Every Day, Every Hour

• Book: Every Day, Every Hour
• Location: Croatia, Paris
• Author: Natasa Dragnic

The story of Luka and Dora moves between Makarska, the coastal Croatian town south of Split of their inseparable childhood friendship, and where Luka remains based throughout, and Paris, which has become Dora’s home since a family move. Although the relationship is rekindled in Paris, Luka is then called back to Croatia, and it is Dora who seeks him out there as the story progresses, pulled by an almost telepathic ability to sense Luka’s feelings.

Luka is an artist but seems constrained throughout the story by the ties of duty and obligation, knowing all along that Dora is his one true love, and yet somehow unable to unshackle himself from a life that he knows makes him unutterably miserable. In the end, his inability to choose Dora wholeheartedly, both physically as well as spritually, left me feeling annoyed both with him and with Dora, for returning him. In the face of Luka’s stagnation, Dora redeems herself by taking matters into her own hands, and by making a success of her life, both professionally and personally, so the final chapters of the story left me feeling frustrated that once again, Luka could somehow impose to draw Dora back to him.

I enjoyed the descriptions of the secret hideouts where Luka & Dora spend time together in Croatia, and I felt that the atmosphere of the Croatian settings was more genuine that Paris. There is a sense perhaps that the author considers that Dora & her family should never have left in the first place – and indeed if they had not the story would simply have been one of the progression of childhood friendship (perhaps) into love and marriage. As such, Paris could as well be Rome or London, or any other big city where a talented artist and actir might meet, and Paris “as Paris” doesn’t play a role in the book.

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