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Miljenko Jergovic. Mama Leone. Zagreb. Durieux. 1999. 341 pages. ISBN 953-188-104-9.
MILJENKO JERGOVIC IS BEST known to the English-speaking world for his collection of short stories Sarajevo Marlboro (orig. 1994; Eng. 1997). However, this is hardly the only title known to his native reading audiences. For this prolific young writer from Sarajevo, now living in Zagreb, Mama Leone is the eighth book to appear since 1988. In it, Jergovic once again demonstrates his mastery in the genre of the short story.
The collection consists of two parts: the first, titled "When I Was Born, a Dog Barked on the Corridor of the Maternity Ward," contains vignettes about the period before the Yugoslav war of the 199os, written from a child's perspective in a first-person narrative; the second, "That Day a Child's Story Was Completed," presents a set of short stories in the third person and focuses on a group of individuals who, having escaped from a besieged Bosnia, now find themselves in various parts of the world. JergoviC's style is not cerebral; on the contrary, his uncomplicated syntax and colloquial language create an impression of orality. This effect is further enhanced by...