Customer Reviews

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo

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The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo is a wonderful tale of the virtues and rewards of volunteering to help those in countries less fortunate (at least for the present) than the US; at the same time, it's not exactly great literature or great writing. However, that's not what it's advertised to be, and it's not the aspiration of the author to compete with the writers of great literature. For how it came to be (a collection of emails to friends and family during the 8 months the author spent teaching English in Kosovo), this book more than meets its goal.
Paula Huntley went to Kosovo with her husband, who volunteered for an ABA project to help set up a new legal system for the new war-torn country. She took a crash course in teaching English as a second language and, once in Prishtina, Kossovo, quickly found a job teaching the language to a classroom of eager and charming Albanian students.
The book begins as Huntley's story but quickly evolves into being the story of the country and its inhabitants, specifically those who were blessed to be her students. Like volunteers everywhere, Huntley quickly learned that she was gaining and receiving far more than she was giving, in terms of compassion, understanding, insight, and personal growth.
It's not `literature,' but it's sure a terrific little book. Don't miss it. I learned a whole, whole lot about a part of the world about which I have very little knowledge.

To Paula Huntley's students it's Kosova, not Kosovo, like we Americans like to call that little war-torn country. That's just one of the changes Huntley had to get used to when she began teaching English to a group of Kosovar Albanians. Transplanted from her comfortable San Francisco life to Prishtina, Kosovo, Huntley began keeping a journal to express her struggles and triumphs in her new surroundings. Two years later, that same journal would be published as a book destined to be a bestseller.

Paula Huntley is the epitome of a great teacher --- one who goes above and beyond the call of duty to help her students succeed. One of her noble feats is organizing an extracurricular reading group for her students known as the Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo. As her students read Hemingway's THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA, the parallels between their lives and the life of the old man become increasingly evident to both Huntley and her students. Through their interaction, both Huntley and her students learn the lessons of perseverance, faith and hope.

THE HEMINGWAY BOOK CLUB OF KOSOVO offers much more than the typical memoir. Through Huntley's masterful writing and reflections, the reader experiences the horrors that her students lived through during the Serbian genocide of Kosovar Albanians. A timely reminder of what war does to a country, THE HEMINGWAY BOOK CLUB OF KOSOVO gives great insights into the injustices occurring throughout the world.

This book contains a myriad of emotions. It elicits laughter as Huntley and her students struggle to break down cultural and language barriers. It evokes tears as you read of the losses the Kosovars experienced. It makes you angry, fills you with hope and drowns you in sorrow --- all at the same time. But most of all, it makes you think about all of the things you take for granted that Paula Huntley's students only dream of.

--- Reviewed by Melissa Brown

Paula Huntley's remarkable journal of her eight months as a volunteer English teacher in Kosovo is that rare thing: A sympathetic, even loving look at the victims of war - in this case Kosovar Albanians - that does not at the same time demonize those in whose name the war was waged - in this case, the Serbs. Indeed, Huntley reminds us that racial, ethnic or national stereotyping, and the notions of collective guilt and collective innocence that accompany such stereotyping, is frequently at the heart of violence. In a journal entry that recounts her students' unwillingness to believe that any Albanian could have been responsible for the bus bombing that had just killed many Serbian civilians, Huntley comments, "Nor, I expect, do most Serbs believe that fellow Serbs could have committed atrocities in Bosnia or Kosovo."

Huntley's reminds us not only of our differences, but of our similarities, and of the common humanity that connects us to each other. Her deep belief in the power of human connection is the thread that winds throughout this lovely, moving book.

I would like to meet Paula Huntley and her husband. They are very kind and brave people. Paula's journal gives us a snapshot of everyday life for her as an English teacher in Kosovo. She reveals each of her students' stories of the ethnic cleansing by the Serbs, and gets to know them well enough to hear their goals and dreams for their country. She ponders the ancient feuds that continue into the 21st century.

Hemingway's *Old Man and the Sea* turned out to be a vehicle for discussions on strength in the face of adversity. After what these students had been through, they very much needed to know that success could be theirs.

The reader is also given a tour of Prishtina and the wreckage, filthy conditions, and lack of services. Ms. Huntley never complains though, just reports it.

After reading this book, I know I will pay closer attention to the goings on in that part of the world.

What I initially thought would be a brief history of an insignificant country that I knew little about, became a truly inspiring story that I wished would never end. Paula Huntley's descriptions of her "Kosovar children" enlightened all of us in the basic elements of decency despite circumstances that would make most humans turn on one another. This small group of friends from differing backgrounds prove that all people are created equal and with effort can love one another just because........

