{"id":72261,"date":"2014-06-05T16:29:48","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T20:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=72261"},"modified":"2014-06-05T16:29:48","modified_gmt":"2014-06-05T20:29:48","slug":"croatia-a-work-in-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"Croatia, a Work in Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Darijo_Srna_-_Croatia_vs._Portugal,_10th_June_2013_(3)_(crop)\"<\/a>

Darijo Srna, Croatia\u2019s captain and all-time most capped player. Photo: Fanny Schertzer, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

Next Thursday, Croatia has the privilege of playing the World Cup\u2019s opening match against Brazil, the host nation. The Eastern European country gets to take on a team that has won the World Cup a record five times\u2014and is this year\u2019s favorite\u2014before nearly 70,000 people in S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s brand new Itaquerao stadium. The game is the first World Cup match to take place in Brazil since 1950, when the country last hosted the event. Brazil was the favorite that year, too, but it lost in the final in a shocking upset to Uruguay\u2014and the country has never forgotten it.<\/p>\n

Croatia, on the other hand, didn\u2019t even become a nation until 1991. Its population of four and a half million is forty-five times smaller than Brazil\u2019s. This World Cup is only its fourth appearance in five tries, and the team has had only two generations of players. It might seem that Croatia is absurdly overmatched. But you can also see the game as simply the next step in the development of their national soccer identity.<\/p>\n

Croatia was born out of the violent dissolution of Yugoslavia, whose soccer team had made it to the semifinals and the quarterfinals of the World Cup twice; the team enjoyed a reputation as the Brazilians of European soccer. More than any of the other former Yugoslav republics, Croatia has continued that tradition, most notably at the 1998 World Cup, its first, where it shocked the world by finishing third.<\/p>\n

That year, Croatia got a taste of what it\u2019s like to face a host nation at a major tournament when it played its semifinal match against France in St.-Denis. Croatia\u2019s star striker Davor \u0160uker, currently the president of its national soccer federation, scored the game\u2019s first goal, just after halftime. \u201cAt that [moment] there were 80,000 people in St.-Denis and only a few thousand Croatians,\u201d said Slaven Bili\u0107, who played as a defender on that team and later coached the Croatian national team. \u201cIt was like when music is playing and someone comes in and presses the mute button.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cMost people in Croatia remember that minute when we had the lead,\u201d said Aleksandar Holiga, a soccer columnist for the news web site Tportal in Zagreb and the sports site Bleacher Report. \u201cAnd then they remember when [midfielder] Zvonimir Boban, who was our captain and the most important player on the team, made a really bad defensive mistake that enabled France to equalize.\u201d<\/p>\n

Croatia had the lead for only a minute before France tied the game; the French team went on to win the match 2-1. Four days later, it won the World Cup. \u201cSome people think it\u2019s heavy madness that you think about that World Cup on a daily basis, and of course you don\u2019t,\u201d Bili\u0107 said on the phone from Istanbul, where he currently coaches the Turkish league team Be\u015fikta\u015f. \u201cBut when I do think about it, I still feel that we could\u2019ve won it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery generation since has been compared to that one,\u201d Holiga said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s really unfair, because those players were extremely talented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Croatia made it to the World Cup in 2002 and 2006, but it didn\u2019t make it out of the group stage either time, and it didn\u2019t qualify in 2010. This year\u2019s team struggled again in qualifying under its new coach, Igor \u0160timac, who played alongside Bili\u0107 on the 1998 team. Croatia won five of its first six matches, but then finished by losing three of its last four.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was okay when \u0160timac stuck to the tactics which were set before him by Bili\u0107,\u201d Holiga said. \u201cBut then he started to experiment, and he lost the faith of the locker room, of the media, of everybody.\u201d Before the team\u2019s final qualifying match, against Scotland, an online poll in the Croatian newspaper 24sata<\/i><\/em> reported that ninety-eight percent of the public thought he should be fired. The team lost that match, too, 2-0. \u201cThe silver lining was that we won against Serbia,\u201d Holiga says of an early qualifying match against the country\u2019s bitter enemy from the Yugoslavian civil war.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as you want it to be only a football game, it\u2019s much more than that for the people back home,\u201d said the midfielder Niko Kranj\u010dar, whose father, Zlatko, not only captained the very first Croatian national team in 1991 but also preceded Bili\u0107 as national team coach. \u201cAlthough both countries have moved on, the war is still quite fresh, and generations are still wounded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Croatia is currently under the leadership of manager Niko Kova\u010d, forty-one, the former Croatian captain who was hired in October to coach the team through its two-legged playoff match against Iceland a month later. Born and raised in Germany, Kova\u010d has his own vision for Croatian soccer. He regularly talks about translating his dual identity as a German and a Croatian to a team that has often been singled out for its passion and emotion. \u201cI completely and totally embody the typical German virtues of thoroughness, orderliness, discipline, and organization,\u201d he told FIFA.com in January. \u201cWe [Croats] are the kind of people who like a bit of spontaneity. Organization isn\u2019t the be-all and end-all for us. I\u2019m trying to instill the idea that some rules have to be kept.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t shy away from stereotypes,\u201d Holiga said.<\/p>\n

