Jola's Reviews > Catch the Rabbit

Picture The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante, set in former Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Croatia, Ireland and Austria in the nineties and nowadays, but shortened to 272 pages, partly turned into a road novel, more intense, more emotional, a bit heavy-handed, sometimes disturbing, with a recurring symbol of a rabbit/hare popping out from time to time, and you will get a gist of my experience with Catch the Rabbit (2018) by a Croatian author, Lana Bastašić.

I do not know if the similarities to Ferrante's series were coincidental, subconscious or intended but they are a fact which kept bothering me a bit and sometimes I felt like rolling my eyes, exactly like Lejla, one of the two protagonists, who used to do it quite often. The disappearance of a family member, the change of name, both enriching and destructive female friendship with a drop of erotic fascination, spread over many years, the dynamics of this relationship: I would always be lagging behind you in search of some sort of grownup, intangible knowledge, while you were already disappearing into the distance. The desperate efforts to depict a complex, hypnotizing personality: Facing her, all words are miserably colorblind, despite the literary talent, ambitions and career of the narrator. Even the name of one of the two main characters, Lejla/Lela, was almost twin similar to Ferrante's Lila.

I found Catch the Rabbit uneven which frustrated me because the elements I loved kept whetting my appetite. It caused my reactions to sway between awe and chagrin. The things that especially appealed to me were the nervous pace of the narration flow and the denouement in front of Young Hare by Albrecht Dürer in Albertina Modern Museum in Vienna. The ending definitely worked for me. Another element that appealed to me was the circular composition of the novel, with the motto from Alice in Wonderland featuring a rabbit at the beginning and Dürer's painting at the end. Besides, I admire the way Sara and Leja's story is interspersed among tragic historical facts.

As for the things that I did not particularly enjoy, I think Lana Bastašić got slightly carried away portraying Lejla as an appalling energetic vampire. The blood, which appears in one of the scenes, intensifies this vampiric association, albeit the novel is 100% realistic. Lejla is so preposterous, selfish and sickening that it makes embracing Sara's fascination a challenge, even taking into account the fact that she might have had a tendency to engage in venomously toxic relationships. Nevertheless, Sara's portrayal is tantalizing. I wish a few subplot characters were more nuanced and multifaceted too, for example, the maths and biology teachers or Sara's father. They would have benefited from it greatly.

I was truly impressed when I found out that the author herself translated Catch the Rabbit into English. As for Bastašić's writing style, I liked it a lot at first but after a while got a little overwhelmed with surprising similes which seem to be the author's trademark:
Mostar glimmered, like a polished jug, though the day was inexplicably gloomy.
They spread across the Old Bridge like a wreath of plastic flowers on an important grave.
All of a sudden words seemed false, expired, like stiff dry makeup on an old woman’s face.
They are fascinating but I found their frequency (sometimes even two on one page) rather extensive. The second half of the novel was much better in this respect. I loved the frozen lake metaphor though and will always remember Sara walking on ice in search of Lejla and lost time: Memories might be like a frozen lake to me – blurry and slippery – but every now and then there’s a crack in its surface and I can put my hand through it and catch a detail, a recollection in the cold water. But frozen lakes are vicious. Sometimes you catch a fish, other times you fall through and drown.


Young Hare, a 1502 watercolour and bodycolour painting by Albrecht Dürer.