The Review of Contemporary Fiction

Last Love in Constantinople: A Tarot Novel for Divination by Milorad Pavic
Christopher Paddock

Untitled document

Milorad Pavić. Last Love in Constantinople: A Tarot Novel for Divination. Trans. Christina Pribichevich-Zorić. Dufour, 1998. 184 pp. $23.95.

Milorad Pavić cannot help but create a text that extends the conventional boundaries of the novel: his Dictionary of the Khazars is perhaps the most genuinely realized example of hypertext this side of cyberspace, allowing the reader to begin virtually at any point in the novel and digress ad infinitum; Landscape Painted with Tea is a novel that takes the form of a crossword puzzle; The Inner Side of the Wind can be read from front to back as well as back to front. Equally ambitious in its ingenuity is Last Love in Constantinople, which proves to be a worthy addition to the impressive oeuvre of a literary pioneer.

Last Love is a novel divided into the twenty-two cards, or “keys,” of the Major Arcana, which together with the fifty-six cards of the Minor Aracana comprise the Tarot. Provided in the novel’s three appendixes are the actual cards of the Major Arcana, instructions as to how the reader can set up the cards for a reading, and interpretations of the cards/keys. The reader has the option of reading the novel straight through or reading it as designated by a Tarot reading. The latter option is clearly the more intriguing of the two, especially after it is understood that each card can have two completely different meanings depending on whether it is right side up or upside down. The structure alone implies a stunning multiplicity: the book is potentially ordered in a different way every time it is engaged. Such engagement is further enriched by the process of interpretation, wherein lies the most ingenious result of the novel.

Each card/key is already supplied with multiple interpretations: a narrative and what one must assume are traditional “meanings” of the cards (depending on their respected positions) supplied in appendix 2. When the reader lets the cards decide the order of the novel, the meanings of the cards complement and/or complicate the corresponding passages which make up the novel, and vice versa. Furthermore, the cards and their corresponding narratives must be interpreted in relation to the order they compose. Not only does this structure rival Pavić’s Dictionary for its postmodern inventiveness, it also provokes the reader to reflect upon conventional modes of interpretation. Nothing can be left unevaluated.

Pavić is known for his idiosyncratic style; beautifully lucid yet non-sequential sentences enhance the magical-realist quality of his work. But at times, the prose in Last Love is too abstract, even awkward. Still, the wit and charm of Pavić’s writing outweigh the inconsistencies. [Christopher Paddock]


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The Review of Contemporary Fiction Last Love in Constantinople: A Tarot Novel for Divination by Milorad Pavic Christopher Paddock Untitled document Milorad Pavić. Last Love in Constantinople: A Tarot Novel for Divination. Trans. Christina Pribichevich-Zorić. Dufour, 1998. 184 pp. $23.95. Milorad Pavić cannot help but create a text that extends the conventional boundaries of the novel: his Dictionary of the Khazars is perhaps the most genuinely realized example of hypertext this side of cyberspace, allowing the reader to begin virtually at any point in the novel and digress ad infinitum; Landscape Painted with Tea is a novel that takes the form of a crossword puzzle; The Inner Side of the Wind can be read from front to back as well as back to front. Equally ambitious in its ingenuity is Last Love in Constantinople, which proves to be a worthy addition to the impressive oeuvre of a literary pioneer. Last Love is a novel divided into the twenty-two cards, or “keys,” of the Major Arcana, which together with the fifty-six cards of the Minor Aracana comprise the Tarot. Provided in the novel’s three appendixes are the actual cards of the Major Arcana, instructions as to how the reader can set up the cards for a reading, and interpretations of the cards/keys. The reader has the option of reading the novel straight through or reading it as designated by a Tarot reading. The latter option is clearly the more intriguing of the two, especially after it is understood that each card can have two completely different meanings depending on whether it is right side up or upside down. The structure alone implies a stunning multiplicity: the book is potentially ordered in a different way every time it is engaged. Such engagement is further enriched by the process of interpretation, wherein lies the most ingenious result of the novel. Each card/key is already supplied with multiple interpretations: a narrative and what one must assume are traditional “meanings” of the cards (depending on their respected positions) supplied in appendix 2. When the reader lets the cards decide the order of the novel, the meanings of the cards complement and/or complicate the corresponding passages which make up the novel, and vice versa. Furthermore, the cards and their corresponding narratives must be interpreted in relation to the order they compose. Not only does this structure rival Pavić’s Dictionary for its postmodern inventiveness, it also provokes the reader to reflect upon conventional modes of interpretation. Nothing can be left unevaluated. Pavić is known for his idiosyncratic style; beautifully lucid yet non-sequential sentences enhance the magical-realist quality of his work. But at times, the prose in Last Love is too abstract, even awkward. Still, the wit and charm of Pavić’s writing outweigh the inconsistencies. [Christopher Paddock]

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