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Rating: 
Summary: John Allison
Review: An excellent novel that deserved much more attention than it got. My rating of 4 probably would have been about 4.4 if finer increments were used.
Rating:
Summary: John Allison
Review: An excellent novel that deserved much more attention than it got. My rating of 4 probably would have been about 4.4 if finer increments were used.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting to read, but more personal than political
Review: Lawrence has done his homework. The scene is 1908, just before three successive wars sweep through the Balkans. It is a time of palpable tension between the Habsburg and Ottoman empires, between Serb and Muslim families on the ground. It is a time of great change in Montenegro. Auberon Harwell, a young British botanist stumbles into the mountains and becomes a catalyst for events great and small. He witnesses both the unstable dance of dying empires and the clash of generations as Toma, the Serb boy, is caught between his nationalist father and his mother who will sacrifice anything to spirit her son away from an early Balkan death. The book's greatest achievement is its detailed eye for the terrain, the people, and the atmosphere of Montenegro. It is a wonderfully evocative diary, a slice of Balkan life that rings true.
Rating: 
Summary: Untangling Balkan politics and English romance
Review: Lawrence has written a brilliant novel full of history, politics and romance. The reader will care about the characters and shudder at the foreshadowing of Balkan conflicts. The prose is rich and with many exquisite description of human emotions and natural phenomna. I am only sorry that Lawrence does not have string of novels to his credit. I would surely read him again.
Rating:
Summary: Literate Adventure is more literature than adventurous
Review: Occasionally, when I read a book, the hype is such that I expect more than I get. This book is billed as a literate spy novel about a British adventurer, young and naive, who gets caught up in the intrigues of the Balkan peninsula during the period just prior to WW1. It turns out to be much less than that, and in a way more. The fact that it doesn't live up to its promise was something of a dissappointment to me, and it was only partly offset by what the book was instead.Auberon Harwell journeys to Montenegro at the behest of the murky Lord Polgrove, to do something intelligence-wise. We're never sure what Harwell is there for, other than his half-make-believe cover story of collecting flowers for his sponsor. He doesn't seem sure what he's doing either, and muddles around aimlessly for half the book before he begins to actually do things that impact the plot in any way. When he finally gets to some action, the author turns what was supposed to be a spy novel into a tragedy involving a mother's love for her son, and the consequences that flow from that. There is finally some adventure towards the end of the book, and the plot does begin to speed up. It was too late for me, however, to enjoy the book. In the last thirty pages, the book takes some strange turns, and frankly it sounded like he got tired of writing. Some of the prose is quite eloquent. The question is whether eloquent prose in service a plot that's much ado about nothing. I, frankly, think that the story's the important thing, unless the prose is truly memorable. For me, the book didn't measure up that way.
Rating:
Summary: Enchanting
Review: One of the best book I've read this year. Couldn't put it down; just had to know the end.Great writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Incorrect Facts about Montenegrin Ethnic Background
Review: The historical and ethnic setting of the novel is at least disputable. Montenegrins have their own identity, and they call themselves Montenegrins, not Serbs similar as Austrians are not called Germans, and Scotsmen are not Englishmen.
Ethnically, Montenegrins are similar to Serbs, but to put the sign of equality, even for the fiction, hurts the ethnic sentiments.
Perhaps, it tells more about the source of historical facts Mr. Lawrence used than about his intentions to promote any view on Montenegrin ethnicity.
Rating:
Summary: Lawrence's MONTENEGRO proves that the past is prologue
Review: The story of Auberon Harwell's gradual involvement with a country to which he is a stanger proves that fiction can be and, in this case, is, a metaphor for history. It is also a very timely novel, for the pre World War I Austria which he describes can be seen as an echo of the current Western debate surrounding the former Yugoslavia. Also, Lawrence gives a balanced historical context for understanding the soul, character and motivation of the Serbs. His lyrical prose captures the essence of the land and the ties of the people to that land in such a way that we can begin to understand the deep nature of the complexities of geopolitical motivations. Also, as the daughter of a Montenegrin exile, this book brought me closer to my own father's story and my own history. Who should we send to mediate the "Balkan problem"? Starling Lawrence!
Rating:
Summary: A Public Service Repackaged as Sweet Historical Romance
Review: What Auberon Harwell's Montenegrin odyssey does best of all is introduce the fortunate reader to the convolutions of Balkan politics, circa 1908 (or 1992 or 1998). History resonates deeply thoughout Harwell's encounters with the variety of Balkan types. After a few pithy exchanges like, "Where is Serbia?" "Whereever Serbians live," contemporary events begin to drop clearly into place. Rich characterizations, authentic locales and landscapes, dense, almost anthropological observations, and the most chaste of romantic entanglements make this a rewarding, agreeably languorous, novel.
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