FACT AND FICTION IN JOSIP NOVAKOVICH'S APRIL FOOL'S DAY: AN OBITUARY TO A DEAD COUNTRY
FACT AND FICTION IN JOSIP NOVAKOVICH'S APRIL FOOL'S DAY: AN OBITUARY TO A DEAD COUNTRY

Summary/Abstract: Even in the world of fiction, it would be unusual for a European country to experience the war at the end of 20th century, fall apart and disappear. This exactly happens in Josip Novakovich’s novel April Fool's Day. It is a Bildungsroman about life, death and the afterlife of Ivan Dolinar, a Croatian citizen of Yugoslavia, whose life undergoes unbelievable twists and changes as the social and political situation in the country deteriorates until it falls apart and a new homeland, Republic of Croatia, is formed. On the basis of historical facts, the author develops a story about a fictional hero, who himself is a personified disintegrated country: the instability of the main character shows the instability of the state. During his life, driven by the fate and historical forces, Ivan becomes a political prisoner, a murderer, a rapist, an adulterer, a thief and finally, a ghost. Only when considered dead, he can be a master of his life. Ivan Dolinar finds harmony in his afterlife: as a ghost he is liberated from all the living inherences, in his death he feels free, important and unique, what he did not succeed during his living days.

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