Blood of Montenegro

#905
Title: Blood of Montenegro
Author: Bajram Angelo Koljenovic & James Nathan Post
Publisher: Writers Club Press
Year: 2002
Country: Montenegro
413 pages

Koljenovic describes his family's and his own experiences, perhaps, as ethnic Muslims in Montenegro over the last century, interspersing the personal story with historical events, notably the rise of Tito.

I have relatives who worked in the region over several decades. One once told me, "The tradition of strong oral history there means that grievances and slights of hundreds of years ago are still felt to be immediate and fresh." That assessment is certainly supported here, where both long-ago massacres and current verbal offenses casting aspersions on one's mother are reasons to kill a man.

This book characterizes itself as "semi-autobiographical historical creative non-fiction, that is, work incorporating some historical facts and persons, and some of which are fictionalized." While I appreciate the disclaimer, this makes it difficult to know what I'm reading. If it's mostly fiction, then the long excursions into Montenegrin and Balkans history are, while interesting, lengthy and not sufficiently integrated with the personal story. This ambiguity of genre seems to have made it difficult for Koljenovic to focus his story, and its self-published nature doesn't help because no formal editor has shaped it.

If this is mostly non-fiction, then the personal sections increasingly read like James Frey, where the narrator frequently asserts how dangerous and successful he and his friends are. They may be, but it's hard to determine. If the balance is more toward fiction than memoir, it seems boastful rather than informative. Koljenovic insists on committing interpersonal violence in the name of his code of honor, but insists that his economic crimes against both persons and states don't make him less patriotic. Again, without knowing what's fiction and what's not, it's hard to respond to this.

The language is frequently stilted and dialogue overly formal and expository. Problems of tense, spelling, and missing words are consistent but not too frequent and don't detract overall. The omission of diacriticals makes it harder to pronounce names and places. Read this not for literary quality but because it provides a window on Montenegrin life and politics in the 20th century.

Rainbows End

#904
Title: Rainbows End
Author: Vernor Vinge
Publisher: Tor
Year: 2006/2007
400 pages

A lot of hard science and world-building anchors this novel in the near future--an as-yet-unreached future, but one that's plausibly at hand. Robert Gu is an enjoyable protagonist and his actions, including a variety of betrayals he perpetuates, make sense in relation to his character and the events he's experienced. The book provides a good example of relationships between small, local phenomena and the larger-world perturbations and repercussions that follow from them.

Action lags somewhat in the middle but picks back up, including a clash of belief circles that has the buildup of Stephenson's Snow Crash without that book's disappointing slump. Some loose ends are acceptable, such as Lena's lack of reply to Robert, whereas others are not. Rabbit's identity is not revealed and thus he/it is left a disappointing deus ex machina. Here's hoping for a sequel to wrap up some egregiously loose threads in an otherwise fine and engaging story.

Rivers of Babylon (Rivers of Babylon #1)

#903
Title: Rivers of Babylon (Rivers of Babylon #1)
Author: Peter Pišťanek
Translator: Peter Petro
Publisher: Garnett
Year: 2007
Country: Slovakia
259 pages

Pišťanek takes a romp through an almost-post-Communist state in which Communism and capitalism are equally and cynically skewered. The anti-hero protagonist mulishly pursues his own ends and tragicomically winds up a slightly anxious bourgeois with soft hands, a big house, and a cultured wife. I'd give it four stars but for the tremendous reduction of women's roles to virgin (one) or whore (all the rest), including gleeful exploitation of and violence toward virtually all. Not that men aren't exploited and hit, but they are portrayed as agents as well as objects.

Manhood for Amateurs

#902
Title: Manhood for Amateurs
Author: Michael Chabon
Publisher: Harper
Year: 2009
320 pages

This collection of essays is generally engaging and interesting, even where I don't agree with Chabon's interpretations and opinions. There's a certain amount of schmaltziness, but I'm not sure if that can be avoided when writing about one's children.

Jim Henson's Tale of Sand

#901
Title: Jim Henson's Tale of Sand
Authors: Jim Henson & Jerry Juhl
Illustrator: Ramon Perez
Publisher: Archaia Entertainment
Year: 2011
120 pages

A rather sophomoric script by the late Jim Henson brought to life by clean, interesting graphics with good use of space, frame, and color. Fragments of Henson's typed and amended text appear in some sequences, to good effect. Fun for an afternoon; not a work for the ages.

Wildlife of the Okavango: Common Animals and Plants

#900
Title: Wildlife of the Okavango: Common Animals and Plants
Author: Duncan Butchart
Publisher: Struik Nature
Year: 1995/2000
126 pages

A handy quick reference, but you'll want a larger guidebook, such as Withers and Hosking's Wildlife of Southern Africa for more than casual spotting as well as for a broader swath of Botswana and surrounding areas. The photos are of adequate size and generally good quality. A notable deficit is the lack of scientific names, which are included in the index but not the text itself. Since local common names don't always match other sources, this is a significant omission.

*** 
I think my numbering is off by one book somewhere; if I can find it, I'll eventually correct it.

Dark Star Safari

#899
Title: Dark Star Safari
Author: Paul Theroux
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2003
495 pages

I so enjoy Theroux's writing, but this one goes beyond curmudgeonly. Read it for the descriptions of landscape and people, but ignore the opinions (as, at 7:47 in the audiobook, he appears to advocate for letting children starve rather than providing aid).

As a reader, Thoroux makes you feel damned if you do, damned if you don't. Damned if you visit Africa, damned if you don't. Damned if you try to be helpful, damned if you don't. But definitely damned if you fly somewhere rather than take a bus. Damned if you look at "attractions" (unless you're Theroux). Damned if you generalize (unless you're Theroux). Damned if you're a white tourist, though non-white tourists seem to figure very little. Damned if you spoil his tourist experience by being in his way, asking questions, taking risks, or not taking risks. The impact of AIDS on national development is minimized. Everything was better when he was younger.

The audiobook reader adds a pompous, sarcastic element to Theroux's already generally snide pontification. The print version may give less tonal offense.

I may decide only to read older Theroux and his novels. This was rather tedious.