Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Thoughts at the half-way point of Sarajevo Marlboro

Collections of short stories seem to broadly come in two cataegories: ones with an overall theme and those that are various works pulled together. This falls firmly into the first category with Jergovic describing a country Bosnia and a city, Sarajevo, that are ravaged by war.

His stories share that common theme but do seem to come in chronological order with the start describing a world on the brink of war and by the middle the shells and bullets and falling and flying pretty heavily.

What draws you in is the way that Jergovic writes about some horrible things but does so in such a way, tempted to say at arm's length but that's not perhaps right, that leaves the reader in a position to make up their own mind about the horror and brutality of war and its impact on innocent people.

A review will come soon...