Ordinaryness by Nenad Jovanović

Abstract

Reviewed by: Ordinaryness by Nenad Jovanović Biljana D. Obradović Nenad Jovanović Običnost [ Ordinaryness] Kraljevo, Serbia: Povelja, Narodna Biblioteka "Stefan Prvovenčani", 2020. 193 Pp. Afterward by Bojan Vasić, About the poet. ISBN 978-86-80522-91-3 Jovanović's Ordinariness (anything but ordinary) selected poems, was edited by Bojan Vasić1. Starting with the cover, we find a fragment from a movie, Japanese Amaryllis (1958) by Japanese Yasujirō Ozu2. Clearly this was a choice by the poet himself, as he is Associate Professor of Media at Wright State University, in Dayton, Ohio and teaches film making. The contents doesn't clearly explain where these poems have appeared before, although each poem title in the contents is followed by a letter in parenthesis corresponding to the title of Jovanović's individaul collections. But this is not explained anywhere in the book nor is there a list of the books to help the readers. (K) means Klase [Classes], his last individal collection. It's not clear what system Vasić used to organise this book, as the poems are organised sporadically, so that not all the poems from the same collection appear together in one section—there are, in fact, no sections to show the progession of the works. The title doesn't include the usual words "Selected Poems," or "Selected and New Poems," but no new poems are included here. But the selection includes an Afterword, "Writing as Salt Requires," by Vasić. [End Page 181] However, once we get over all this, you can rest assured that the poems he picked are marvelous and a fulfilling selection and a great introduction to Jovanović's work, especially useful to those of you who are unfamiliar with his poetry as he has not been translated much into English. Jovanović himself had given the editor the right to select and organize the poetry in any manner that he desired, rather than making systematic choices from each individual collection. Creating vivid imagery and the word play in his poetry is very important to Jovanović as well. His poetry is personal (yet not confessional) and narrative. Most of his books have no internal divisions, neither does this too, correlating to the individual books. Vasić has, however stuck to the chronological order of the collections, from the earliest collections to the most recent, but his thematic focus is to show "the richness and diversity of the world and anyone having lived in so many different parts of the world" (191), that the author has experienced or observed. The poems are not ordinary, as the title of the selection may suggest, but original deserving high praise and a great introdution to the work of this important poet. Jovanović creates vivid imagery and plays with words. In the afterword (which should have perhaps been an introduction, as it introduces Jovanović's writing), Vasić eloquently speaks about Jovanović's work from its first collection Fresno (1993), when Jovanović was merely twenty years old (b. 1973). Vasić places Jovanović's books into a historical perspective and lets us know that this book was published during the civil war in Yugoslavia and he points out that very few poets Jovanović's age had published any work at the time. Jovanović has published poetry for twenty-nine years, so clearly this selection of his work is warranted. But, Vasić states that few have, unfortunately, had the opportunity to read Jovonović's work and that he has received only two awards, Branko's award and Branko Miljković award and that he needs to be recognized as a leader in contemporary Serbian literature—and I agree. However, his books after 2000 will published by Povelja, one of the most improtant, if not the most important, press publishing poetry today in Serbia. Perhaps this lack of recognition may have something to do with the fact that Jovanović is emigrant from Serbia who has lived and worked in various places liek, Germany, Egypt, Canada and now the US, since the early 90s. But Vasić argues that the reason may be that his poems "at first, may not seem clear," easy to understand, but that they are "open, full of epiphany and confrontational" (p. 183). He says...