5.0 von 5 Sternen
History Lesson, Travelogue, War Observation, and Memory, 29. Juni 2000
Rezension bezieht sich auf: The Fracture Zone: A Return To The Balkans (Gebundene Ausgabe)
The Fracture Zone is one of the most unusual books I have ever read. It provides a mosaic of perspectives on the former Yugoslavia centering on the UN-led end of the most recent conflicts in the region. Although the effect can be a little unsettling, the advantage of the approach is to make the experience more personal and more human than a narrower, more disciplined method would have done.
The book's premise is to share the author's experiences through the context of his former visit during peaceful times to the same region, historical perspective on why and how the tensions and conflicts have evolved, and on-the-ground insights from conversations with those who hate and those who do not.
The effect is not unlike what one's own experiences might have been like if a time machine brought us first into the year 1858 in South Carolina and then in the same area in the year 1865. Without more perspective, someone from Kosovo would not be able to understand what had happened between the two times. That is what the author has been trying to accomplish in this book.
Through flashbacks and narration, you will travel twice (once before the wars, and once after them) through the former Yugoslavia on a journey starting in Vienna and ending in Istanbul. You will have many unforgettable moments, like seeing thousands of displaced refugees squatting in a former alpine meadow while overwhelmed army forces try to save lives. You'll learn what a Sarajevo rose is (no, it's not what you think). And you will find how historical lessons can be used as excuses to fan current hatreds of those who are similar and different from oneself.
All of this has an incredible immediacy because this is like the worst of the Nazi era, being relived in many ways in our own times.
The author keeps asking, why? He poses some answers, but ultimately, it is unanswerable. Perhaps in time, we can make sense of this terrible tragedy.
Here are some cautions: Anyone who wants a serious history will not like this book. Anyone who wants a brilliant essay will be even less satisfied.
If you are open to a new approach to understanding an extremely complex circumstance, you will find this book to be interesting. It will expand your curiosity, and that will be good. We all need to ponder the lessons here, to help avoid their recurrence. Share this book with one other person, so the memory will expand.
Donald Mitchell
Coauthor of The Irresistible Growth Enterprise and The 2,000 Percent Solution
(donmitch@fastforward400.com)
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4.0 von 5 Sternen
Fascinating, insightful ! (but bad editing), 31. Mai 2000
Rezension bezieht sich auf: The Fracture Zone: A Return To The Balkans (Gebundene Ausgabe)
For someone not to well versed in the history of the recent Balkan war this is a great read. I like the author's insightful historical aspect to the book and his unbiased reporting. It is a book that gives much incentive to think about the people living in that region and the author makes a very honest attempt to be nonjudgmental. If you do not know much about the Balkans and have asked yourself why such violent confrontations have happened there over and over this is certainly a good start. The only negative about this book is the bad editing and the the convoluted sentences that sometimes have to be read over again several times to make sense.
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4.0 von 5 Sternen
Traveler, writer, adventurer..., 19. Mai 2000
Rezension bezieht sich auf: The Fracture Zone: A Return To The Balkans (Gebundene Ausgabe)
Simon Winchester says the journalist writes the first draft of history. This book is a fine bit of journalism as well as a quick read. The writing is personally reflective, and loosely associated with events in Kosovo in 1999. It reads more like a travelog than a heavy duty investigative report like "The Haunted Land" by Tina Rosenberg.
Wincester is sensitive to history. He recommends "The Bridge on the Drina" about the sad history of the Serbs by the Croat Ivo Andric who won the Nobel Prize. He also intersperses bits of history about many geographic points he travels through between Vienna and that city that some still think of as Constantinople.
Books by journalists who served as correspondents during the military action contain less censored and probably better written material than what appeared in original on-the-spot news articles they might have written. The writer has had time to reflect on what transpired, obtain additional historical and contextual information, correct misinterpretations and generlly improve his or her writing.
As part of my job and because of a personal interest I have in the Balkans, I have been reading material about this part of the world for some years, including the Andric book and books by the University of Michigan historian John Fine. I read this book as part of my continuing education and I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the Balkans.
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