The Days of the Consuls

In fact, this was a continuation of last year’s disturbance

which had never altogether ceased, but smoldered on in muffled silence,

waiting for a convenient excuse to erupt again.

As soon as one learns anything about the ex-Yugoslavia (commonly, but rather incorrectly referred to in the West as “the Balkans”), one hears about the Yugoslav writer Ivo Andrić.  Andrić was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina while it was under Austro-Hungarian rule.  He later published a number of works, the most famous being The Bridge on the Drina, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.  That book is usually thought of as part of a trilogy of books that tells all about the clash of civilizations that was a big part of Andrić’s life in Bosnia, home to four distinct ethnic groups who adhere to four different religious traditions, all under the reign of various foreign conquerors throughout history.

The Days of the Consuls by Ivo Andrić (ISBN: 978-86-6457-018-3), which has been published in English under the alternative titles of Travnik Chronicle and Bosnian Chronicle, fits right into Andrić's main motif, telling the story of the city of Travnik, which is medium-sized for Bosnia today, but was historically much more important as the seat of the Ottoman Empire in Bosnia, during a few short years while the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Napoleon’s France kept consuls in the town.  The story is told from an omniscient narrator point of view, but focuses largely on French consul, his entourage, and his interactions with the others in Travnik, be they local or outsider.  The French consul deals with being an outsider himself, shunned by the local Muslims and never really understood by the Ottoman representative, although their relationship was cordial.  He remains the enemy of the Austro-Hungarian consul, although he sees many similarities between the two men and carries on professional, if not friendly, relations with him.  The members of the consuls’ families and entourages are met with varying degrees of acceptance or disgust by those around them, including those from the local clergy.  The Muslim population seems to be the most vocal in their distaste for the outsiders, but the Orthodox, Catholic, and Jewish populations also steer clear and are distrustful of the changes the presence of the consuls seems to be ushering into their otherwise simple lives.  When Napoleon is finally defeated, the French no longer see the need for a consul in Travnik, and the French consul is recalled.  The Austrians also remove from Bosnia.  With all that has changed, all has remained the same.

I had always intended on reading Andrić’s so-called trilogy in the order they were published, but it didn’t happen thanks to the vagaries of translation.  I bought this book not being aware that it was the same book as the Travnik Chronicle.  All the same, I enjoyed it and still look forward to someday really pushing my brain to its limit by reading it in its original language.  More than once, while reading, I thought of Tolstoy and his sweeping historical epic, War and Peace.  This does not attain those heights, but I found the style to be very similar.  I enjoyed the thorough descriptions of people and place achieved through masterful use of language instead of relying, like so many modern authors, on cliché and overly vulgar and expressive language.  It might mean more to me because of my own extensive travel in the country and the familiarity inherent to reading about something one knows relatively well.  Andrić believed that Yugoslavia had a unique and uniquely turbulent past that presented many opportunities for learning, learning that would help people avoid the ethnic and religious conflict that has seemingly always plagued the region.  In the book, which is, in a way, plotless, as it simply chronicles the day-to-day lives of Travnik’s citizens, one can see this theme, but I would argue it is meshed with one that emphasizes similarities over differences, and that is the lesson, one that is, unfortunately, unheeded in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, and unheeded elsewhere.  Slightly different approaches to the same fears, concerns, and goals hindered all parties in the book from a more mutually beneficial co-existence.

This work, including all text, photographs, and other original work, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 3.0 License and is copyrighted © MMXIV John Pruess.