Book Review: The Cellist of Sarajevo
The Cellist of Sarajevo
by Steven Galloway
256 pages
International fiction
Riverhead Books
March 2009
Living is very different when your life is under constant threat, when each time you leave the house you run, knowing you are observed and are very much a walking target. In these situations life takes on a whole value. What is important enough to actually put your life in their hands for? Then you wonder when it became an act of bravery to cross the threshold of your door. This is the everyday life, the new normal for those in Sarajevo during the siege. The Cellist of Sarajevo is a novel based on a non-fictional siege, and a non-fictional well known local cellist, Vase Smailovic a who played Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor for twenty-two days as a tribute to those who had been killed while standing in line waiting to buy bread. During this twenty-two day period not only is Sarajevo the cellist's audience, but the audience extends far beyond the well guarded borders of even Sarajevo itself, the world is his audience.
In a nation that is being torn apart, what will make those in the city stop and see that there still is anything worth living for? Society is not buildings, it is not libraries, or community halls-those are the shells that societies leave behind, the remnants and evidence that the people were there working together. Society is a community, the relationships held between people, and an understanding of an acceptable way to treat one another. When that society is under attack, a new normal emerges for its civilians, a new acceptable way to interact with others which is more an instinct than an interaction. When society as we know it falls apart and there are no longer any rules to how we should act, it is from within us that our actions arise. Those actions will prove a person to be a man or woman of courage and heart, or a human who only lives to protect itself.
The Cellist plays, and it is not he that is the focus in this novel, but those he impacts, his audience. There are three main characters which the narrator follows on their daily routine and of which the reader learns their thoughts and fears. Music, as all forms of art, inspires people to continue on, to hope for a future in a better world, and even to remember the past. Every day during the twenty-two day tribute, the Cellist was giving an outdoor concert- the notes rising amongst the broken buildings, the burnt down libraries, and mending the dreams and hearts of the broken people. And yet, that is just the starting point of this novel- it is what those three characters do with the hope that has been given them that caries the musical notes beyond just the listeners who were inspired.
To read more about the period of the Sarajevo Conflict, please check out my review of Sarajevo Marlboro by Miljenko Jergovic .
Powell's Books Event:
Steven Galloway author of The Cellist of Sarajevo
I could not believe my luck when I saw that Steven Galloway was to be at Powell's Books! I was so blessed to go to that event last night. Brad (B) and I both got to go up and enjoy the full experience. We both knew that meeting the author could actually scar our already high opinion of the book somewhat, if the person who wrote the book is arrogant and rude, it does make it harder to love the book just as much. Don't you agree? However it was not an issue, as we came away delighted that he was an amazing person as well as writer, he was funny, clever, and very sweet. Like my grandma would have said " he had a good head on his shoulders!", and I am a believer in good heads. 
It was also really, super fun to meet up with Ali from Worducopia at the reading and chat a bit afterwords, but I thought she was in some of the pictures, but she seems to have escaped out of them! I'll get her next time.
My favourite quote from the author Steven Galloway was when telling us how he has a short attention span and it really freaks publishers out because they never know what to expect, he remarks, "You know, I wish I could write a good sexy werewolf novel. That is where the money is! I apologize though, if any of you are sexy werewolves that was not meant to offend". Yes, we were all laughing!
I got so shy when I met the author that all I could do was say, "My-favourite-character-was-Arrow. I-am-a-book-reviewer-and-really-loved-your-book!" Seriously, somebody HELP ME! I need to take boldness pills for next time.
Author Website: Steven Galloway
Book Review: Moment of Truth in Iraq
Title: Moment of Truth in Iraq
Author: Michael Yon
Pages: 256
Genre: Memoir, War
Yearly Count: 5
Michael Yon is a journalist, who since 2004 has chosen to report on the situation in Iraq first hand, yep over in Iraq. He isn't allowed to carry a gun, but goes out on missions, watches, encourages, and reports about what is going on, what he is seeing and does so with such excellence that after finishing the novel I was left speechless. I have started and deleted my review for this book almost ten times.
