Dženana Vucic
It's Not a Bad Book, Necessarily
We’ve been struggling with this book for months, with very little to show for it. It’s not typical for either of us to approach a novel with a view to combat, but the text’s slippery defensiveness positions us as attackers. We find ourselves compelled to understand what is being defended and what we’re supposed to be attacking. Similarly, we’re left feeling as if the joke’s on us for even trying.
A Teleology of Folding, and of Dying
I stopped offering the folded envelope of my identity months ago and yet still, to hear my name said aloud is a particular thrill; almost sensual, like new touch. The intimacy of it takes my breath away. I glow at its gentle syncopation, the shallow sigh of its vowels. My name is Persian for beloved. Where I am from, it identifies me: Bosniak, and: Muslim.