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Title: The Fracture Zone : My Return to the Balkans by Simon Winchester ISBN: 0-06-095494-9 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 October, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.2 (15 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Fascinating, insightful ! (but bad editing)
Comment: For someone not to well versed in the history of the recent Balkan war this is a great read. I like the author's insightful historical aspect to the book and his unbiased reporting. It is a book that gives much incentive to think about the people living in that region and the author makes a very honest attempt to be nonjudgmental. If you do not know much about the Balkans and have asked yourself why such violent confrontations have happened there over and over this is certainly a good start. The only negative about this book is the bad editing and the the convoluted sentences that sometimes have to be read over again several times to make sense.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Balkans for beginners
Comment: Veteran journalist Simon Winchester retraces his steps through the Balkans 20 years after a brief vacation there, to rediscover a region where the geography is as dizzying as the political and ethnic agendas. His journey from Vienna to Istanbul encompasses the crisis in Kosovo and in a series of astute vignettes, Winchester meets some of the major players and the victims. All around him is a simmering cauldron of hatred which has spilled blood yet again and the issues provoke more questions than can ever be answered. Winchester has questions of his own, but he is unable to answer them in any depth. But then, most Westerners have also had trouble analysing the Balkan history of bloodshed. He is only skimming the surface here and for guidance refers to the great works of Nobel prize winner Ivo Andric, whose book Bridge On The Drina remains a classic text to understanding the background of Balkan turmoil. Unfortunately, Winchester departs Kosovo in June 1999, just after NATO enters the region to restore some semblance of calm. I wish he had remained to write about what happened next. The book fizzles a bit when he goes to Bulgaria. There is now a bewildering plethora of books on recent Balkan upheavals. Winchester's wry observations would serve well as a beginner's guide to one of the most troubled and fascinating places on earth.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Author did a wondeful job!!
Comment: The book itself is wonderful and author does a wonderful job of explaining the years of conflict in the in this particular region of the world.
There are times particularly in the introduction when you want the author to shut up and get on with the story. Later on you see how much this one example(in the beginning) kind of weaves all of the points to come together.
Overall-Good book if you like history (and good journalism)
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Title: The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester ISBN: 0198607024 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The River at the Center of the World : A Journey Up the Yangtze and Back in Chinese Time by Simon Winchester ISBN: 0805055088 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 15 October, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Krakatoa : The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester ISBN: 0066212855 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: The Map That Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester ISBN: 0060931809 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester ISBN: 006099486X Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: August, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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