Rating: 
Summary: The worst book ever written for Albania
Review: I guess the author of this book has visited Albanian mountains only form the helicopter windows.... they are beautiful and wild of course but the way you can see the Albanian tradition and the culture is not only the negative side.
Many foreigners that visited Albania for some reasons read this book and they were really disappointed with this writer....
I wouldn't suggest this book to the new arrivals in Albania...
If you wanna know about Albania traditions you better read Edith Durham Books ...they are wonderful..
I wish Mr. Catver would visit Albania and update his book....
Thank you
Rating:
Summary: The book that makes me laugh...
Review: I just finished reading the book and couldn't resist the temptation to write a little review about it. According to the author, in Albania people would kill and kidnap you among other things. An old woman even cries for the inevitable death of the author! At page 339 among other things he writes that Albanians would lie in order to benefit something from you and afterwards they would cheat after they put you to sleep believeing their lie. "Cynicism is intelligence while honesty is foolishness" according to the author. For females he uses another way to describe their "love" for the foreigners. They would "wash your feet and dry them with their hair"... if they can get out of the country.It would be useless to bring all different paragraphs that have only one thing in common: Cynicism, disparaging and lies. The question that first comes to your mind is: How can Mr. Carver know so much about albanians in a trip he had there. And the story goes on, he met the pure albanian, the so-called Gabriel, who surprisengly was an intellignet man because "...he knew Beatles and where Rome and London were located..." In the south city of Korca there was even a "Death Bakery" called after the people who would die while waiting to purchase bread! In Pogradec (city in south east) during the communist regime everyone who would eat fish would be punished with 15 years of jail! Isn't it so funny, reading this amazing product of the fantasy of the author? The book is published in London in January 1998 and I still wonder how come people in this new millenium would belive to such stories, including here the publisher as well? Once again, if I rated the book of Mr. Carver as one-star novel, that was because it made me laugh! Everyone who has been in Albania enough and knows albanian people would be really dissapointed and angry with this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: I liked Carver's book for its honesty. He experienced these things and he relates them. Many Balkan peoples like the written word to be sugar-coated. The Kanun of Leke Dukagjini, the "controlling yardstick" for behavior among the Gheg Albanians, dictates that an offense to one's honor is never pardoned. It can be expunged with a "magnanimous pardon" or she shedding of "gjak", or blood. For that reason, Albanians are cautious with their language. Carver, astute for the short-term traveler that he was, picked up on this. Is he an expert on Albanian history? No. Don't expect him to be, either. What you get with Carver is honesty combined with the day-to-day events of his three-month tour. Does it stack up with Durham or Rob't D. Kaplan? No, but very few would.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: I liked Carver's book for its honesty. He experienced these things and he relates them. Many Balkan peoples like the written word to be sugar-coated. The Kanun of Leke Dukagjini, the "controlling yardstick" for behavior among the Gheg Albanians, dictates that an offense to one's honor is never pardoned. It can be expunged with a "magnanimous pardon" or she shedding of "gjak", or blood. For that reason, Albanians are cautious with their language. Carver, astute for the short-term traveler that he was, picked up on this. Is he an expert on Albanian history? No. Don't expect him to be, either. What you get with Carver is honesty combined with the day-to-day events of his three-month tour. Does it stack up with Durham or Rob't D. Kaplan? No, but very few would.
Rating: 
Summary: Take it with a 5 pound bag of salt.
Review: I lived in southern Albania as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 1995 to 1997. Carver's account of travelling through that portion of the country in 1996 (the first half of the book) is accurate in its physical descriptions (shabby, decaying, desolate and beautiful), but otherwise leaves much to be desired. First of all, Carver's inexperience shines brightly in his somewhat hysterical exaggeration of the danger of travelling in southern Albania. I took long trips by public bus about once or twice a month while I lived there (between Korca, Permet, Gjirokaster, Tepelena and Saranda as well as up to Tirana and back), and not once was the bus I was on stopped by armed bandits. Carver's comment that "it was obvious that there was an ever-increasing chance I was not going to get out alive" either shows his unreasonable paranoia or a desire to dramatize events and sell more books. Another major problem I had with Carver's book was his sarcastic, mocking, condescending tone. Nearly every Albanian he meets is a liar, a cheat, or laughably naive. Carver misses no opportunity to show the reader how much more intelligent he is than the people he is interviewing: "I forbore from pointing out that he himself planned to pass himself off as an Englishman". I think most people who visit Albania with an open mind find the Albanian people to be very honest and generous. To be sure there are exceptions, but those exceptions exist in every society in the world. Finally, Carver's use of the Albanian language in parts of the book makes it painfully clear that no Albanian editor reviewed the book before it was published. While Carver's book is worth reading for nostalgic reasons--it will remind people familiar with the country of places they saw and experiences they had--it would be dangerously misleading as a first impression of the country. Clearly Carver went into the journey with a closed mind and an inability to trust anyone. If what he intended to do was impress with his awesome bravery and sell books, I would suggest that in 1996 New York City would have been a scarier place to be. Justin Parmenter Peace Corps Albania (Permet) 95-97
Rating:
Summary: Take it with a 5 pound bag of salt.
