The Fourth Circle by Zoran Živković

The Fourth Circle Reviews

• 
  BlackOxford

  Loving in Triangles
  
  The subject of The Fourth Circle is not just circles but circles within circles, or more precisely three circles within a fourth, the three circles unified by and constituting a fourth. This is a classic motif in the Eastern Orthodox Churches (including Živković’s own Serbian national church). It represents the Holy Trinity, that most abstruse and mystical of Christian doctrines. This strange doctrine can be understood best, as Živković implies, using the geometry of the circle.
  
  
  
  
  The circumference of a circle is the origin, the Father of creation; the Son is the diameter of the circle, an integral but distinct part contained within the Father; and the Spirit is the relation between the Father and Son, the incomprehensible transcendental number that we call π. The three exist only together and cannot be separated. Each component of this circular Trinity is entirely contained within the other two. They give birth, as it were, to each other. That is to say, each component can be derived from the other two. And they have all existed from eternity, eternally generating one another. The influence of Platonic mathematics on both Orthodox theology and Živković is clear.
  
  
  
  
  The Trinity is also the source of Creation. Its internal life is impenetrable but, it is claimed, the intimate bond between its three members in some way necessitates the establishment of an external object, or audience perhaps, for the infinite divine love. The relationship among the three exists simultaneously in the very small and in the incomprehensibly large. It exists everywhere. The dynamic among them is, therefore, one of utmost fecundity. The cosmos, from atoms to galaxies, bursts from this circular womb, often represented by Mary, the mother of Jesus, as a sort of adjunct to the Trinitarian ménage. Through her, the world not only comes into being but is also redeemed by her willingness to accept one of the Trinity into herself.
  
  As theology, the Holy Trinity seems an over-grasping and extremely complicated myth to justify the worship of Jesus while simultaneously giving lip service to Judaic monotheism. But it nevertheless makes really interesting sci-fi when applied with the skill of someone like Živković. And he applies it liberally in both time and space. From Archimedes to Steven Hawking; from the jungles of Burma to a three-star system at the far side of our galaxy.
  
  The cast of characters is equally immense, not just in numbers but also in ontological diversity. A few human beings (with several versions of Mary), a pregnant computer, animate spherical entities with very odd sexual habits, a somewhat hapless bundle of conscious energy formed at the rim of a black hole, and several wolf-like species, some with six legs and telepathic abilities, constitute only some of the key players.
  
  What holds everything together is the Holy Trinity. The circle exerts its power everywhere in the cosmos; as in ancient lore (and confirmed by Sherlock Holmes according to Živković)), it is perfection itself. An extinct civilisation searches for post-mortem recognition by programming a radio receiver to listen for the message ‘π’ to 35 significant digits. The entity from the rim of the black hole at the centre of the galaxy envies the rest of the galaxy its completeness because, although it can traverse the radius of the galaxy in an instant, “... the one thing he lacked, or thought he lacked [was that] all others knew their origin, and many had some inkling of their purpose in the overall scheme of things, trifling though it might be, while he, as far as both were concerned, was filled only with a dark void.” A radius, thus, seeking its lost circumference.
  
  Throughout The Fourth Circle, the trinity of circle, diameter and π constantly asserts itself. It will not be thwarted in its unity or its drive to generate being outside itself. It is in art, in science, in literature, in sex. in even the most primitive of cultures, and not only human, much less Christian, cultures.
  
  The circle exists in Dante’s hell as well as his heaven. In ancient Egypt the circle is formed when Osiris as a snake eats his own tail. In Tibetan Buddhism, the circle represents the continuous resurrection of life in different forms. The circle is the form of the roulette wheel and the medieval wheel of torture. The symbol of Japan is the circle of the sun. The simple existence of π was a religious secret for Pythagoras, and its precise calculation an obsession for mathematicians like the 16th century Dutchman Ludolph Van Ceulen (he of the 35 significant digits). These are not coincidences but manifestations of the universal circle. Or at least they could be.
  
  As is typical of Živković, the whole is told in parts that are almost self-contained shorter stories. Each of these is narrated in its own voice. Given that there are at least four of these voices, his talent as a stylist as well as a literate, intelligent story-teller is on full display. The denouement is more than a bit abrupt for my taste. But given that it was written in the midst of the Balkan war, this is an understandable and forgivable defect.
• 
  Karl

  Zoran Živković 's "The Fourth Circle" was originally published in 1994, This Edition is the Ministry of Whimsy hardcover edition.
  
  In the afterword Živkovic tells about the problems and issues of writing his first novel.
  
  The kind of book that beggs re-reading.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Glenn Russell

  
  
  The Fourth Circle - Zoran Živković’s first novel published in 1993 when he was age forty-five. The Serbian author related in an interview that in many ways writing fiction was a completely new experience - although literature was always an essential part of his life stretching back to his boyhood and years of work as editor, publisher and translator of literature, the idea of writing fiction never occurred to him. And once he began writing fiction he was astonished and amazed at the lack of rational control over the process; rather, when writing fiction, the sentences kept flowing as if out of nowhere, as if he was merely receiving dictation from the subconscious, non-rational areas of his psyche.
  
