{"id":281,"date":"2024-09-24T11:49:58","date_gmt":"2024-09-24T11:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writers.mk\/?post_type=dt_team&p=281"},"modified":"2024-09-26T20:20:51","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T20:20:51","slug":"idol-na-zidot","status":"publish","type":"dt_team","link":"https:\/\/writers.mk\/en\/bibliography\/idol-na-zidot\/","title":{"rendered":"Idol on the Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\"\"<\/div>\n\t\t<\/figure>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t

First published:<\/b><\/p>\n

2020<\/span><\/p>\n

ISBN: <\/b>978-608-243-565-7<\/p>\n

Pages:<\/b> 231<\/span><\/p>\n

Format: <\/b>13×20<\/p>\n

Cover:<\/b> Paperback<\/span><\/p>\n

Language:<\/b> Macedonian\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Translations:<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Genre: <\/b>Fiction, novel<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/span><\/span>

Synopsis<\/h4><\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t

The story of the nostalgic dystopia takes place in 2020, in Skopje, which is in the Socialist\nRepublic of Macedonia, which is still a part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.<\/p>\n

The main character, Zoran, is a typical Macedonian, taciturn and humble. He lives with his little\ndaughter in the area of Karposh, in a Skopje which is stuck in time, nailed to an ironclad, but\nrusty system.<\/p>\n

The third Marshal comes into power and strange things start to happen. Miners disappear along\nwith female teachers, handymen and, eventually, children. When Zoran\u2019s daughter disappears,\nhe takes us on an exciting tour of the dystopian society which reflects the brightest and darkest\naspects of our culture and everyday life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

- An excerpt of the novel in Macedonian is available at the Radio MOF website, on the\n#Raskazi mi column. (https:\/\/www.radiomof.mk\/raskazhimi-izvadok-od-romanot-idol-na-dzidot-od-elena-filipovska\/)<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/span><\/span>

Reviews<\/h4><\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t

With her first novel, Idol on the Wall (2020), Elena Filipovska has brought a whiff of\nfresh air in Macedonian literature with a laser-sharp, meticulous, virtually textbook\ndystopian display of just one of the multitude of virtual realities we could have woken up\ninto. I am saying \u2018virtually textbook\u2019 because this novel contains almost all the elements\nthat we recognize as dystopian, be it in the established, classical works such as 1984\n(published in 1949) and The Brave New World, 1932, or in the more recent novels such\nas The Handmaid\u2019s Tale, 1985 or The Children of Men, 1992. Thus, the dehumanized\nchronotope of a futuristic, post-socialist Skopje on display here is a gray, riven and\ndeconstructed illusion of the perfect society. In such a system, the oppressive societal\ncontrol is seemingly wielded by a distant, mystified center of power (Belgrade), but, in\nreal life, the city (and the Republic) is held in the grip of the local (domestic) Grand\nPatriots, ensconced on mount Vodno, in their luxury, parallel universe. From the safe\ndistance of Belgrade and the heights of mount Vodno, the common folk are being reigned\nin by effusive propaganda (at the expense of chronic lack of essentials, such as food and\nclothing), limited access to information and relentless supervision and control, that\novershadow virtually all aspects of their lives. The \u2018classic\u2019 dystopian subject, with a\ngeneric Macedonian male name from the eighties (Zoran), fits this \u2018classic\u2019 dystopian\nworld. As is usually the case with dystopian subjects, he too eventually finds himself in a\nsituation in which he begins to cast doubt on the system he lives in and to be at odds with\nhis being trapped and powerless in it.<\/p>\n

(\u201cReper\u201d no. 155-156, 2023, Elizabeta Bakovska<\/em>)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

...In this dichotomy of the government and the workers, a glimmer of hope lurks in the\nwords of the narrator \u2013 the descriptions of the sunrise over Skopje, in a \u2018gloomy\u2019 social-\ncommunist-realist city built on reinforced concrete, steel structures and slick public\ntransport. Zoran talks about the traffic jams on bicycle, the kindergartens in every area of\nthe city, the soup kitchens, but also about the communal launderettes, the bike\nmaintenance hubs, the empty spaces devoid of advertisements and many things that we\nwould find hard to imagine our environment without today.<\/p>\n

(\u201cGlasnik\u201d, February 2021).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The book has an unusual, striking concept and it is well conceived and written. It is not\neasy to create a world that doesn\u2019t exist, as there are no temporal and spatial references\nin it that are known to us, where one would simply position the story, but the entire\narchitecture of that world needs to be constructed. In the case of this novel, it is\nconstructed skillfully \u2013 the world is convincing. It is obvious that research has been\nmade into the era of socialism and the Skopje dialect, as well, and the illustrations\ncontribute to the allure of this novel.<\/p>\n

(\u201cKon-tekstot\u201d \u2013 Macedonian literature in the first\ndecades of the twenty-first century, Kalina Malevska<\/em>, 2023)<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/span><\/span>

\u0410\u0432\u0442\u043e\u0440<\/h4><\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>