Book Review of The Unsteady Step of the Turskish Edition (in English)

FIRST GREEK CYPRIOT SHORT-STORY BOOK IN TURKISH: UNSTEADY STEPS Bearing no signs of self-criticism, we carry on blaming England, the USA, Turkey and/or Greece for what happened in Cyprus. Most of us feel no responsibility for our near past and do not feel guilty. Neither the Turkish Cypriots, nor the Greek Cypriots do this; mainly because the majority of the people on this island are narrow-minded. Only literature and art can teach people self-criticism and hence, help them find their way out of this narrow-mindedness. The aforementioned book in the title of this writing is a very fine example to this kind of work. This is the first time a Greek Cypriot short-story, writer’s book has been translated into Turkish. I can’t think of a better short-story book to describe the situation which Cyprus has been dragged into, the occurrences of the near past, the Cypriot identity (and the psychology of the Greek Cypriots). The majority of the short-stories in this book have been taken from Hristos Hacipapas’ last short-story book, Unsteady Step which was published in Athens in 2009. Besides, six short-stories selected from his three short-story books The Great Lie (1981), Absolutely Normal (1984) and Eros in the Furnace (2001) have been included. In most of his stories Hacipapas writes of his memories or personal experiences. His stories either feed off from or make references to mythology and history. Social problems and matters are the main subjects of his stories. Although the base of his short-stories is reality, the roof is among clouds of fantasy. The writer plays with the limitations of reality and imagination, the state of awakening and dreaming. Whereas the reader, surprised, sometimes astonished, moves between these contradictions and contrasts. Hacipapas is a sharp-tongued writer. More than anything, his short-stories are critical. He always approaches inequality, unfairness and dominance with criticism. He picks on religion, the state and order. Still, the ‘heroes’ in his short-stories all point the finger of criticism firstly towards themselves. When criticising, the pendulum of the story moves between irony and various doses of humour. Some short-stories can transform a certain emotion to a smile, moving all fifty seven muscles. In his short-stories he supports the Cypriot identity and authenticity until the end. Especially in the dialogues, he gives room to the native tongue, dialect a lot. Hacipapas’ short-stories represent the guilt and conscious felt towards the crimes committed, the tragedies experienced in Cyprus in the recent history. However political Hacipapas’ short-stories are, they are also erotic (Political-erotic, a genre so suitable for Cyprus!) Especially the short-stories in his two last books (Eros in the Furnace and Unsteady Step) hold many sexual references, the sexual attraction/tension between male-female, being erotic in general. I think Hristos Hacipapas is the best living short-story writer in Cyprus. And I believe this will be an inspirational book for Turkish Cypriot writers. As we already know, both communities are ignorant to each other’s literature and art in Cyprus. Therefore, on the way to an agreement and reunion, in order to create a change, we need more and more works and translations like this one. This is just the beginning; in the near future more translations will be published and I believe this will bring us closer to each other. Gürgenç Korkmazel7 Haziran 2014 Cumartesi, Gaile magazine