Madness Visible: A Memoir of War

This is a good book on the Balkan wars, but not the book that I wanted. I was looking for a general outline of the events in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. This book is much more personal. The style is punchy - short pieces related by individuals caught up in the appalling atrocities of the period. Participants appear in the text with no introduction, with no way of telling who they are or why they are being mentioned. There is no attempt to follow a chronology. But the writing is good; the content is compelling, heart-rending.
By the end I find myself better informed, but still feel a need for more information on the lead up to the events recounted. How could people become so incredibly inhumane to people who had been their show more neighbours, school friends, fellow workers? But I doubt that I will soon want to return to delve into this era of savagery and incomprehensible brutality. show less

In this account of the war in Yugoslavia, Di Giovanni tries to explain the politics and factions at work here, the armies and paramilitary groups and the motivations behind their actions. I could not follow any of that, it is not her fault, she explains it very well, I just don't have a head for those kind of details. But in the interviews with the people affected, she interviews people from both sides of the conflicts, Serbians, Bosnains, Albanians and even some soldiers from Britain and France, you get the human story of the war, you see the madness of war.

She traveled extensively in the country, through dangerous areas, at one point she and some French colleagues thought they might be murdered by Serbians. She writes with candor and show more when she mentions destroying a notebook so her captors wouldn't find it, I could feel how tense the situation was.

I recommend this book. show less

In this account of the war in Yugoslavia, Di Giovanni tries to explain the politics and factions at work here, the armies and paramilitary groups and the motivations behind their actions. I could not follow any of that, it is not her fault, she explains it very well, I just don’t have a head for those kind of details. But in the interviews with the people affected, she interviews people from both sides of the conflicts, Serbians, Bosnains, Albanians and even some soldiers from Britain and France, you get the human story of the war, you see the madness of war.

She traveled extensively in the country, through dangerous areas, at one point she and some French colleagues thought they might be murdered by Serbians. She writes with candor show more and when she mentions destroying a notebook so her captors wouldn’t find it, I could feel how tense the situation was.

I recommend this book. show less

Janine di Giovanni writes well, and I'd recommend for anyone with either an enjoyment of war reportage, or decent knowledge about the war in the former Yugoslavia. I have neither.