The Speaking Cure

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

This novel’s spirited exploration of 1990s Serbia’s moral decline,
under the Milosevic dictatorship, is David Homel’s refutation of poet
Irving Layton’s belief that Canadians are unable to appreciate art
that creatively examines the world’s traumas.

Homel presents the case of Aleksandar Jovic, a clinical psychologist
whose government drafts him to counsel its brutal soldiers. Jovic is
traumatized by his assignment because the soldiers are psychological
casualties of a war that he opposes. He is also frustrated with the
nation, which is estranged from the world and hides the truth.

The author skilfully captures the underground wit inspired by
dictatorships. When Jovic visits his publisher to discuss his book,
Marko serves him wine that he describes as “kerosene.” The guest
corrects his host, pointing out that “Kerosene has been declared a
strategic emergency commodity, and as such is strictly controlled by the
government. Kerosene is far too expensive for us to drink.” This
quotation eloquently satirizes the regime’s contempt for its people.

Serbian music’s degradation is gauged through references to
“turbo-folk.” That genre combines American mainstream country
music’s super-patriotism, with “gangsta rap” criminality. Homel
connects culture and politics by pointing out that the genre’s
superstar, Ceca, married political thug Arkan.

Although Jovic and his beloved Belgrade are both “polluted,” his
moral centre enables him to realize that his society is destroying
itself. The Speaking Cure (which was awarded for the Hugh MacLennan
Prize for Fiction) is one Canadian’s attempt to inhabit an enlightened
Serb’s psyche.