The Fracture Zone: My Return to the Balkans

Winchester's writings are never dull. This is only one of several books floating around out there about the dismal fate of the Balkans, and particularly post-Tito Yugoslavia, but one of the better ones. It may be a bit dated, as is Robert Kaplan's "Balkan Ghosts," but has the same powerful effect as Kaplan's latest ("Adriatic") without the latter's meandering through poetry, arcane history, art, architecture, and self-reflection. (Still, I esteem "Adriatic" as well - but Winchester's book is Jolt Cola to Kaplan's aged brandy.)The two trips to the "water garden" on the Albanian border are as full of pathos as anything you will ever read.

I'm a fan of Simon Winchester. His Krakatoa, The Professor and the Madman, and the Map That Changed The world were great... see my reviews. His The Meaning of Everything was only 3 stars.Now to The Fracture Zone.I was interested in this book because in 1975 I visited Yugoslavia briefly on liberty when I was with the US Navy. I found the architecture of some of the buildings interesting as well as some of the wine.Simon's Fracture Zone is his telling of areas he revisited some twenty years after first visiting as a reporter.He shows us the land has had a geological upheaval and fractured creating the Alps. Also we see some of the history of the Balkans and the creation of new countries from Yugoslavia, We see the Serbs fighting the Croatians ( basically the same ethnic people). We see the Countries of communist Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo,Yugoslavia and Croatia. Later we see a more modern Turkey.We see the fighting of Muslims vs Orthodox Christians.We see the beheading of a grand Vizier. Also the atrocities of thousands of Albanians killed by Serbs killed as pure revenge because of the Turks. This region has a vast bloody history.Basically the book title says it all. This Near East are has been for hundreds and hundreds of years the scene of ethnic fighting between related peoples. Also we see the fighting of people with different faiths. Simon shows us the modern fighting involving the UN forces trying to be peacekeepers around and in 1999 as "new countries" from old countries fought each other.I liked this book as I learned lots of new information on the region and its peoples. The 255 page book reads well. There are some maps. I read it in 2 days. A good book, 4 stars.

Take a trip through the Balkans and be entertained by an amazing and clever wit in Simon Winchester. While the outcome of the war of Yugoslavian disintegration is not pretty, Winchester provides an historical context to these embattled people. This is a travel book, uniquely set in a late 20th century war zone. Why everyone waited so long to do anything about these atrocities will always be a mystery to me and an embarassment to all Europeans; however the upside was that the long delay and indecision among politicians allowed time to arm Winchester.Winchester has written several other fine books, especially the tale of the Professor and the Madman, who co-authored the world's eminent encylopedia, despite never meeting each other and not fully understanding some issues. Winchester knows Yugoslavia well from his time there in the halycon days of Tito and his immediate successors. Apparently the demise of one strong man can only be following by the rise of several feuding strong men.All of this fighting seems so long ago now, as the Clinton brokererd Dayton accords have put all this lunacy behind us. Winchester puts it all in historical context as we learn about internaitonal disputes over the headless bodies, artists efforts at covering up bomb craters, the last of the Stalinist barbers, sieges, and Englishmen a long way from home.For unknown reasons, this book is poorly edited with minor spellifng mistakes. One would think if you pay $13 for a paperback book, they would not have that issue. The end loses steam, as if the author decided enough was enough and time to get back home for Christmas. But all in all, this is very entertaining stuff, a real hisotry of a former country. Get out your maps and plan an enjoyable evening.

Readable enough,however the book is mostly about Simon Winchester driving around the Balkans during the long period of inter-communal violence that marked the breakup of Yugoslavia. Filled with personal anecdotes,and interviews with the common folk,it is a superficial gloss on the Balkan War. For real history, the very readable and informative " Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation" by L.Silber and A. Little offers the reader interested in the history of the Balkans in the late 20th C far more substance and less "fluff".The Fracture Zone is an easy and engaging piece of literature-sort of like reading a Paul Theroux travelogue. I enjoyed it,however it has serious limitations as a history. Sometimes anecdotes and one-off interviews may encourage the reader to explore the subject further- where travelogue fades off and historical analysis begins.Writing an unbiased history of Balkan Nationalism and its long history of conflicts is an impossible task.Most certainly a thankless task!I enjoyed The Fracture Zone-and believe that someone who reads it will know 100X more than what the average American knows about this area.However-it isn't a history,just a travelogue.

An interesting saga, but I felt the writing was not as engaging as most of Winchester’s work

Another great read - Winchester puts his formidable storytelling skills in service to a nail-biter about the horrors of the never-ending war in the Balkans. Not for the faint of heart.

Simon Winchester is one of my favorite authors. His books Krakatoa, The man who loved China, Calcutta are some of his books inspired me.Balkan has always been a ‘fractured’ country full of violence, terror, ethnic conflicts, say what may - that was and is the History of Balkan for me. I haven’t still read it as I got the book two days ago. I am looking forward to reading. Winchester always gives a good background history on all subjects he writes.This is the 2nd used book I bought from betterworldbooks. I received it in excellent condition and will certainly buy secondhand books from them in the future.

Simon Winchester is a master writer of historic events. This book gives deep insights into the disintegration of the Balkans following the death of the Yugoslav leader, Josip Broz Tito. The hatred that surfaced led to savagery and butchery, some of the worst attempts at genocide.