The Other Side of War: Women's Stories of Survival and Hope

Book Description

Zainab Salbi's media profile soared with her first book, Between Two Worlds, a memoir of growing up in Saddam Hussein's inner circle. She has been a guest on "Oprah," has been interviewed by Katie Couric, Al Franken, and George Stephanopoulos, and has been profiled in the New York Times, The Washington Post, and People magazine. Her organization, Women for Women International, plays a vital role in helping to heal war-torn nations including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Rwanda, Congo, Sudan, and Colombia.

With stunning images by award-winning photographers Susan Meiselas, Lekha Singh, and Sylvia Plachy, Salbi presents a riveting collection of letters and first-person narratives by amazing women who survived war's devastation and now must find the strength to rebuild families and communities. Throbbing with pain and loss yet glowing with courage and hope, The Other Side of War explores six regions where Women for Women International has helped survivors of the world's most tumultuous countries learn new skills, open small businesses and forge bonds with sponsors.

Overviews by the author explain how each nation's history led to violent conflict; then, with searing eloquence, the women tell their stories—of horror, cruelty, and suffering but also of profound inspiration as they work toward renewal and toward the day their fierce determination is rewarded with productivity, prosperity, and lasting joy.

Customer Reviews:

The Other Side of War, not just a women's issue.......2007-02-07

The is a book that should be read and taught to students. It gives a real view of what war is and how it impacts everyone. It shows how women that have been so effected by war can help make changes in their areas, not just for their families, but for their society.

Wow!.......2007-01-09

What an honest and unusual life story! My daughter and I were not able to put this book down. The naive courage of the author comes through. She is not one to think "Someone should do something about that" but "I've got to do something about that", and begins an international charitable foundation from the basement, literally from the ground up. Most of us stand around wringing our hands in the face of cruel injustices; this is an example of what can be done by one determined person.

Restoring Faith in Humanity.......2006-10-14

Years ago, when I lived in Washington, DC, I had the privilege to know Zainab Salbi when she was first starting Women for Women (called Women for Women in Bosnia at that time). There was a glow of inspiration in her face when she spoke of the plight of women and there was also incredible strength in her. In a time when I am often ashamed of the gross inhumanity we practice upon our fellow man, women like Zainab and the others courageous enough to share thier stories in this book, restore my faith that one day humanity will actually deserve to call itself civilized. Until then, we must rely on the courage of the few, who like Zainab, see beyond themselves and into the hearts of the world.

The Other Side of War- Captivating, Encouraging and REAL.......2006-10-12

Once again Zainab Salbi and Laurie Becklund have brought a riveting picture of the reality of war from the perspective of those who are left to hold the pieces together- the women. My organization, Soroptimist International, has been working in partnership with Women for Women International on a project called Project Independence Women Survivors of War for 3 1/2 years and I have had the privilege to go "to the field" on three occasions and meet women in the program. It is not an accident that this amazing organization, through the leadership of Zainab- was just awarded the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Award last month. They are the first women's organization to ever recieve it- and the impact of the $1.5 million dollar gift will continue to transform lives of women who are currently socially isolated and desperate and in one year- they will be well on towards their journey of becoming self sufficient and active citizens. These stories are genuine, courageous and TRUE "snapshots" of the unspeakable costs of war- particularly on women. This is a must read! Dawn Marie Lemonds, Soroptimist International

Beautifully inspiring.......2006-10-10

Zainab Salbi's new book is a beautifully inspiring example of photo journalism and the heart-rending story about the other side of war. It will make a wonderful gift for the holidays. The women in the pictures reach out from the pages and touch your heart, while Salbi's words touch your soul. The message truly inspires me to not only be more thankful for all that life has given me, but also more understanding to what life has given others and seek out more ways to help these women survivors of war. The organization, Women for Women International is an amazing organization, doing amazing work; this new book is equally amazing!

The Other Side: A Novel of the Civil War

Average customer rating:

the unvarnished truth of war
Good Tale and interesting too!
Interesting but flawed
The Other Side: A Novel of the Civil War

The Other Side: A Novel of the Civil War
Kevin McColley
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0684857626

Book Description

A historically precise and resolutely unsentimental look at the Civil War, The Other Side is an epic that follows one young man's harrowing personal journey from innocence through soul-destroying experience as he becomes a follower of Quantrill's Raiders.

It was a lesson seventeen-year-old Jacob Wilson would come to learn all too well: in the midst of any fiercely contentious and violent conflict, you must choose one side or become the enemy of both. Raised on a small Ohio farm just across the river from Kentucky, Jacob remains largely indifferent to the impending struggle between the North and the South. But then his father -- against his own better judgment -- allows two runaway slaves, Isaac and his daughter Sarah, to be hidden on their land. Hostile to them at first, Jacob soon finds himself drawn to the beautiful Sarah, gradually falling in love -- and in lust -- with her. When the local militia discovers the slaves, Jacob's world is irrevocably turned upside down as he is forced to watch the militiamen abuse his mother and destroy his home. When Jacob can take the abuse no more, he kills one of the soldiers and flees for his life, crossing to the other side of the river, heading south and then wandering west, no goal in mind other than escape from the men he assumes are hunting for him.

Now a solitary renegade on the open frontier, Jacob encounters a wild group of rebels led by none other than the already legendary William Quantrill, nominally fighting for the Southern cause but in fact a ruthless outlaw whose reign of terror threatens to destroy everyone and everything he and his raiders encounter. Drawn into the frenzy of death and destruction these men foster, Jacob, once repelled then desensitized by the brutality of war, finds himself becoming more and more inured to the gory violence that saturates his new life.

