The interviews in this book are selected pieces originally published in
Viewpoints (
Pogledi), the first opposition magazine in the former Yugoslavia, from 1990 to 1992, when the magazine reached its peak circulation of 200,000 copies. The author served as the magazine's foreign correspondent from Chicago, beginning in 1990, while it continued to be published in its original form.
The book is divided into three parts: Chicago, Paris, and Belgrade. The original order in the Serbian edition, published in Belgrade in 1999, was Belgrade, Paris, and Chicago, reflecting the order in which the interviews were conducted.
For the English edition, we reordered the sections to start with Chicago since some interviews, including those with Saul Bellow and Charles Simic, were conducted in English. This strategy allows English readers to connect with these interviews and authors while also acknowledging their significance.
In the Chicago section of the book, there are interviews with Saul Bellow (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1976), Charles Simic (winner of the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry), and Steve Tesich, a 1979 Academy Award-winning author known for the screenplay of the movie Breaking Away, among others.
Interviews in Belgrade occurred at the beginning and throughout 1990. In Paris, interviews were conducted from April to June 1990. The Chicago interviews took place in 1991 (Charles Simic) and early 1992. The interview with Steve Tesich happened at the Chicago Goodman Theatre on two occasions: once at the end of 1991 and again at the start of 1992 (both in winter). The interview with Saul Bellow was held in early 1992 at his office at the University of Chicago.
The Belgrade and Paris interviews took place a year before the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, which began in 1991. These interviews reveal that, while the Communist "ideal" of brotherhood among all the people of the former Yugoslavia held a promise to preserve it as a "pupil of the eye," some intellectuals feared and acknowledged that the breakup would be inevitable.
Meanwhile, many people in the former Yugoslavia lived under the Communist illusion that everything would be fine and that the old order, in some form, would be preserved. Still, most of the population understood and sensed that the old system would be gone for good, even though they dreaded the worst scenarios that might follow. This is exactly what transpired in the subsequent years, marking the breakup of what had once been a strong and internationally significant Yugoslavia.
Yugoslavia played a pivotal role during the Cold War between the East and the West due to its neutral stance and its significant position as a leading member of the Non-Aligned Movement, which was formed shortly after the Korean War.[1] The Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito was one of the founding political figures, alongside Jawaharlal Nehru (India) and Gamal Abdel Nasser, who was Egypt's second president from 1954 to 1970.
This book highlights the importance and potential dangers inherent in the complexities and peculiarities of history, as well as the actions of political figures and the risks posed by the mistakes of political actors on all sides. This is especially significant if those mistakes undermine the primary duty of political leaders to serve the people they represent.
[1] The Korean War occurred from June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953.
