Black Lamb and Grey Falcon

This is a long and tedious read.

However, I firmly believe it is well worth it for anyone who has an interest in the former Yugoslavia, which includes Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, “North” Macedonia, and Slovenia.

Written as a travel memoir, it is organized geographically as the author treks through the country.

It gives the reader the feeling of being right beside her on the journey.

The abundance of historical detail is remarkable.

Although it is dense, it doesn't feel that way because it is thoughtfully introduced each time the author enters a new part of Yugoslavia.

Mostly, it serves to provide context to the present-day surroundings.

In this book, “today” refers to the 1930s, but many of the cultural references are still accurate portrayals of what one might observe even in 2020.

My parents immigrated to the USA from Yugoslavia (Montenegro) in the late 1980s, and it's amazing how much this book resonated with my own personal experiences.

I suspect that anyone with lineage from the region would have the same discovery.

The author takes us through the amalgamation of Yugoslavia and the defining traits of the Slav peoples, adding depth and color to a part of the world that is otherwise neglected and largely misunderstood.

She does a wonderful job of sharing every little detail, every conversation, and every observation of her travels and unites all of it with a broader perspective on history, geography, religion, ethnicity, politics, national identity, and the concept of individualism vs. collectivism.

One theme that was particularly interesting to me was the deep-rooted Christian-Muslim divide, best portrayed in the section on Sarajevo, and the detailed accounts of the Ottoman occupation that effectively took the wealth and civilization out of the Balkans and, some might argue, ultimately set the stage for the hostility and divisions we see today.

This region has endured much throughout its history due to its location as a buffer between the East and West.

Consequently, it has constantly found itself a pawn in the geopolitical realm, usually left with little more than moral support from the “great powers” that have exploited its resources, grit, and integrity while deeming it barbaric and unworthy of liberty and self-determination.

Understanding the complexities and nuances that shaped the region is the best way to understand its people, and I think this book serves as a valuable resource for that purpose.

That being said, this is not intended to be a history textbook or the sole resource as there are some obvious political leanings scattered throughout (albeit common leanings for the respective time period).

In any case, I would highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the region, especially those traveling there, as the background offers insights that I believe would lead to more meaningful conversations (and no doubt, debates) with locals and a more rewarding experience overall.

This is an absolutely incredible book.

I have actually had this book sitting on my nightstand for approximately 15 years.

I ordered it after reading "Balkan Ghosts" by Robert D. Kaplan, and it has accompanied me from one house to another ever since.

However, it's a massive doorstopper - consisting of around 1,200 pages - so it's not the kind of book I would pick up for some light reading.

Finally, I decided that "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon" would be my summer project.

It is extremely difficult to explain the depth and complexity of this book.

Dame Rebecca West and her husband journeyed through the Balkans in the spring and summer of 1939, and the book was published in 1941. By that time, everything she had seen and visited had been devastated or nearly so by war and its consequences.

So these hundreds of pages manage to kaleidoscope thousands of years of history and knowledge into a single moment in time.

Part travelogue, part history, part a faithful recording of people and events to bear witness, "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon" is also a profound philosophical treatise, a lament over the destruction of civilizations.

The writing, in parts, is truly luminous.

It is extremely dense - I could only absorb a few pages at a time and allow them to sink in.

Now that I have finally completed it, I feel like I want to start all over again.

Just like in the greatest movies, you only perceive about 20 percent of the story the first time you experience it.

There are so many characters, so many events, such a vast array of threads, colors, and experiences that I can only just begin to fathom everything that she is attempting to expose in this book.

And I'm not sure that it necessarily explains everything about the Balkans - as if any single book could - but it has opened my eyes and made me eager to see, learn, and experience the Balkans for myself.

Even if this is a huge book, one never gets tired of the splendid narrative built by Rebecca West all along this marvelous book.

Rebecca West's works are truly captivating. Take "The Return of the Soldier" for example. It presents a story that engages the reader from the very beginning. The characters are well-developed, and the plot unfolds in a way that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

"The Fountain Overflows" is another gem. The beautiful descriptions and the complex relationships between the characters make it a truly enjoyable read.

"This Real Night" and "Cousin Rosamund" also have their own unique charm. The stories are filled with emotions and unexpected twists.

"Black Lamb and Grey Falcon" is a masterpiece. It delves deep into history and politics, while still maintaining a captivating narrative.

The translated works like "The Birds Fall Down", "The Thinking Reed", "Harriet Hume", and "Sunflower" also offer different perspectives and add to the richness of Rebecca West's body of work.

Overall, Rebecca West's books are a must-read for anyone who loves great literature.

Spending what ultimately amounted to 6 weeks with Rebecca West, her husband, her Serbian Jewish guide Constantine, and his Nazi wife Gerda as they toured what was then Yugoslavia was an experience that filled my head with a wealth of knowledge. It included philosophy, Byzantine art, both modern and medieval history, ethnography, descriptions of seedy inns, and filling meals. This kind of immersion in a brilliant and quirky mind was reminiscent, both in pleasure and in length, of the times I've spent with Proust.

