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anthonyk's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
2.75
iusmani's review against another edition
3.0
Barbara Demick puts in the work with her books and Logavina Street is no exception. I enjoyed reading this but due to the convoluted nature of the Balkan wars and the sheer number of families and individual stories covered in this book, I've already forgotten half of it. Glad I read it but likely won't re-read in the future.
adas_library's review against another edition
4.0
Reading this as a Sarajevan felt like listening to my aunts and uncles talk about the war over coffee.
cherbear's review against another edition
4.0
I always find the stories of how people live their daily lives during terrible times like war particularly interesting and this was no exception.
scarletohhara's review against another edition
5.0
Having loved Demick's two other books on North Korea and Tibet, I knew I was going to love this book - I expected that the tone of narration would be real, factual and not be subjective in her views, I knew the stories would all be about real people and their experiences as they lived through the conflict, I knew Demick would give a closure towards the end on how the lives of the people she chronicled in the book would be after a while, and I expected her to not pick a side even about the conflict.
This book delivered on all these expectations.
As a 90s kid growing up in India which had considerable USSR influence (I grew up reading a lot of Soviet magazines that my Dad subscribed for me, I remember reading a lot of Russian fairy and folk tales set in Siberia etc; the falling of the Berlin Wall has been an incident that had fascinated me since forever; the Cold War and how the countries picked sides and India chose to be non-aligned is something I read in school; I was fascinated by the split of Czechoslovakia; I followed the split of Yugoslavia closely for a while and remember reading about the war between Bosnia & Serbia), I knew about the wars fought in the Balkans only by headlines, so delving into the details of this siege of Sarajevo by Serbia is great learning for me.
I felt for the people of Bosnia who only wanted a multi-ethnic country and for whom the Dayton pact is not really a justice but more like a cease-fire. I appreciated Demick's notes on how the youth of today in Bosnia might get attracted to Islamic radicalization and the perspectives based on real stories.
And I am in awe of the people who continued living amidst the shell attacks and sniper shots with shrapnel in their bodies and their lives interrupted all because they did not want to leave their homes and thus give in to the ethnic cleansing.
Read this book for all this learning and a great insight into one of the wars we grew up around but haven't read much about.
And now I am going to re-read Joe Sacco's Safe Area Gorazade.
This book delivered on all these expectations.
As a 90s kid growing up in India which had considerable USSR influence (I grew up reading a lot of Soviet magazines that my Dad subscribed for me, I remember reading a lot of Russian fairy and folk tales set in Siberia etc; the falling of the Berlin Wall has been an incident that had fascinated me since forever; the Cold War and how the countries picked sides and India chose to be non-aligned is something I read in school; I was fascinated by the split of Czechoslovakia; I followed the split of Yugoslavia closely for a while and remember reading about the war between Bosnia & Serbia), I knew about the wars fought in the Balkans only by headlines, so delving into the details of this siege of Sarajevo by Serbia is great learning for me.
I felt for the people of Bosnia who only wanted a multi-ethnic country and for whom the Dayton pact is not really a justice but more like a cease-fire. I appreciated Demick's notes on how the youth of today in Bosnia might get attracted to Islamic radicalization and the perspectives based on real stories.
And I am in awe of the people who continued living amidst the shell attacks and sniper shots with shrapnel in their bodies and their lives interrupted all because they did not want to leave their homes and thus give in to the ethnic cleansing.
Read this book for all this learning and a great insight into one of the wars we grew up around but haven't read much about.
And now I am going to re-read Joe Sacco's Safe Area Gorazade.
annasonne's review against another edition
3.0
I really tried, but could not make myself finish this book. It just discouraged me from reading altogether. Although the story is very interesting and well important, I did not feel it was executed in the best possible way... for me not really digestible with too many characters and a story that felt too distant even with its heartbreaking truth.