Malo prije svega odavno smo
A Little Before Everything, Long Ago We Are is the eleventh collection of poetry by Goran Rem (b. 1958, Osijek), a poet, essayist, literary historian, and member of the Quorum generation in Croatian literature.
The title – paradoxical and nostalgic – suggests a moment that was “a little before” the present, but “long ago” past: the feeling that love, life or happiness was already here, but was missed or disappeared. The collection is an intimate love songbook – a “love story of two and three” (as the author himself described it) – where memories, longing, irony and the fine noise of love intertwine through the poems.
The poems begin as linguistic “provocations” (with wordplay, allusions, intertextuality), and end with freedom won and offered to the reader. Rem uses rhythm, repetition and subtle irony to depict love as a dance, whisper and noise – an emotional story full of tenderness, sadness and lucidity.
The style is mature, heterogeneous, with a touch of postmodern play, but deeply emotional – without pathos, with an emphasis on feelings that cannot be captured, but only indicated. Critics point out that this is Remo's most intimate and loving collection, where the quorum spirit meets personal lyricism. The book is appreciated as a refreshing voice in contemporary Croatian poetry – a quiet but powerful story of love that has been here "for a long time", and yet always "a little bit before".
One copy is available