It's not a book that I can recommend without hesitation. I'm a fast reader, yet its nearly 1200 pages were intimidating. I had just returned from a trip through the Balkans and was intrigued to learn more. However, without some sort of hook, it's difficult to envision embarking on this literary journey.

But if you have the time to have your eyes opened and your brain stretched, even if you find West occasionally naïve, preachy, too complex, or too biased towards the "manly" and "good-looking" Serbs, you will discover that you can't view history in the same way anymore. The passion and urgency with which she writes (at the eve of and during the early days of World War II), as she argues against the utter darkness that history and philosophy matter, and that even after 500 years of subjugation (with the Serbs serving as an easy metaphor for the 1000-year Reich then threatening West's existence), hope and renewal are not impossible, make this book surprisingly moving and about much more than just the former Yugoslavia.

What initially attracted me to Rebecca West? It was the title, my friend. The title of this, her masterpiece. And now, I am in awe... left sitting there, my mouth agape.

I was thrilled to have found a copy of the 2 Volume Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (October 1941 Vail-Ballou Press edition, 1180 pages) within our small Upstate library system. This is my first encounter with Dame Rebecca West's writing. And I have just checked out “The Fountain Overflows” via Libby to my Kindle

Why was Rebecca West's journey necessary?

The journey to a now non-existent country was much more than an extremely imaginative tourist tour. It had the value of a pilgrimage whose goal was to cover "a land where everything is understandable, where the way of life is so open and clear that it removes every doubt". (11) The journey that is both a pilgrimage and a search becomes a monumental literary undertaking. The striving for clarity, a different, more original view of the world, stems from the atmosphere of resignation in Europe. Rebecca West needed that imaginary trajectory because it could find a measure, magnetize the demagnetized compass of the old world. However, Rebecca West was rather far from the avant-garde concepts of Balkan genius, but also from Herder's idea of Slovenes as the future of Europe. She was a rather particular conservative, with a clear, pro-Serbian and pro-Yugoslav stance. That stance was formed not only empirically, but also through research, but perhaps most importantly through the hidden main hero of this travelogue – Constantine. Or, to make it clear to everyone – Stanislav Vinaver, the wizard of Serbian literature. Rebecca West surely could not have had a better guide than him – only such a (visionary) personality could open for her the knowledge of how the landscape is, in fact, a palimpsest. (Moreover, she will say of Vinaver that he is "a true poet. He knows everything about things of which he knows nothing." (313) And this motif of the palimpsest appears several times in Rebecca – along with the landscape, the palimpsest is also the body and the work of art. Therefore, the naming of those layers would represent a true existential strategy – a path to that desired, clearer world. The trouble with such a striving is of a utopian nature. The desired clarity becomes more and more foggy, and Yugoslavia itself, infinitely inspiring and stimulating, has visible seams of previous wounds. And the paradoxes pile up, paradoxes-palimpsests. And in order for the palimpsest to be able to be erased, it was necessary to single out the image. The image or the process. So Rebecca's work is a total travelogue – an encyclopedia of tastes, smells, characters, cities, arts, soaked in history, filled with anecdotes, traces, affairs, wonderful digressions. When it comes to smells, for example, the moment when Andela, a maid in a Belgrade hotel, recognizes different guests and their nationalities (!) based on their smell – what Rebecca calls "olfactory adventure" (354) is brilliant. Rebecca's sense of humor is also excellent, as well as her talent for cinematic visualization, for example when a lamb touches her hand with its wet muzzle and then jumps scared next to a group of黑山Crnogorci. Or the extremely cute image: a boy who handed her a rose while a pigeon flew out of the bath where it was bathing, and the drops sparkled like diamonds scattered in the air. (258) There is also impatience towards Greta, Constantine's wife, who follows them in the southern regions. And not to mention how Rebecca's gourmet adventures are entertaining – when she complains about the size of chicken wings in Priština, when she tries to find a place to eat in Peć because, you see, she wanted to eat that evening, when she eats lamb chops in Travnik (as she says, love for pleasure is the best thing the Turks left in these areas (309)), when she measures pancakes in Croatia or different types of sausages in all parts of Yugoslavia. Those who want to will also find detailed information about costumes, spies, thoughts on frescoes, customs and a very basic overview of the history of political events. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

If I could single out the part in which Rebecca West found what she was looking for, it was surprisingly Macedonia. Macedonia, on the one hand, as more authentic and certainly more diverse than Kosovo and Montenegro (especially the description and experience of Bitola surprised me), which represents a contrast to Croatian Central European decadence. And indeed it is incredible how she managed, with all her interests, to so believably drink in all the delusions, sufferings, cares and illusions of these regions, while at the same time sovereignly ruling with factography. And all those places that we can blame the author for make the travelogue even more interesting (such as local homophobic and not very feminist moments (166), the relativization of underage marriages (643), hatred towards Tolstoy, the simplification of the role of Byzantium, Turkey and Russia, the need for theatrical self-pity – for example when she says that it would have been easier for her, when she was sick, to have had a torn wardrobe, because she would have been better connected to her then state, Dečani was pale to her, etc.).

