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freddie's review against another edition
4.0
The novel is good at evoking emotional responses. I came into this novel expecting some talking cat shenanigans but that part turned out to be the weakest part of the book. However, the book redeemed itself by how it nicely explores intersectionalities between war, racism, displacement, violence, trauma, and sexuality. The characters are flawed and the novel uses that to its advantage, making the story feels layered and complex.
adam_armstrong_yu's review against another edition
4.0
This bizarre, decades spanning tale clutched me like a coil of barbed wire. The pangs of what it feels like to be alone, desperate, and adrift were so startling that I ached. This is an absolutely beautiful novel about the chasm that can exist between a parent and a child, and how a mother’s story can fill in the gaps in the son’s if they’re only willing to speak and to listen.
mayo899's review
3.0
3.5 - overall good story. you really feel what bekim & his mother experience viscerally, alongside with them and i think that’s the book’s strongest point.
migavoh's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
ivy_owl7's review against another edition
2.0
I don't know
The first half of this book feels like a fever dream. The second half was at least easier to understand.
The first half of this book feels like a fever dream. The second half was at least easier to understand.
jdintr's review
4.0
My Cat Yugoslavia is a beautifully woven tapestry of a novel, tracing two arcs: the story of a refugee boy who grows up in Finland to find love in his new culture, and the story of a girl, married as a teenager in Kosovo, who wends her way through domestic and international wars.
I'm fascinated by Kosovo because I worked in Albania during the NATO-Serb War in 1999, serving World Food Programme rations to refugees in the nation's southwest. I was there only three, short months, but I packed into it learning of a lifetime. Twenty years later, my daughter volunteered for the Peace Corps in Kosovo, and in my first Christmas away from her, I bought this book, read it, and sent it along to her.
I guess that's why I loved the wider lens that Statovci uses to illustrate his culture, weaving specific events from his country's history (the death of Tito, wars in Bosnia and Kosovo) with the development of his central character. This isn't just a gay, coming-to-terms-with-love story (it's actually remarkable how little his conservative, Muslim culture affects the protagonist, although Statovci illustrates the Kosovar mentality toward homosexuality in others' behavior in a visit the protagonist makes to Pristhina at the story's climax).
I also loved the way Statovci used allegory to illustrate key themes. Cats are used to show key relationships in the book (save for the first and last one). Showing prejudice spewing from the mouth of a cat, is a nice way to avoid Finnish culture in general. And I cannot think of a better analogy of the stranglehold of culture on a refugee who is trying to transition to a new one than a snake that lurks around the house.
This is a remarkable book that deserves all the readers it can get!
I'm fascinated by Kosovo because I worked in Albania during the NATO-Serb War in 1999, serving World Food Programme rations to refugees in the nation's southwest. I was there only three, short months, but I packed into it learning of a lifetime. Twenty years later, my daughter volunteered for the Peace Corps in Kosovo, and in my first Christmas away from her, I bought this book, read it, and sent it along to her.
I guess that's why I loved the wider lens that Statovci uses to illustrate his culture, weaving specific events from his country's history (the death of Tito, wars in Bosnia and Kosovo) with the development of his central character. This isn't just a gay, coming-to-terms-with-love story (it's actually remarkable how little his conservative, Muslim culture affects the protagonist, although Statovci illustrates the Kosovar mentality toward homosexuality in others' behavior in a visit the protagonist makes to Pristhina at the story's climax).
I also loved the way Statovci used allegory to illustrate key themes. Cats are used to show key relationships in the book (save for the first and last one). Showing prejudice spewing from the mouth of a cat, is a nice way to avoid Finnish culture in general. And I cannot think of a better analogy of the stranglehold of culture on a refugee who is trying to transition to a new one than a snake that lurks around the house.
This is a remarkable book that deserves all the readers it can get!
queercorn's review against another edition
2.0
This book in nonsense and the intertwined stories aren’t connected smoothly at all
czu's review against another edition
5.0
There was nothing I didn't like about this book. It was beautifully written and the story was a lot bigger than its pages. The author can write different voices of different people so well, that when she tell of her people's old traditions, you believe in their sacred importance, and when he tells of his thoughts of other people, you see what he means so clearly. The language is so gentle, that even when there is judgement, there is understanding, when there is bitterness, there is forgiveness. I absolutely loved this book and for now I will love wondering and pondering on the many symbolic feats in it - definitely a book that will linger in your mind long after reading it!