This is the only book I have purchased for myself in over a year. Does that say enough? I don't think it does. I have dreads, I am a vegetarian, I go hiking for fun and I live in Oregon and I loved this book, maybe that is what I am trying to make sure is understood. My brother is in the Army, he has been an enlisted man for almost 10 years. He has a family, a wife and two kids, he was in Iraq for over 16 months recently. He was injured in Iraq, he received a purple heart, he doesn't like to be called a hero, he says he isn't one, he is a guy doing his job.
I have cried when I think about what he has given up, the time that has lost with his family the worry his wife has endured, but he has told me before that he doesn't think of it that way. He saw the Iraqis, he saw the people there he saw changes, he saw what most journalists aren't there to report on, the victories.
Michael Yon is there, he is side by side with these heroes who are too humble to think of themselves that way. For them that word, hero conjures up images, images of a men they admire but not themselves. Yon was out there when my little brother was fighting with Operation Arrowhead Ripper.Unknowingly I picked up a copy of this book and asked my brother if he had heard of this guy, he said he didn't know but then I jokingly said, "look at the picture, you might recognize him!" he looked at the jacket flap and did!
I have come to admire Michael Yon in many ways, but the most important to me right now are that he is an insane brave man, and his objectiveness, sure he is over there with these guys, but I saw that he didn't speak all about the good things, he covered the losses and the wrong choices being made. Yes, even if they were being made by the leadership of the army, even if it didn't make the army look good, his honest voice was what I admired the most. Tell me what it was like, what you saw, that is what I want to know!!!
This review could go on for a day and a half, and I have quotes underlined that could go on for longer, but I'll stop. It was good, I loved it. More than anything I have heard, read or seen has given me a much fuller perception of the current situation in Iraq. I would recommend Moment of Truth in Iraq to everyone, but in a big way to those who just want to know what is going on over there. I have never felt a portrayal to be more ballanced than this one by Michael Yon. I recommend this book with no reservations, and in case you were wondering....yes of course it got my happy chicken award!
Michael Yon's Online Magazine (blog)
Veterans, thank you.
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Today we remember those who have served, and those who died doing so. Please remember to thank the veterans in your life today, this is a day where we can tell them how much they mean, what we appreciate about them and in that, showing them that we do not take for granted their service to our nation.
We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude. ~Cynthia Ozick
When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep? ~George Canning
Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die. ~G.K. Chesterton
My family who has served in the Army, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard:
Thank you Ross.
Thank you Dad.
Thank you Grandpa Durand.
Thank you Grandpa Jackson.
Thank you Uncle Jack.
Thank you Grandpa Marble.
Thank you Grandpa Cox.
March
Title: March
Author: Geraldine Brooks
Pages: 304
Yearly Count b: 65
Awards: Selected by the Washington Post as one of the five best fiction works published during the year. In April 2006, the book earned Brooks the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
March is the alternate story of Little Women by Alcott, it is the same story told from Mr. March's (the dad) perspective. In Little Women not very much is said about the father, gone at war. March picks up the story and embraces all that Mr. March, the army chaplain does. In the beginning he is idealistic, goal oriented and driven. As the war drags on and he witnesses violence and decay his spirit fades. The luster of all that he was set out to conquer and accomplish hides under the darkness of slavery, racism and war.
Geraldine Brooks is an excellent writer. I am just not so sure I agree with how she portrayed March, or the rest of the March family. I would call this "The Darkside of Little Women" or "How to Make Little Women a Nightmare". Geraldine follows the current trend of popular novels however, in that a happy life is too good to be true, or happiness is really never possible. I don't agree. The modern trend of not just making some unhappy endings, but marring them all is grabbing at me like a tick on a dog. I can't wait until this goes out of style. I guess I hope that after the happy ending era, and then after the horror endings....I really hope our literary society finds the happy medium. Things do not always have to be good, but do they always have to be bad?
If you are a lover of Little Women just the way that it is, please read this at your own risk. I did. I can still separate them, but I don't like what this did to my image of Mr. March. It does go along with another of the current trends all the rage right now : men are bad, much darker than we could ever imagine. PLEASE?! I do not agree with that. I enjoyed the brilliant writing of this book, it was captivating. Brooks really knows how to move the reader, she is excellent...I just didn't like what she said. But no matter what, I can see why shy won the Pulitzer for this, it is good writing, I can admit that no matter how much I dislike where she took me.
Reviewed this book? Comment me your link, I'll add it here.
Other Blogger Reviews of March:
Literate Housewife
