I’m over halfway through this Josip Novakovich novel and the protagonist Ivan has been through a hell that Novakovich has presented in a colorful and deeply intimate telling of war that reminds me somewhat of Cormac McCarthy’s hard-hitting realism. What I am beginning to see is a change in Ivan that makes him more aware of what is going on around him, as if the narrative voice, in third person, has a personal caring and empathy with Ivan that in effect, lowers his voice through the bad times that Ivan is going through, slows down the pace to allow us to feel it as well.
At this point in the story, Ivan is finally free of military service, running, hiding, and killing. He has been affected by what he has seen, especially in the meeting of old college friends who, depending upon which side of the war Ivan has–through no free choice of his own–been serving, reach out to each other in subtle ways. It is indicative of the Balkan wars that formed out of nationalist patriotism that often made enemies of friends and friends of enemies.
Ivan is about to become a family man. With the experience of his own childhood, I am anticipating this road to be as rocky as what has led him to this point in his life so far.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology