The Grand Manuscript – Volume #2 in the Papyrus Trilogy. 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 Grand Manuscript is available as a standalone novel or as part of The Papyrus Trilogy published by Cadmus Press.
Serbian author Zoran Živković, born 1948
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