And after all, what is a writer without his weaknesses and delusions... (A bad writer?)

The journey is, after all, reading oneself. And when we read Rebecca, who reads herself, often comparing the landscapes of Yugoslavia with the landscapes of her homeland, we imprint ourselves on the same journey, but with different tragicomic goals. Finding oneself within oneself is a great task.

P. S. Incidentally, I noticed in several places how this novel is stubbornly misquoted. Nowhere did I find that Rebecca West said that Kalemegdan was paradise on earth (although she really liked it – moreover, she said that it was one of the most beautiful parks in the world (358), nor that Nikolaj Velimirović was "the most extraordinary being she had ever met". Moreover, she portrays Metropolitan Nikolaj as a somewhat gloomy man who "strongly yearns for death" (715). Given that Rebecca West was writing this work, among other things, with the intention of pointing out existing prejudices and ingrained ideas about Slovenes, many should read more carefully.

P. P. S. Anyway, this was really a super-short introduction to one of the most important works related to these regions. And even if someone is inspired to also embark on this journey that both kills and enriches, I will be happy.

For years, I had heard tales of the remarkable breadth and splendor of the Lancaster Library used book sale. But it was only last summer that I finally joined the throngs of passionate book lovers and truly understood its allure.

Library volunteers transform the entire Franklin and Marshall College fieldhouse into a wonderland of tables upon tables, each covered with a vast array of used books. The selection spans from charming children's books to captivating novels and elegant coffee table books. The choices are truly endless, and the prices are incredibly low.

However, I was disappointed to notice that there were some individuals among us who seemed to miss the true essence of the event. Young people with apps on their telephones were simply scanning books' Universal Product Codes to check their internet resale value, rather than seeking out beloved authors or embarking on new literary adventures.

Thankfully, for the most part, I was in the company of kindred spirits, those who truly love to read. As I perused the nonfiction section, a rather hefty paperback caught my eye. It depicted a river flowing beneath a medieval-looking bridge and was titled "Black Lamb and the Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia." I picked up the book and was astounded to discover that the English journalist and novelist Rebecca West had published this 1181-page masterpiece about her beloved Yugoslavia in 1942.

During the tumultuous era of the roaring '20s, the Great Depression, and the aftermath of World War I, Rebecca West found joy in exploring the ancient kingdoms of Serbia, Croatia, Dalmatia, Macedonia, and more. I promptly added the book to my box and brought it home. It sat in my living room for months, taunting me. Did I possess the dedication and patience required to read over a thousand pages about a country that no longer exists?

Finally, I decided to take on the challenge. It was no easy feat. West, whose real name was Cicily Isabel Andrews, had amassed an encyclopedic knowledge of the troubled history of the region. One moment, she would describe a breathtakingly beautiful mountain, and in the next paragraph, she would delve into centuries of history. Despite the occasional difficulty, I found myself continuously drawn back to the book.

As West and her husband were joined by Constantine, a beloved poet and government official, and Constantine's rather difficult German wife, I became invested in their journey. I had to know if they would all make it across the country unscathed.

As the tour through Yugoslavia progressed, West offered her extemporaneous critiques of biblical sacrifice, the Turkish Empire, the Hapsburgs, and the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. But she also painted vivid pictures of the landscape, towns, and cities with a deft and creative touch. I relished the way she assumed her readers were as intelligent as she was, often mentioning writers and artists by their last names only and peppering the text with lines in German and French.

Sometimes, I would stop to look up a word I had never seen before, only to laugh when my internet reference would provide the definition and then note that the word had recently been used by Rebecca West in "Black Lamb and the Grey Falcon."

The trip through Yugoslavia was long, but it was always fascinating and entertaining. However, the epilogue, in which West distilled everything the region meant to her on the eve of World War II in a concise 20 or 30 pages, truly blew me away. Her heart and the reader's heart break as she describes the almost futile resistance to Mussolini and the Nazis.

As the book came to an end, I was reminded of her dedication, which read, "To my friends in Yugoslavia, who are all now dead or enslaved." While I wouldn't necessarily say it's the best book I've ever read, I learned an immense amount, was awestruck by West's erudition, and I'm grateful to have discovered and celebrated this remarkable literary achievement that is nearly 80 years old.

The author's writing style is passionate and partisan, which is both engaging and thought-provoking.

There are numerous ideas and thoughts that are explored and pursued, with digressions that add depth and interest to the narrative.

The honesty and fire in the writing make it an engrossing and affecting journey for the reader.

However, it should be noted that this edition has some flaws. There are quite a few typos, especially towards the end, which can be distracting.

Additionally, the absence of maps and photos is a drawback, although using the internet while reading can partially弥补 this deficiency.

Overall, despite its imperfections, the book offers a unique and valuable reading experience.