21st Century Literature discussion

spoilers aloud

I'm mid part two and getting a bit confused with some of the spy stuff.

There's "Duško" = "Dušan" = "Dr. Popov"

And there's "Ivan"

And there's "Agent Scoot" = "Tricycle"

I think Tricycle is the same person as Ivan though? And perhaps all three of them are the same person? I guess it will become clearer as I get further.

glad I'm not the only one Greg ! I think they are the same person ...Dusko is his real name and the others are his German and British monikers.

Thanks Hester!

The coversation between the ex-king Carol and Gaby is fascinating in the "A Strange Child" chapter. Again in his naivete, he provides perfectly reasonable challenges to the way the world works. I find my interest greatly magnified whenever Gaby shows up.

The spy chapters give an excuse to include a lot of interesting historical information, but in terms of the story itself, I'm much more engaged by the world as seen through the boy's eyes and how that conflicts with the very painful realities unfolding all about him.

I agree but I also quite like the spy stuff . It reads as a gentle parody of Bond , with the almost indifferent British handler contrasting with the in depth interrogation by his German counterpart . Not sure Bond would have offered a reefer to aan exiled King though !

Hester wrote: "I agree but I also quite like the spy stuff . It reads as a gentle parody of Bond , with the almost indifferent British handler contrasting with the in depth interrogation by his German counterpart..."

Maybe if I was more familiar with the Bond books I'd like those chapters more? Or maybe it'll grow on me as I get further? I'm not even halfway through part 2 yet, and there's a lot of space for things to change.

In the "Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori" section, I found the part interesting where Ivan/Duško/Tricycle is confronted about his nationality. I had always been a little hazy about the history, but that area has quite a rocky past, from Austria-Hungary to Yugoslavia to Serbia/Croatia!

I like the bit of absurdity or satire here, where his German handler demands that Duško fit his messy national identity into a tidy single answer.

It reminds me a bit of some passages in Death Comes for the Archbishop, where the priests go to minister to former Mexicans living in lands that had changed hands and been taken over by the Americans. Out in the remote areas, they had hardly any idea of what had happened. They were a citizens a country; they went to bed, woke up, and found that their homes, their lands, and their bodies suddenly existed in another.

Yes Greg . That made me laugh too. I think the same point was made in Trieste/ Dasa Drndiç.

Greg wrote: "I'm mid part two and getting a bit confused with some of the spy stuff.

There's "Duško" = "Dušan" = "Dr. Popov"
And there's "Ivan"
And there's "Agent Scoot" = "Tricycle"..."

Yes, it's made clearer later in the book. I'm not sure why he's so coy about a historical figure.

Here's the wikipedia entrance for Duško Popov, aka Ivan, aka Tricycle. Spoiler alert for 80 year old historical escapades, I guess, as Tiago-Stanković elaborates on Popov's escapades more in later chapters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du%C5%A...

Whitney wrote: "Here's the wikipedia entrance for Duško Popov, aka Ivan, aka Tricycle."

Thanks Whitney! And yes, I'm in part 3 now and it has gotten clearer, but I'm curious to read the historical information after I finish.

I decided to try again, but I’m not really impressed again, a lot of obvious and superficial signaling the cultural things everyone knows so that we can see the connections (miss moneypenny as the codeword for the bond-inspiring spy, Gabe mentioning boas for no reason to Tonio to “inspire” the famous opening for le petit prince. Then silly things like Ivan supposedly taught spy craft in Rome but now needs to be told what a dead drop is? Or is that the reader who needs to be told so it doesn’t matter that it doesn’t make sense. And finally I was actually a bit offended by having Tonio just pull off Gabe’s yarmulke, which wouldn’t just come off as it would be pinned, and it’s religiously required so pretty disrespectful, and I’m not sure Gabe’s reaction is what it would actually have been. And for a pretty risky double agent game the tension is quite low. I guess I’ll finish? We will see.