Review: I lived in southern Albania as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 1995 to 1997. Carver's account of travelling through that portion of the country in 1996 (the first half of the book) is accurate in its physical descriptions (shabby, decaying, desolate and beautiful), but otherwise leaves much to be desired. First of all, Carver's inexperience shines brightly in his somewhat hysterical exaggeration of the danger of travelling in southern Albania. I took long trips by public bus about once or twice a month while I lived there (between Korca, Permet, Gjirokaster, Tepelena and Saranda as well as up to Tirana and back), and not once was the bus I was on stopped by armed bandits. Carver's comment that "it was obvious that there was an ever-increasing chance I was not going to get out alive" either shows his unreasonable paranoia or a desire to dramatize events and sell more books. Another major problem I had with Carver's book was his sarcastic, mocking, condescending tone. Nearly every Albanian he meets is a liar, a cheat, or laughably naive. Carver misses no opportunity to show the reader how much more intelligent he is than the people he is interviewing: "I forbore from pointing out that he himself planned to pass himself off as an Englishman". I think most people who visit Albania with an open mind find the Albanian people to be very honest and generous. To be sure there are exceptions, but those exceptions exist in every society in the world. Finally, Carver's use of the Albanian language in parts of the book makes it painfully clear that no Albanian editor reviewed the book before it was published. While Carver's book is worth reading for nostalgic reasons--it will remind people familiar with the country of places they saw and experiences they had--it would be dangerously misleading as a first impression of the country. Clearly Carver went into the journey with a closed mind and an inability to trust anyone. If what he intended to do was impress with his awesome bravery and sell books, I would suggest that in 1996 New York City would have been a scarier place to be. Justin Parmenter Peace Corps Albania (Permet) 95-97
Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining and occasionally accurate
Review: If you are going to Albania, this book is worth reading. Although it paints a rather dark picture of Albania, it is very well written and often humorous. This book gives the first time visitor a good idea of what one can expect and gives a bit of insight into Albanian life. His spelling of Albanian words is rarely correct and at times he reads more into situations than is actually there. His book is written from the perspective of a traveler and therefore not entirely accurate, but always entertaining. It is very well worth reading although take it with a grain of salt, especially his comments about those he met in the far north.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Keeping track of what foreign researchers or visitors write about Albania is one of my main interests since it provides an outside view of what is going in my home country.
However, the reading of "The accoursed mountains" was a total disappointment for me.
While the author is correct when he describes the Albanian towns and landscape, his generalizations on Albanian people are completely wrong. I would have had nothing against the author, had he given his personal impressions of the travel, but generalizing on Albanians way of thinking and behaving based on those 10 people that he met while traveling in Albania for a very short time is not fair.
I would say that the author, at least just in one page of this book, should have left aside his cynicism and hate against this "third world country' and should have demonstrated some respect for Albanian people that managed to survive 40 years of one of the most fearsome and cruel communist dictatorships in the Eastern Europe. I feel ashamed that many readers will have this book as their first contact with Albania. If anyone wants to have an unbiased view on the Albanian people, please try to avoid reading this unrealistic book and refer to other sources such as Edith Durham or Noel Malcolm, which base their opinion on an extensive review of existing literature and provide informed conclusions about Albania and Albanians.
Rating:
Summary: ethnocentric extraordinaire
Review: Mr. Carver moves around Albania with the fear and distance typical of many western reporters who are uninterested in making a committment to understanding the local perspective. His western template is the perspective from which he sees and interprets the Albanians. In this sense, Mr. Carver's sense, they are a very bizzare people. His contacts throughout the trip are with westerners, and in many cases missionaries. Missionaries, like the ones he describes, are also uninterested in making a committment to understanding the local perspective. Both the missionaries and Mr. Carver's stock and trade is finding "material" to exploit. The one star is for writing: Mr. Carver is an artist. Unfortunately, his impressions of Albania were made from secondary accounts long before his arrival. His visit was to search for the data which would match his story. Read anything by Mary Edith Durham to start seeing things from another perspective and to read from an author who respects her subject.
Rating:
Summary: ethnocentric extraordinaire
Review: Mr. Carver moves around Albania with the fear and distance typical of many western reporters who are uninterested in making a committment to understanding the local perspective. His western template is the perspective from which he sees and interprets the Albanians. In this sense, Mr. Carver's sense, they are a very bizzare people. His contacts throughout the trip are with westerners, and in many cases missionaries. Missionaries, like the ones he describes, are also uninterested in making a committment to understanding the local perspective. Both the missionaries and Mr. Carver's stock and trade is finding "material" to exploit. The one star is for writing: Mr. Carver is an artist. Unfortunately, his impressions of Albania were made from secondary accounts long before his arrival. His visit was to search for the data which would match his story. Read anything by Mary Edith Durham to start seeing things from another perspective and to read from an author who respects her subject.
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