Customer Reviews

Kosova-Kosovo: Prelude to War 1966-1999

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I grew up with my parents telling me stories of Kosova that sounded almost exactly like those of Ms. Motes. It's always an amazing event when a writer manages to take such a vivid snapshot of reality in their writing that you feel like you have experienced the things they have. That is what reading this is like. I felt like I was sitting down and having tea with my aunt and listening to a story. While politics always play a role in life (especially in the Balkans), Ms. Motes manages to convey the flavor of the society without demonizing either side. The prejudices of both sides are made clear. Whether it's the Serbian "rusty bottoms" or the Albanian "Siptars" I think it's clear that everyone suffers from ignorance and misconceptions. Thank you Ms. Motes for reminding everyone that the people of the Balkans are just that, people.

If you think you know anything about Kosova, this book will rid you quickly of that notion. If, however, you wish to LEARN about Kosovo, and cut through all the BS and BALONEY that's being published today (East and West), then read this book. Do you know why it's spelled two ways? If you don't read this book, you won't have a clue. The author has been there, done that - she has bravely gone where no one has gone before. She was a pen-pal in the mid-1950s with Yugoslavs (Serbs) who have since become lifelong friends. She visited Yugoslavia in the 1950s and 1960s. She was an English instructor in Kosovo from 1966 thru 1971, pre-Brioni (the plenum which ousted Tito's Security Police chief Rankovic, and which made the Albanian language legal, among other things), during which she acquired more K-Albanian and K-Serb lifelong friends. She witnessed Tito's first visit to Kosovo (they were commanded to participate) and heard his speech. She witnessed the 1968 demonstrations in favor of Albaniazation. Pre - Milosevic, definitely pre - NATO. She was the only non-native, Westerner there; no other dared brave living there until many years later. Her insight is UNIQUE. And she was there in 1974 - 1976, 1988, 1994, and 1997. You want to read about a four - hour pony trek to a village in the Prizren region, where she is the only woman to sit around with all these men drinking tea and smoking cigarettes on a carpeted bracken floor with the mice running around above? Or picking up a local child who was so dirty and smelly she had to toss him down and wash herself? Or a bus trip to Turkey with suitcases stuffed with tea, waiting for the bribed guards to appear? Or Serbs preparing a cup of coffee with a candle because there is no electricity? Or how her mother back in England had noted that she slowly but surely had become Balkanized and just about as surly and testy as the rest of them? Or about the Serbs helping the Albanians and the Albanians helping the Serbs? Yes, the Serbs and Albanians actually GETTING ALONG with each other? Get this book, and discover that people everywhere at the fundamental level really get along, it's just the buffoons in high places that muck everything up. (And Meri, I hope your friends are OK. By the way, when will the sequel be coming out?)

Real life, real experience communicated so clearly it is palpable. Excellent writing.

Just a line to say I have just finished reading Kosova/Kosovo and found it very enjoyable, interesting and well written. I have also read Mary Motes orchid fiction "Orchid Territory" and highly recommend both books.