  After The Fourth Circle, Zoran Živković went on to write twenty-one more novels over the course of the next twenty-five years, delightful, charming, provocative novels well worth any reader's time. I speak from experience since I've read and reviewed each and every one. It just so happens my final Zoran Živković review is of his first novel.
  
  And what a novel! Without further ado, here are my ten top reasons to put The Fourth Circle on your reading list:
  
  1. There are famous characters from the world of science - Archimedes, Stephen Hawking, Nikola Tesla, among others.
  
  2. Do you like multiple, intertwining plots? If so, you're in luck since the novel features nearly a dozen, all kept under control by the author’s master storytelling.
  
  3. You will meet a Buddhist computer genius who creates a program that can outpace any you might have come across in other tales of science fiction (sorry, HAL - you've been left in the solar dust).
  
  4. Do you enjoy a novel that can be interpreted in ways that are part of the mystical traditions of Orthodox Christianity? Esoteric Buddhism? Gnostic Occultism? The Yogas of Yantra, Mantra and Tantra? With all its circle symbolism, The Fourth Circle is your book.
  
  5. Travel to exotic locations like a South-East Asian jungle and take your chances in solving the riddles of the universe with such schemes as probability and game theory.
  
  6. Glimpse unique instances of artistic expression like the medieval painter who causes a scandal among religious leaders by covering their church ceiling with depictions of the torments and horrors of hell rather than pleasing scenes of heaven.
  
  7. In all the many works of fiction you may have read, have you ever come across a race of spherical beings with hyperosmia? You will here!
  
  8. Guess who are brought in on the case in the closing chapters to solve outstanding cosmological, metaphysical and epistemological conundrums and quandaries? Why, none other than Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson and Conan Doyle himself.
  
  9. The translation by Mary Popović renders the author's Serbian into a fluid, accessible English.
  
  10. Perhaps the best reason of all - you surely will be excited to read the author's other novels. Here's a link to a page where you can find all of my Zoran Živković reviews:
  https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
  
  
  Serbian author Zoran Živkovic, born 1948
• 
  Marko Radosavljevic

  Sa Živkovićevim delom sam se prvi put susreo pre par godina, u dva dana pročitavši obe zbirke Nemogućih priča. Njegov suv, introvertan stil me je baš ubio, nije da mi se nije svideo, nego sam preterao sa dozom. I od tada sam rešio da izmedju njegovih knjiga bude makar 5 nekih drugih. Četvrti krug potvrdjuje njegovo majstorstvo da gotovo bez dijaloga, kratko i šturo opiše dogadjaje koje se graniče sa naukom i realnošću. Reference na ljude i dogadjaje koristi gotovo spartanski,koliko da zaokruzi radnju i ono što je hteo da kaze delom. Definitivno nije za svakog, ali ja sam uzivao i rado ću se vraćati negovim knjigama
• 
  Mirrani

  I thoroughly enjoyed this book, however after having finished it, I feel as if it is still settling inside of me. The original was written in a different style for each character, with different fonts and such, which I would have highly enjoyed, as that is how I used to play around with characters and conversations on my old dos based computers before modern graphics allowed much more than bold and italic. Sadly, that is not the case with the English version of the book. Still, I found it simple enough to locate the characters within each of their stories and work out the complexity of the universe that was being built around the physical entity in my hands.
  
  This is a book about alternate realities, and being a fan of parallel universes and such, I simply absorbed everything that I could. The writing was unique, as were many of the ideas. The characters are altered versions of people that we know today, Archimedes, Nikola Tesla, Stephen Hawking, and even the universe of Sherlock Holmes makes an appearance. In fact, it is Holmes who brings the final "case" to its conclusion. The multiple story lines about each character mentioned, along with several who are not recognizable (including living spheres and a pregnant computer) converge in the end. Unfortunately it all happened in such a way that, to me, felt as if there was an ending that was not quite missing, but also not altogether there. That is a reflection on the entire story, of course, but in order to truly understand the feel of this book, you simply have to read it and experience everything for yourself.
  
  This book about the Fourth Circle comes together to make said circle, but do not think it will run circles around you as a reader. This was a book that I will most likely enjoy reading several times over in order to get the true complexity and yet simplicity of what is happening around everyone involved.
• 
  Janie

  Wow. I'm not sure what happened here. Richer than cheesecake for supper, and maybe all too clever for the reader's good. Too clever by π/2.
  
  

  ...then he could, at best, have returned to life as a radish or a ladybird. But radishes and ladybirds do not send letters, Watson. (154)

  
  
  To figure out what the author did, I'd need a very large loft and a lot of pins and strings to physically map the intertextual references alone. Only string would do; a spreadsheet couldn't handle the complication.
  
  Zivkovic:
  
  

  To start with, the four separate narrative lines needed to be distinctive in tone, which was probably the hardest task to achieve. In order to accentuate the differences between them, in the Serbian original I used four different fonts, one of them created particularly for that purpose.

