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Rating: 
Summary: Great Descriptions, Thin Story
Review: Historians could take a lesson from historical novelists. For the most part, historians are terrible writers. They are academics and not great communicators, because they spend most of their lives researching and/or giving lectures in a college atmosphere. As writers they are as dry as a vice-presidential debate. Tom Foley has done something within this book that future historians should pay attention to. He used his imagination. But he didn't "make up" stuff. The graphic and gut-wrenching depictions of brutal Serbian atrocities during the civil war in Bosnia are sickening. That is an undertatement of all understatements. Chapter after chapter has a new and terribly disgusting account of the evils that man can commit to his fellow man. Inside the cover it says that Tom Foley visited Bosnia during the cease-fire to gather his research. I am sure he heard stories of several of the horrible acts committed by the Chetnik Serbs. Whether or not some specific atrocities were committed (some ARE true according to the accounts from the War Crimes Tribunal's investigations), it really doesn't matter. Of course, this is a novel. But historians would do themselves credit to take some lessons from Tom Foley's descriptions. Sometimes it takes the imagination and talent of a storyteller to bring forth the greater truth to history. However, as great as the descriptions are, nearly each and every chapter there needs to be story within this book. A U.S. Army officer, Robert Jackson, has deserted and decided commit a crime: smuggling guns to the Muslims to defend themselves, while he was a UN peacekeeper. This, of course, is against the law because there were arms-sanctions against Yugoslavia. Jackson cannot return to the US because he would have to stand trial. While he stays in Bosnia, he feels he can still help the Bosnians defend themselves. The rest of the story deals with him trying to survive in a besieged town, hiding out, his partners and buddies are being killed in horrible ways. He gets captured and sent to a concentration camp witnessing numerous despicable acts while there. On and on. This story is nearly lifted from "Heart of Darkness" and "Apocolypse Now" (I almost expect Jackson to be thinking somewhere: "the horror...the horror.") The characters were not nearly well developed and I thought them to be too stereotypical--the most interesting I felt was a Gypsy friend, Zarko, but his character just couldn't find the right moments to flourish. The story was too thin and the dialogue seemed phony (almost like if George Lucas would have done "Apocolypse Now")--especially some of the romantic moments between Jackson and a pregnant former-mistress to the camp commandant that he helps escape. I can't imagine people really talking like that--even within extraordinary instances. The atrocities are the real story in this book, but it could have been more. If Mr. Foley was attempting to write a modern "Heart of Darkness" it may have been helpful if he were to try to read some other Conrad to get some idea of character and story development. 5 Stars for the graphic depictions and minus 2 for the thin dialogue and weak story. But since this is one of the first novels I know of depicting the Yugoslav Civil War, I think it is an adequate start to a hopefully rich genre to come.
Rating:
Summary: Great Descriptions, Thin Story
Review: Historians could take a lesson from historical novelists. For the most part, historians are terrible writers. They are academics and not great communicators, because they spend most of their lives researching and/or giving lectures in a college atmosphere. As writers they are as dry as a vice-presidential debate. Tom Foley has done something within this book that future historians should pay attention to. He used his imagination. But he didn't "make up" stuff. The graphic and gut-wrenching depictions of brutal Serbian atrocities during the civil war in Bosnia are sickening. That is an undertatement of all understatements. Chapter after chapter has a new and terribly disgusting account of the evils that man can commit to his fellow man. Inside the cover it says that Tom Foley visited Bosnia during the cease-fire to gather his research. I am sure he heard stories of several of the horrible acts committed by the Chetnik Serbs. Whether or not some specific atrocities were committed (some ARE true according to the accounts from the War Crimes Tribunal's investigations), it really doesn't matter. Of course, this is a novel. But historians would do themselves credit to take some lessons from Tom Foley's descriptions. Sometimes it takes the imagination and talent of a storyteller to bring forth the greater truth to history. However, as great as the descriptions are, nearly each and every chapter there needs to be story within this book. A U.S. Army officer, Robert Jackson, has deserted and decided commit a crime: smuggling guns to the Muslims to defend themselves, while he was a UN peacekeeper. This, of course, is against the law because there were arms-sanctions against Yugoslavia. Jackson cannot return to the US because he would have to stand trial. While he stays in Bosnia, he feels he can still help the Bosnians defend themselves. The rest of the story deals with him trying to survive in a besieged town, hiding out, his partners and buddies are being killed in horrible ways. He gets captured and sent to a concentration camp witnessing numerous despicable acts while there. On and on. This story is nearly lifted from "Heart of Darkness" and "Apocolypse Now" (I almost expect Jackson to be thinking somewhere: "the horror...the horror.") The characters were not nearly well developed and I thought them to be too stereotypical--the most interesting I felt was a Gypsy friend, Zarko, but his character just couldn't find the right moments to flourish. The story was too thin and the dialogue seemed phony (almost like if George Lucas would have done "Apocolypse Now")--especially some of the romantic moments between Jackson and a pregnant former-mistress to the camp commandant that he helps escape. I can't imagine people really talking like that--even within extraordinary instances. The atrocities are the real story in this book, but it could have been more. If Mr. Foley was attempting to write a modern "Heart of Darkness" it may have been helpful if he were to try to read some other Conrad to get some idea of character and story development. 5 Stars for the graphic depictions and minus 2 for the thin dialogue and weak story. But since this is one of the first novels I know of depicting the Yugoslav Civil War, I think it is an adequate start to a hopefully rich genre to come.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow
Review: I picked up this book as I was walking through Borders. I looked at the covers of the books looking for a good war novel. I found this one and luckily for me, the cover caught my attention. This book is brilliant! Not only did it inform me about the conflicts in Bosnia, but the story moved me. This is a deep and powerful book. I am amazed with this book and I recommend it to everyone. A warning is that it has quite a bit of graphic violence and includes a few scenes of graphic sexual stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly Good!
Review: I received this book as a gift, and read it out of obligation. About 20 pages in, I was hooked! The author has a very good descriptive style, and made me feel for the main characters. The best thing about this novel was that one can learn an amazing amount of information about the Bosnia/Serbia war, something Americans in general are unfamiliar with. My word of warning is that this novel is very graphic, something akin to the WWII concentration camps. However, graphic violence aside, this was an ecxellent book.
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Good!
Review: I received this book as a gift, and read it out of obligation. About 20 pages in, I was hooked! The author has a very good descriptive style, and made me feel for the main characters. The best thing about this novel was that one can learn an amazing amount of information about the Bosnia/Serbia war, something Americans in general are unfamiliar with. My word of warning is that this novel is very graphic, something akin to the WWII concentration camps. However, graphic violence aside, this was an ecxellent book.
Rating:
Summary: foley does it again
Review: Upon hearing that Foley's 2nd novel was in print, I eagerly got my hands on it and read it cover to cover. The story drags the reader through the darker side of Bosnia while reminding us of the inherent good in mankind. The hemingway-esque main character follows a seemingly well researched route through the war-torn region only to delay the devastation to follow. This book is not for the weak at heart!
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