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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
I liked some essays a lot and didn't few other essays because I felt they were long and kept repeating the same thing over and over again.
Memoir of the author's life as a child of, and in, Sarajevo, his adolescence and his temporary visit to the US that resulted in political asylum; his return to Bosnia later, and his life in Chicago.
Find questions of identity, otherness, landscape (inner and outer), loss and belonging.
Find questions of identity, otherness, landscape (inner and outer), loss and belonging.
3,5 zaokruženo na 4.
Nisam nikada do sad čula za Aleksandra Hemona. Tj. mislila sam da nisam čula, a onda sam kasnije izguglala i videla da je on autor knjige [b:Kako su nastali Ratovi zombija|33225863|Kako su nastali Ratovi zombija|Aleksandar Hemon|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1480680118l/33225863._SX50_.jpg|42499103]. Zbog prezimena sam mislila da je neki Amer. Geografski i jeste, ali čovek je rodom iz Sarajeva.
Uvek je izazov čitati nečije memoare, pogotovo osobe o kojoj nemate pojma. Nekima to pođe za rukom da izvedu maestralno (i dalje sam očarana Grlićevim delom [b:Neispričane priče|41125976|Neispričane priče|Rajko Grlić|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534066110l/41125976._SY75_.jpg|64254521]), a drugima fali taj neki tajni začin da učine takav nefikcijski tekst dovoljno zanimljivim i nasumičnim čitaocima.
Meni je taj začin nedostajao u Hemonovom boršču. Iako je bilo pasusa koji su mi se vrlo dopali (uključujući i taj opis pripremanja porodičnog boršča), nije mi dovoljno celokupno štivo držalo pažnju. Na momente sam se teleportovala u njegovu porodičnu vikendicu na Jahorini, na košarkaški teren u Čikagu i na ulice Sarajeva. Ali samo na momente. Nažalost sam u svakom trenutku bila svesna da čitam nečije zapise, napisane vrlo konkretnim, novinarsko-dokumentarnim stilom.
Pa ipak, Hemon je na par mesta zasijao i baš zbog tih par mesta ova knjižica vredi čitanja.
"[...] možda je ljubav pronalaženje zajedničkog viđenja stvarnosti."
Nisam nikada do sad čula za Aleksandra Hemona. Tj. mislila sam da nisam čula, a onda sam kasnije izguglala i videla da je on autor knjige [b:Kako su nastali Ratovi zombija|33225863|Kako su nastali Ratovi zombija|Aleksandar Hemon|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1480680118l/33225863._SX50_.jpg|42499103]. Zbog prezimena sam mislila da je neki Amer. Geografski i jeste, ali čovek je rodom iz Sarajeva.
Uvek je izazov čitati nečije memoare, pogotovo osobe o kojoj nemate pojma. Nekima to pođe za rukom da izvedu maestralno (i dalje sam očarana Grlićevim delom [b:Neispričane priče|41125976|Neispričane priče|Rajko Grlić|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534066110l/41125976._SY75_.jpg|64254521]), a drugima fali taj neki tajni začin da učine takav nefikcijski tekst dovoljno zanimljivim i nasumičnim čitaocima.
Meni je taj začin nedostajao u Hemonovom boršču. Iako je bilo pasusa koji su mi se vrlo dopali (uključujući i taj opis pripremanja porodičnog boršča), nije mi dovoljno celokupno štivo držalo pažnju. Na momente sam se teleportovala u njegovu porodičnu vikendicu na Jahorini, na košarkaški teren u Čikagu i na ulice Sarajeva. Ali samo na momente. Nažalost sam u svakom trenutku bila svesna da čitam nečije zapise, napisane vrlo konkretnim, novinarsko-dokumentarnim stilom.
Pa ipak, Hemon je na par mesta zasijao i baš zbog tih par mesta ova knjižica vredi čitanja.
"[...] možda je ljubav pronalaženje zajedničkog viđenja stvarnosti."
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Wow! I had never read anything by Aleksandar Hemon but I'll have to remedy that. He has such a way with words. This book is a compilation of mostly previously published essays edited and put together to make a type of memoir. It works. Hemon was born and raised in Sarajevo. At age 27 1/2 he was on a month-long visit to Chicago when war broke out in Sarajevo and there was no way to return home. His family escaped to Canada but of course life has never been the same. His descriptions of being a young boy in Sarajevo, an immigrant in Chicago, and a husband and father facing unspeakable tragedy are compelling. What an amazing facility with the English language!
I read "The Aquarium," the final piece in this collection, when it was published in the New Yorker 2 years ago. That essay alone would give this collection 4 stars. The story of his daughter's illness and death is one of the finest personal essays I have read in a long time.
Luckily, the rest of the book is also good. None of it comes up to the power of "The Aquarium," but it's sharply observed and often very funny. The essays are only collected, not edited or shaped into a cohesive whole, but the parts are good enough to forgive that.
Luckily, the rest of the book is also good. None of it comes up to the power of "The Aquarium," but it's sharply observed and often very funny. The essays are only collected, not edited or shaped into a cohesive whole, but the parts are good enough to forgive that.
The Book Of My Lives is a series of personal essays half memoir/ half autobiographical in which Hemon shows us that we don't live just one life we live many lives that overlap and change based on the events and people who define us. Hemon writes of growing up in Sarajevo and then watching his city destroyed by war while he is safe, but displaced in Chicago. But this book is not just a reflection of war. It is a reflection of one man’s life - the tragic and the love-altered. The final essay will break your heart.
“And now my memory collapses”
First read of my Bosnian research hole. Burned through this compelling memoir, laughed and cried, and look forward to reading Hemon’s fiction at some point.
The last chapter is just utter devastation.
First read of my Bosnian research hole. Burned through this compelling memoir, laughed and cried, and look forward to reading Hemon’s fiction at some point.
The last chapter is just utter devastation.
Do yourself a favor and forget everything else until you read this book. It is some of the most incendiary prose I've read in a long time. Hemon is a primarily a fiction writer, and his memoir, presented as a series of vignettes, will make you a better reader of all fiction. If you've finished reading this review, you've already spent too much time delaying a reading experience that will leave you a profoundly better person.
The war in Bosnia was one of the first wars I remember. When I was 13, I remember reading ZLATA'S DIARY shortly after reading Anne Frank's and being amazed and horrified that these things were happening now, not in some hard-to-imagine past. Hemon writes in this straightforward and unflinching tone about some really horrible things, sliding between the personal and political in the space of a few paragraphs. This is an important book.