Milenković has now retired (the events in The Grand Manuscript were a bit much for him). And there’s the Grand Master and his secret society as well as a new chief inspector, a woman by the name of Vesna Uskokoivić who keeps a large cage with two parrots in her office (lovely touch!) and is an avid reader of literature. Lastly, readers will be pleased to know, Vera, owner of the now defunct Papyrus Bookstore and Dejan's lover, is back on the scene.
Noteworthy Novel: Recall I mentioned a young lady in the police lab. Her name is Ana Mirković and Dijan recommended she read José Saramago’s Death with Interruptions. Compendium of the Dead picks up their exchange of ideas relating to this modern classic. Since Saramago’s novel revolves around death as both a physical fact and a deeply rooted social and cultural phenomenon, it is well to keep the Portuguese novelist’s work in mind when reading Compendium of the Dead. If you haven’t actually read Death with Interruptions, then familiarizing yourself with the basic outline of the story will certainly be sufficient.
Crossing Realities - Zoran Živković has noted the Middle-European fantastika tradition features only minor deviations from reality rather than large scale dramatic events. As such deviations occurred in both The Last Book and The Grand Manuscript, so a sliding into the realm of the impossible takes place in Compendium of the Dead. However, the deviation isn't a demonic plunge into cosmic Lovecraftian horror; rather, it is more in the spirit of what one finds in Nikolai Gogol's The Nose, a deviation that captivates and charms rather than terrifies.
Magical Metafiction – Recognizing metafiction is writing about writing, at one point Dejan Lukić muses on an author acting out of his own universe and how an author’s interventions cannot be arbitrary since he has to take into account the overall coherence of what he is writing. Added to this, Compendium of the Dead touches on the deus ex machina, a peculiar literary device a number of critics over the years have looked upon with disfavor. But, I can assure you, in the hands of a master of the craft such as Zoran Živković, even a deus ex machina adds a unforgettable charm and appeal. I urge you to read all three books of The Papyrus Trilogy to discover the hidden magic in each volume.
Serbian author Zoran Živković, born 1948
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