Suffled How It Gush: A North American Anarchist in the Balkans [Paperback]

Shon Meckfessel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2006

Shon Meckfessel appropriates the peculiar slogan of an Albanian mineral water company as the title for this uniquely intellectual book. Equal parts journalism, history, and personal memoir, Suffled How it Gush records Shon’s travels throughout ex-Yugoslavia and the greater Balkans region, chronicling the beauty of an area too renowned for its ugliness.  

“Shon Meckfessel bathes in undercurrent discourses and points us to Balkan dynamics contradicting the nationalist loyalties that distort people's lives. Rather than making ethnic claims or endorsing any hierarchy, he clarifies existing struggles against states and points toward a region free of domination.” —George Katsiaficas, activist and author of Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous Social Movements and the Decolonization of Everyday Life

“Shon Meckfessel takes on the impossible task of unraveling the cultural and political mysteries and incongruities of the post-war Balkans, a world where dictionaries are constantly rewritten and Vegeta on every shelf represents ‘globalization as hope.’ In a landscape torn by racism and violence, he finds truth and beauty emerging from old men without socks, bottles of rakija, clouds of pigeons over Sufi booksales, and punk rock love amidst crushed mint.” —Kari Lydersen, author of Revolt on Goose Island and co-author of Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gun

“[Shon] is a perfect collector of the ruminatings of the denizens of the Balkans as they wrestle with the difficulties—imposed and organic—of polyethnicity. Meckfessel’s patient portraits, which delve deeply into the illogic of the nation-state itself, deserve wide readership.” —Daniel Burton-Rose, co-editor of Confronting Capitalism

“This work reads like a novel, but it's real journalism; Shon went hunting for truths and brought them back for us.” —Michael Muhammad Knight, author of The Taqwacores and The Five Percenters: Islam, Hip Hop, and the Gods of New York

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Shon lives between Portland, OR and Zagreb, Croatia working as a web designer and teacher of English. He is a contributor to Confronting Capitalism (Soft Skull, 2004). Shon has spent many years in the Balkans and decided to write this book due to the extreme confusion and misunderstanding his friends back home harbor about the region.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Eberhardt Press (May 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977839206
• ISBN-13: 978-0977839209
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,989,775 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Journey through History, Tragedy and Hope, December 4, 2010

By 

Lars Wallner - See all my reviews

This review is from: Suffled How it Gush: A North American Anarchist in the Balkans (Paperback)

In this gripping memoir, author Shon Meckfessel brings us on a journey through the historical as well has the modern Balkans. With a voice simultaneously encompassing both irony and reverence, Meckfessel tells a story filled with anarchism, music and a love for a part of Europe that the world has turned its back on, leaving only its shining coca cola cans and new Mercedes cars behind it. His story, as the cars and cans, reflect the struggling peoples of the Balkan countries trying to make a living while trying to fulfill their dreams of a good life. Viewing first hand the damaging influence of the American Dream, corrupt politicians, and greedy businessmen, the author sits down for a drink with every national within the Balkan hearing how they view their own situations as well as the Western World.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good alternative perspective, June 22, 2011

By 

Geir T Brenne (sociologist) "darv_" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Suffled How it Gush: A North American Anarchist in the Balkans (Paperback)

An interesting read. Travel book, interspersed with references to scholarly literature (which is often absent in journalist narratives). His sources are given excact references in scholarly style, this heightens credibility. A lot of anecdotes, which the author at the same time makes arguments about situation, I think he succeed. Sort of mix between ethnography and literary journalism. I think his strength is excactly his perspective - as an Ámerican punk traveller he gets access to a whole lot of people and situations that a professor or native academic would not. Recomended, especially if you like more non-standard ethnographic genres.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is nonsense, August 16, 2010

By 

James Mason (Kotzebue, AK United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Suffled How it Gush: A North American Anarchist in the Balkans (Paperback)

I'd call this a punk "junior year abroad." I read most of the book and mailed it to a prominent journalist in the former Yugoslavia, a guy who saw the worst of the war and it's aftermath. He later told me he read about half of it standing up in a cafe then placed it on the counter and walked out. Later he saw it in the trash. The only reason I bought the book, which does have a good name, by the way, was because the writer was with the three American "journalists" who wandered into Iran and even now are in the Iranian slammer. You can read this book if you want, but Rebecca West's venerable "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon" written some 70 years ago, will teach more about this region and be a more satisfying read.