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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Warning!, July 15, 1999
By A Customer
After having read the very only comment on your site regarding 'A Time of Death', in which a reader complained about the translation, and also expressed difficulty to understand what was going on, I decided to write a little comment in order to encourage people to go ahead and read Cosic's work. What you must bear in mind, though, is that Dobrica Cosic has been writing all his life one continuous story, one novel. Although it is not impossible to read any one of them singled out, or read them in any order, and get some reading pleasure, I should think it is best to read them in the correct order so that you can follow the characters and their life in a chronological order. I cannot be of a lot of help with titles in English, since I read Cosic in the original language, , but I can tell you that it is best to start with 'A Time of Death', continue with 'Reach to eternity', and finish with 'South to destiny', which would be the end of reading about the Serbian tragedy in the period of the WWI. Then Cosic continues with another irresistable trilogy called in original 'A Time of Evil' (Vreme Zla), but I am not sure of its English title in translation, which follows the same characters through the period in between the WWI and WWII. The latest published book from the same story stream iz the first book from the forthcoming trilogy called 'Vreme Vlasti' (literally translated 'A Time of Reign'), which is the one I am after at the moment. The amount of reading seems overwhelming, but don't be put off. I remember reading one of the books with 500 pages in one night, and kicking myself the following morning for spoiling the pleasure of reading it for longer period of time. As a writer, Cosic is realistic, he can be cruel, he can also be helplessly romantic, he can make you laugh and cry because you always end up falling in love with at least one of his characters. I met a young man once who told that he thought of naming his future daughter after one of 'A Time of Death' female characters, which I thought was very funny, since I was already convinced by then, I was going to name one of my future sons after one of the male characters from the same novel. You don't easily forget those lives and the meaning of their universal love, hate, pleasure and pain. Cosic is also very well historically informed, and I cannot think of an easier way to learn about history of that time. I hope you enjoy the reading, and when you meet Bogdan, tell him I still think of him sometime.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Time of death, March 2, 2005
This volume, A Time of death, poses a significant problem of determining exactly how to evaluate it. If read simply as a novel, based around real events, but using these as not significantly more than the basis of a story line, then the book is very good - and of course well writen. It is only if you move past that approach, and see the book (and I talk only about this one volume - part 2 I think - as i have not read the others yet) as having a more real historical validity - as history, rather than a novel based on a historical story - that evaluation becomes harder.
Its a deeply troubling problem, as most of the other reviews here tend to treat the book as objective history, which it is not, although it is based on real events, and with very good histroical research underlying its main story line. The best way to describe the problem with the book - and its maybe more a problem with our approach to reading it - can be seen in the subject of betrayal. The characters talk alot about what they see as betrayal, and if the author is using this to express a general feeling in Serbia during the period covered by the book, then this is fine - in fact necessary to give the book a better historical flavour. It is when we move past this understanding, to seeing the notions of betrayal in the book as REAL historical fact, and correct iinterpretation, that problems start.
Did the author intend us to do this, or simply leave it as an expression of the feeling during that time? I do not know the answer to this, yet, but the historical truth of the issues which are assumed to be evaluated as betrayal is at least highly questionable (and of course the underlying notion that Serbia was totally innocent of starting WW1 also highly questionable), and the desire to focus so much on this deeply worrying.
Enjoy the novel(s) and even use them to become interested in Serbia and the period, but do not rely on them as history. Just like films of historical figures should not be seen as historical truth, neither should this book.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
must read, August 18, 2001
By A Customer
Searing, visceral stuff - the story of betrayal upon betrayal, and of how a nation was ground into dust and doggedly refused to stay there. The Serbian retreat across the winter mountains, under pressure from three separate war fronts and abandoned by those they believed were their allies, is a tragic and epic one. Here are some of the very deepest roots of the history of the embattled Balkans. A must-read.
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