  
  O, to be able to read it in Serbian. I loved, as wont, the author's discussion (included at the end) about the process of writing and translating the work. Several reviews (even professional ones) refer to eight or ten or other-than-four narrative lines. Those fonts would have been really helpful.
  
  The chapters with Hawking don't really fit in to the circle very well (I think?). But the pregnant AI I loved.
• 
  Djordje Popovic

  Prodigious story! Diversified both in style and in substance. At times, the narrative is not entirely coherent, although coherency is probably not the first virtue a reader is looking for when dealing with fiction.
  
  Rather, the unevenness of chapters’ quality is what was bothering me throughout reading. That aside, and also the fact that some of the leitmotifs were apparently borrowed from the cult book “The Cyclist Conspiracy” published by another Serbian author Svetislav Basara six years earlier (e.g. the style of medieval historicism coupled with geometrical associations’ approach, and literally the same title of chapters “The final case of Sherlock Holmes” both novels have), this is indeed a profound and intelligent novel that deserves a full attention.
  
  It inspires and refreshes while enjoying the journey through space and time, sometimes with quite humorous outcomes. It also makes a reader wanting to explore more about the history of mathematical efforts that lie behind the famous π, and, more importantly, to keep wondering about the World and miraculous absence of limits of both human mind and the Universe.
  
• 
  Kristijan

  It's great in Serbian....!
• 
  Afrodita Nikolić

  Topla preporuka za ovu knjigu. Fenomenalno kombinovanje stilova, likova, na kraju upotpunjeno zaokruzivanjem price. Delo koje zasluzuje mesto u kucnoj biblioteci.
• 
  Boris

  Pročitao sam ga drugi put posle nekoliko godina, i baš sam uživao.
  Sjajno delo, istinska umetnost.
• 
  Aljoša

  After attending Živkovič’s lecture on creative writing, I was surprised to see him make all the mistakes that he explicitly warned us about. His writing is difficult, boring and rarely provides any serious initiative for the reader. I often found myself skipping tiring descriptions of what people wear, how they look, how they feel... The book is not completely terrible. The underlying idea and story structure is quite interesting, but executed poorly. It’s a pretentious work that feeds off empty references to historical events and intertextuality. The cover of the book promises that this is The Name of the Rose of sci-fi. This obviously wasn't refering to quality.
  
  Živkovič’s vision of the future is also one of the few instances where a sentient AI saves stuff on a floppy disk. This book did not age well at all.
• 
  Tamara

  Tesko je bilo odrzati paznju i ubediti se da istrajem do kraja...Mada je interesantan koncept i na momente jasna ideja cak ni kraj nije popravio utisak i opravdao ocekivanja. Mozda je delo namenjeno uzem krugu ili meni samo nije "leglo". Ima Zivkovic mnogo citljivijih dela sa pricama koje zelim da pratim od pocetka do kraja bez kredita na osnovu imena. Ipak moj naklon ovom velikom piscu
• 
  Neman

  Knjiga koja treba da bude u gornjoj polovini top 100 knjiga sa Balkana svih vremena. A evo i zašto:
  
  
  Loše strane romana:
  
  Ukoliko niste skoncentrisani, odložite ovu knjigu, pa je uzmite odmorniji, jer zahteva potpunu pažnju. Ukoliko ne poznajete dobro srpsko-hrvatski jezik (ako niste starog kova) neke reči će vam možda biti nepoznate.
  
  
  Dobre strane romana:
  
  Prebogat vokabular, izvanredan način pripovedanja (sklop rečenica u nekim poglavljima su mogle da budu kovanice jedino pravog majstora svog zanata), prelepo izmaštane stvari koje se mogu osetiti, čuti, omirisati, iako je jedino pisac imao kontakt sa njima u svom umu.
  S obzirom da su prepletene priče različitih aktera u ovom romanu, čitalac ne mora ni da zna iz čijeg se ugla pripoveda koje poglavlje - Živković je svako poglavlje pisao nekim posebnim, tom poglavlju svojstvenim, stilom.
  Iako možda sporijeg početka, što sam se više udubljivao u knjigu, to mi je bili teže da je ostavim.
  Poglavlja su savršene dužine i svako ostavlja čežnju i nestrpljenje za nastavkom.
  
  Ovo je knjiga koja je zaslužno dobila nagradu Miloš Crnjanski; potpuno sam oduševljen!
• 
  Irena Stracenski

  Do polovine knjige smenjivali su se osećaj dosade, oduševljenja smene stilova i rečenica i zbunjenosti.
  Na polovini knjige pomenutim utiscima pridružuje se i zaintrigiranost idejama, koja raste do uzbuđenja, da bi, ipak, kulminiralo blagim nezadovoljstvom.
  Ideja je odlična kao i izbor likova, a sve upakovano sjajnim stilom. Međutim, preovladava konfuznost i prenatrpanost.
• 
  Branko

  Odličan stil pisanja, međutim dosta konfuzije, zamršenosti i prenatrpanosti.