Like Eating A Stone: Surviving The Past In Bosnia [Hardcover]

This is a 2008 translation of a 2002 work. The book jacket says that it is a "lyrical". I think a more descriptive word is "choppy".

For instance, on p. 27, 20,000 people voluntarily (this part is explained at the end of the book) go to a "selection". Women and boys under 5 feet are separated from 7000 men. They had wedding rings and jewelry confiscated and were transported somewhere by buses and trucks. Zineta and her daughter, may or may not be with this group, but were transported in the morning and let off "6 miles from the front" and told to walk on a road. It may be that there are people, living and dead, on the side of the road but they are afraid to look. Women (Zineta?) spend the night in tents at an airport.

The problem may be the fault of translation. When Zineta, presumably at the airport, sees her husband she asked if their son had "come home', which you might think should have been "went home", but sentences later, the husband had "come home", implying that they are not at the airport, but are at home. If they are at home, why ask if the son had gotten there? Ten pages and 8 years later, if you don't know the geography and are still struggling for context, this adds to the confusion: "Zineta's husband and son came home because they chose to escape across the mountains". Were they escaping to home or from home? Is this about the past or present? Then it says the son lived with the family for a while and went to Holland to work (escape?) and the husband has no job.

All of this (and it continues) gets in the way of a story that needs to be told. In the aftermath of war the international community is assisting in the identification of bodies, body parts and clothing. All have the right to return to their homes, but what if it has been burned, looted (including the floors, windows and wiring) or since occupied by someone difficult to remove? Unemployment is well over 80% and pensioners get enough for three days food. It appears that the bulk of the population has no visible means of support. Serbian men are no where to be seen, for fear of being identified and prosecuted for a war crime. There are long searches for bodies in fields and caves and if parts are found there is an identification system. It is a relief for the families to have a funeral and burial. Some survivors, despite all the destruction think war is the answer to their problems.

While the book has important material it is 7 years old. One can hope things have changed. Read it only if you have an interest in this topic and think you can have patience with the "lyricism".

› Go to Amazon.com to see the review  3.0 out of 5 stars