The Luck of Thirteen: Wanderings and Flight through Montenegro and Serbia — Text and Context

The Rhythm of Delays and Improvisations

The Gordons’ journey is punctuated by a series of delays, each met with a blend of frustration and ingenuity. At Nish station, they find everyone “energetically doing everything all wrong.” Trains run late, officials give contradictory information, and the authors resort to dodging guards to secure seats. This pattern recurs: at Stalatch, they miss a connection and are told they must wait a day, only to extract a promise of a luggage train. In Krusevatz, they “beard the officials” and are promised a special carriage. The narrative dwells on these negotiations, turning each bureaucratic hurdle into a small adventure. The authors contrast Serbian and Montenegrin attitudes: in Serbia, the default answer is “You can’t,” which under pressure becomes “Somehow you can”; in Montenegro, the opposite holds. This observation reveals a keen eye for cultural differences in the face of uncertainty.

Scenes of Wartime Everyday

Amid the chaos of war, the Gordons capture moments of ordinary life. In Nish, a Chinese vendor sells paper trinkets, and “all the pretty girls were wearing his absurdities pinned on to their head kerchiefs.” A man selling honey is accompanied by his bees, which sting him and the buyers. These details—the bees, the paper gauds—are not mere color; they anchor the narrative in the sensory world. The authors also note the presence of Red Cross orderlies, one of whom, a porter from Folkestone, settles on the floor saying “he wasn’t going to concarn himself with no voos.” Such voices, rendered in dialect, add a layer of comic relief. The juxtaposition of the mundane and the catastrophic—peasants pouring into market “knowing nothing of the Bulgars”—creates a tension that runs through the book.

Movement Through Landscape

The book’s structure is driven by movement: by car, train, and on foot. The Gordons describe the landscape in passing, often from a train step or a carriage window. At one point, they “sat on the step dangling our legs and peering down at the country below us.” This perspective—low, mobile, and slightly precarious—shapes the reader’s sense of place. The journey is not a straight line but a series of halts and detours. Chapter titles like “The Highway of Montenegro” and “The Unknown Road” suggest routes that are both physical and metaphorical. The authors’ attention to the logistics of travel—the copper tray they carry, the white disinfectant squirted on the floor—grounds the narrative in material details. The recurring image of a “luggage train” or a “special carriage” underscores the improvisational nature of wartime transit.

Recurring Figures and Encounters

Throughout the narrative, the Gordons meet a cast of characters who reappear or are mentioned in passing: Dr. Clemow, who brings Paul the interpreter; the four orderlies with their “beautiful cooking apparatus”; the Belgian sisters who cut off their hair. These figures are not fully developed but serve as markers of the authors’ network. The Sirdar, a Montenegrin interpreter, is sought but not found. The effect is a sense of a world in motion, where people cross paths unpredictably. The authors also note the presence of animals: the bees, the bullocks being shod, the mules in Albania. These details, along with the photographs listed in the contents (e.g., “Shoeing Bullocks,” “Albanian Mule-drivers Camping”), suggest a visual dimension that complements the text. The narrative’s structure, with its diary-like chapters and retrospective sections, mirrors the fragmented experience of travel during war.

Readers should approach The Luck of Thirteen as a travelogue shaped by circumstance rather than a systematic history. The Gordons’ observations are sharp but partial; they do not claim to see the whole war. The book rewards attention to its small scenes—the bee-stung honey seller, the orderlies’ nine shillings—as much as its larger movements. The authors’ tone, wry and unheroic, offers a counterpoint to official accounts. For those interested in the texture of daily life on the move, this narrative provides a vivid, if fragmentary, record.