Paula Huntley left her home in California, and traveled with her husband, Ed, to Kosovo in 2000, one year after the NATO bombing of that province. Ed Huntley desperately wanted to do something to help in the war-torn Balkans. So he volunteered for an American Bar Association project to help rebuild Kosovo's legal system. Paula trained to teach English as a second language, (TESL), while she was still in the States. "The Hemingway Book Club Of Kosovo" is her memoir of that period, taken from the journal she kept during the eight months they lived and worked in Prishtina. Ms. Huntley movingly writes of her experience, and of the intimate bond she forged with her students.

The Huntleys arrived in Prishtina and found that the city had not been totally destroyed. Since the Serbs needed Prishtina, the capital city, they had left most of the buildings intact. However, as in most of Kosovo, there had been massive looting, vandalism and violence, murders were committed on a large scale, as was ethnic cleansing of the Kosovo Albanians. Huntley writes, "Most of the destruction in Prishtina was below the surface - in the hearts and minds of the residents. I saw this every day, and I never got used to that destruction."

Her students, and every native Albanian, had lost ten years of their lives under the brutal oppression, and apartheid imposed by the Kosovo Serbs. Learning English, in many ways, was key to the economic advancement of the students and their families. Ms. Huntley was deeply touched by the students' eagerness to learn not just English, and grammatical structure, but about the American culture and work ethic. She wanted to provide a safe forum for them to discuss their feelings, and the traumas of the past decade. A book club was established, that met at the Huntley home. The selection was Ernest Hemmingway's "The Old Man And The Sea." The club took-off and became so much more. And the book became a vehicle through which the young people could discuss their lives. Hemmingway's book was fairly easy for them to read, but the novel's meaning was far deeper than the relatively simple language. The students identified with the fable of the triumph of hope and courage over adversity.

The harrowing stories of the young Albanians, and their courage, and determination, are remarkable, and inspirational. Paula Huntley's memoir is an extraordinary tale of cross-cultural human connections, and bonds forged through literature and loving kindness. Highly recommended!

Paula Huntley the writer of this beautiful,extremely honest book is an American lady,which joins her humanitarian husband to
Kosova,despite her protests to not go there at all.
Ed, will try to rebuild a new legal system in this war ruined country and Paula will try to teach English as a second language.

'First impressions sometimes can be wrong and that happens quite often'-comes to life for Paula, when everything unpleasant such as garbage all over the streets,acrid smells,muddy streets with big holes that could swallow a little car...etc seem to dissapear completely for Paula. She understands very fast that she is in the country in which American's are more than loved.

This is a lovely book which is written by a lovely person and her experiences in Kosova, during the eight months she stayed there. It is a journal that ended up in a book and that was the right thing to do because if any book deserves immortality this should be in the top list. Why? Because it is a love story, but not about two people but two nations who love each other so dearly. Americans and Kosovars.

"First of all you represent yourself as a person, then our family, then our nation" - words I grew up with, spoken daily by my parents. I strongly believe in this rule,especially when I am
fully aware of the 'weak' human nature!
"Make bad impressions somewhere you'll get judged,your parents, and your entire nation too".

Ed and Paula Huntley,represented themselves as NICE PEOPLE.They represented U.S.A as we have always expected U.S.A. people to be during all the times when we leaned on and counted on them.
Not that U.S. people met our big expectations about them, but they exceeded them and we will always be grateful...eternally.
God Bless U.S.A and praise to Paula and Ed for their divine work.

This was a thought-provoking book. In troubling times, it is comforting to know that Americans are liked and admired in some parts of Europe, and that love and peace might be achieved by individual acts of decency and kindness. We need more Paula
Huntleys in this world.

I learnt a lot from and was infinitely moved by Paula Huntley's journal of the eight months she and he husband spent working in post-war Kosova. Understated, beautiful writing and none of the straining for effect that mars so many memoirs. She was clearly writing straight from the heart. I rarely do this but as soon as I finished the book, I found her website and donated something to the scolarship fund for young Albanian Kosovars. A fascinating and inspiring story of some very resilient people.

After having a similar experience myself in Croatia
in 1998 the author has really captured what this kind of teaching experience is all about.

I found it to be a perfect introduction to Kosovo - it fills the gap of travel and history books by giving a REAL feel for the experience of living and working in Kosovo.