Yugo, I follow.
Introducing Aleksandra Izgarjan:
prolific scholar, skilled Yugo driver, Serbian gourmand, and my dear friend.
You are meeting her as I did, when I first arrived from Belgrade weighed down by book-filled boxes and overstuffed suitcases. With her cheery pink t-shirt and instant smile, Aleksandra presented me with a warm and gracious welcome to Novi Sad. Somehow, through the muddle of newness and jetlag, I was gently guided into my new home, my office at the university, and a fabulous outdoor café in the heart of the city (Mediteraneo, on Isa Bajica). And I listened with wonder and interest as my new colleague discussed her challenging teaching experiences and a startling number of recent publications.
I am pleased to say that my rather small library of Necessary Reading Material now includes Aleksandra’s Maksin Hong Kingston I Ejmi Ten: Ratnica I Samanka. And I’d happily dig into the over-400 pages of analysis on Kingston and Amy Tam, if only my Serbian were, o, 10,000 times better. Tiny Walt seems to have gotten much further. (more on Tiny Walt later. As several of you predicted, he has really taken to Balkan folk dancing– and thanks to Aleksandra actually knows more about two of his most illustrious fans. Whitman Ah Singh, indeed!).
As intellectual, industrious, and professional as she is, Aleksandra is also adventurous, funny, and—well, cute. She shares these excellent qualities with her beloved 19-year old Yugo. It may rattle your teeth, smell like petrol and allow any passerby access to whatever’s on the front seat, but the Yugo has character. Like its owner, it’s got pluck, volition, get-up-and-go. That is, when it’s not in the shop.
