Blog Tour: Our Daily War by Andrey Kurkov

 ´Jokes are probably the cheapest way to maintain optimism´.

I´ve recently read The Diary of an Invasion - in the German translation by Rebecca DeWald, a real-life account of the Russian invasion of Ukraine by Andrey Kurkov only to realize how far away we may be from understanding a war, any kind of war, lately. Of course we decorate our social media profiles with Ukrainian flag, maybe we also wear a pin of two of solidarity, but the real feeling of suddenly being harassed by bombs and switching from peace to war in just a few hours escapes us completely. No one wish to live, die and be born in a war zone, but some may need to survive and one way to do it is through writing and humour. Or both, preferably at the same time.

I was very curious to continue the lecture of the short installments of war stories, although in the war context, it sounds as a kitsch voyeurism. But I believe that it´s important to know, to read, to understand. It´s a terrible reality that we are just getting used with. In the same way we got used with the Balkan wars, or the far away wars. Our lazy minds should be waken up, asked to think and reflect. It´s a small thing but nevertheless intellectually relevant. 

Our Daily War, to be soon published by Orenda Books is a further collection of stanzas, talking about literature, brutal Russian mobilization practices or the population of green parrots suddenly populating the trees near Chernivtsi. With journalistic accuracy and literary talent, it reveals daily realities of the war that may escape our attention, including cultural and mentality shifts - ´The Russian language is losing its position in Ukraine. Frankly, this does not upset me´. 

Kurkov shows how the war is affecting everyday life, from the neighbors in the village to himself. The post-Soviet identity present in the unforgettable Death and the Penguin, the previous novel by Kurkov I´ve read many many years ago, is replaced by a more complex personal intellectual testimony: ´I am an ethnic Russian and my native language is Russian. In all other respects, I am a typical Ukrainian. I do not listen to the opinion of the majority. I value my own opinion. For me, freedom - especially freedom of speech and creativity - is more valuable than money and stability. I rarely find myself in support of an existing government´s policies and I am always ready to criticise them´. 

The daily war - the book - stops around April this year. But as I am writing, the war continue, we don´t know for how long. Probably the post-war books about Ukraine will be even more terrible. But we need more books and testimonies to fill the void of indifference. Those kids that used to go to classrooms improvised in metro stations, operating in two shifts, will write probably a new history of Ukraine. The war will never go away, it stays with those who survived it.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

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