The heart of Croatia\u2019s team lies in its creativity, primarily in the midfield talents of Luka Modri\u0107 and Ivan Rakiti\u0107, both of whom play in Spain during the year, for Real Madrid and Sevilla, respectively. Its star striker, Mario Mand\u017euki\u0107, is suspended for the game against Brazil, but his absence opens up a spot on the team for two of the country\u2019s most popular players, the forwards Eduardo, who was born in Brazil but came to Croatia at the age of sixteen, and thirty-four-year-old Ivica Oli\u0107, who will be playing in his third World Cup. \u201cHe\u2019s one of those guys who the age doesn\u2019t count,\u201d Bili\u0107 said. \u201cHe\u2019s like the red wine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though lacking in the creativity of some of his teammates, Oli\u0107 embodies the passion and the emotion of the stereotypical Croatian. \u201cHe\u2019s this diehard character who is not really talented but who is trying his best every time,\u201d Holiga said. \u201cHe runs up and down the pitch looking for every opportunity to be in the right place at the right time to just shove the ball in the goal. He has scored with his forehead, with his knee, with his heart\u2014against Serbia, he scored with his badge. The ball hit him on the badge, so some people said that he scored with his heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

To face Brazil in S\u00e3o Paulo next week, Croatia will need that heart.<\/p>\n

David Gendelman is research editor at Vanity Fair. Follow him on Twitter at @gendelmand.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Next Thursday, Croatia has the privilege of playing the World Cup\u2019s opening match against Brazil, the host nation. The Eastern European country gets to take on a team that has won the World Cup a record five times\u2014and is this year\u2019s favorite\u2014before nearly 70,000 people in S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s brand new Itaquerao stadium. The game is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":470,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13859],"tags":[192,14186,212,86,89],"class_list":["post-72261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-cup-2014","tag-brazil","tag-croatia","tag-football","tag-soccer","tag-world-cup"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCroatia, a Work in Progress by David Gendelman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"June 5, 2014 \u2013 Next Thursday, Croatia has the privilege of playing the World Cup\u2019s opening match against Brazil, the host nation. The Eastern European country gets to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Croatia, a Work in Progress by David Gendelman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"June 5, 2014 \u2013 Next Thursday, Croatia has the privilege of playing the World Cup\u2019s opening match against Brazil, the host nation. The Eastern European country gets to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-05T20:29:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/darijo_srna_-_croatia_vs._portugal_10th_june_2013_3_crop.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"618\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Gendelman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Gendelman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"David Gendelman\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3366df93e14ec54a8bc57d76d6242888\"},\"headline\":\"Croatia, a Work in Progress\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-05T20:29:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/\"},\"wordCount\":1180,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/darijo_srna_-_croatia_vs._portugal_10th_june_2013_3_crop.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Brazil\",\"Croatia\",\"football\",\"soccer\",\"World Cup\"],\"articleSection\":[\"World Cup 2014\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/\",\"name\":\"Croatia, a Work in Progress by David Gendelman\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/darijo_srna_-_croatia_vs._portugal_10th_june_2013_3_crop.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-05T20:29:48+00:00\",\"description\":\"June 5, 2014 \u2013 Next Thursday, Croatia has the privilege of playing the World Cup\u2019s opening match against Brazil, the host nation. The Eastern European country gets to\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/darijo_srna_-_croatia_vs._portugal_10th_june_2013_3_crop.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/darijo_srna_-_croatia_vs._portugal_10th_june_2013_3_crop.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Croatia, a Work in Progress\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3366df93e14ec54a8bc57d76d6242888\",\"name\":\"David Gendelman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6b4c23590f6981cdb587681661ba4f961d94a96d167cc2cc94d8ff13a6037b4b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6b4c23590f6981cdb587681661ba4f961d94a96d167cc2cc94d8ff13a6037b4b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"David Gendelman\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/dgendelman\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Croatia, a Work in Progress by David Gendelman","description":"June 5, 2014 \u2013 Next Thursday, Croatia has the privilege of playing the World Cup\u2019s opening match against Brazil, the host nation. The Eastern European country gets to","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Croatia, a Work in Progress by David Gendelman","og_description":"June 5, 2014 \u2013 Next Thursday, Croatia has the privilege of playing the World Cup\u2019s opening match against Brazil, the host nation. The Eastern European country gets to","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2014-06-05T20:29:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":618,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/darijo_srna_-_croatia_vs._portugal_10th_june_2013_3_crop.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"David Gendelman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"David Gendelman","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/"},"author":{"name":"David Gendelman","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3366df93e14ec54a8bc57d76d6242888"},"headline":"Croatia, a Work in Progress","datePublished":"2014-06-05T20:29:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/"},"wordCount":1180,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/darijo_srna_-_croatia_vs._portugal_10th_june_2013_3_crop.jpg","keywords":["Brazil","Croatia","football","soccer","World Cup"],"articleSection":["World Cup 2014"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/","name":"Croatia, a Work in Progress by David Gendelman","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/darijo_srna_-_croatia_vs._portugal_10th_june_2013_3_crop.jpg","datePublished":"2014-06-05T20:29:48+00:00","description":"June 5, 2014 \u2013 Next Thursday, Croatia has the privilege of playing the World Cup\u2019s opening match against Brazil, the host nation. The Eastern European country gets to","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/darijo_srna_-_croatia_vs._portugal_10th_june_2013_3_crop.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/darijo_srna_-_croatia_vs._portugal_10th_june_2013_3_crop.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/05\/croatia-a-work-in-progress\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Croatia, a Work in Progress"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3366df93e14ec54a8bc57d76d6242888","name":"David Gendelman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6b4c23590f6981cdb587681661ba4f961d94a96d167cc2cc94d8ff13a6037b4b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6b4c23590f6981cdb587681661ba4f961d94a96d167cc2cc94d8ff13a6037b4b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"David Gendelman"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/dgendelman\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72261"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72267,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72261\/revisions\/72267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}