Drawing on factual accounts of the battles waged and the raids inflicted upon the innocent citizens of much of the midwest by Quantrill and his band -- including the likes of the notorious Jesse and Frank James, and Cole Younger -- author Kevin McColley brings to vivid life the almost surreal insanity of the time. Written in precise, compelling prose, the narrative follows young Jacob as he succumbs to the madness, both fascinated and repulsed by the random, seemingly undirected violence that defines the war as he knows it. And each step of the way he is haunted, pursued by the specter of the officer he killed back in Ohio, who taunts him, inciting him to kill and kill again.

An insightful look at a poorly understood epoch of the War Between the States, The Other Side is a brilliant re-creation of one of the darkest periods in history, and a stunning evocation of how the inhumanity of war diminishes the soul.

Customer Reviews:

the unvarnished truth of war.......2007-09-06

The Other Side is a stunning indictment of the immorality of war and the ways it can affect the human psyche. Mr. McColley has obviously done a great deal of research to place this novel in the historical context of the civil war West, resulting in a novel that sheds light on some of the more despicable actions in an already gruesome period of American history. I highly reccomend it, but it's not for the squeamish.

Good Tale and interesting too!.......2001-04-07

Mr. McColley has written an interesting story about the Civil War. A much different point of view then most books on this subject. At times it becomes tedious but he always brings you back to a good solid story.

Interesting but flawed.......2001-02-13

McColley succeeds in making us like some pretty unloveable characters by most standards, and creates a really cool ghost. The problem that I had with this story of a young man who joins Quantrill's Raiders is that I found the characters' reactions to be mostly unrealistic. Jacob, the main character, acts and feels in ways that makes no sense. Also, the end of the book was unnecessarily depressing -- I don't always object to sad endings but this was just sort of... flat. The Other Side certainly has its good points but I can't wholeheartedly recommend it.

The Other Side: A Novel of the Civil War.......2000-07-04

I found this book to be dark, gritty and provocative. It accurately depicts the western front during the Civil War. McColley does a stupendous job in creating believable, if not disturbing, characters that make you question the darker side of human nature. One of the best books I have read in a long time!

Average customer rating:

The perfect ending.
I really didn't want it to end
A well rounded book to finish an excellent series
Hmmm....
The Effects of War.

Other Side Of Dawn (Tomorrow)
John Marsden
Manufacturer: Scholastic Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0439858054

Amazon.com

At last, the final episode of the gripping Tomorrow series by wildly popular Aussie author John Marsden has crossed the Pacific, and this concluding chapter in the lives of Ellie, Fi, Homer, Kevin, and Lee may be the most exciting one yet. Informed by Colonel Finley that the military is making a move that could be compared to the D-day attack of WWII, the outback teen guerillas know that the end of the bewildering war that changed their lives is drawing near. Armed with plastic explosives and grenades, courtesy of the New Zealand Army, they have been instructed to "spread chaos and confusion behind their (enemy) lines in every way, shape and form." For Ellie and company, this means targeting a hostile refueling station and train tracks. Of course, nothing is ever easy. There are still the feral kids to worry about and the dismal discovery that soldiers have infiltrated Hell, their only secured hiding place in the bush. As The Other Side of Dawn rockets at breakneck speed towards its stunning climax, only one thing is certain: there is no guarantee that any of them will make it through this last conflict alive.

Not a book for new recruits, The Other Side of Dawn will be most enjoyed by those hard-core fans who have been with Ellie and the gang from the beginning. Wirrawee buffs will be rewarded with classic Marsden: teeth-jarring action sequences interspersed with meaningful moments between friends who may not see the sunrise again together. This is a satisfying ending to a smashing good series. (Ages 13 and older) --Jennifer Hubert

Book Description

Since their home was invaded by enemy soldiers and transformed into a war zone, Ellie and her friends have been fighting for their lives. Now a resolution may finally be in sight. But as enemy forces close in on her hideout, Ellie discovers that the final conflict just may be the most dangerous yet. And not everyone will survive. Nobody is safe in this exhilarating conclusion to Ellie's courageous struggle for freedom.

Customer Reviews:

The perfect ending........2007-08-09

Of course, after six books following these teenagers from Australia, I was hoping for the picture-perfect ending. You know, the one where everything goes back to the way it was before the war and there's romance and happiness when they reunite and everything is amazing.

You won't get that. But it's a real ending. If Marsden wanted any shred of credibility at the end of this series, he had to end it the way he did. And because of this, it was the perfect ending. I have absolutely no complaints, except for maybe his choice of words in the last sentence.

I dunno. But if you're even a casual reader of this series, and ESPECIALLY if you're very much into it, you won't be disappointed by a long shot by the finale.

I really didn't want it to end.......2005-11-16

This is the finale of the Tomorrow series. I read "The Other Side of Dawn" slowly, savoring each word. I guess I didn't really want the story to end. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire series reading it in order, a page turner throughout. The Other Side of Dawn is packed with the action we've come to expect in each book, but there is also a lot of reflection by Ellie about everything that's happened. I'll look forward to someday coming back to reread the series from the beginning.

A well rounded book to finish an excellent series.......2005-07-24

A must for an teenager who is stuck for something to do during those long hot summer days where hard work seems an immpossiblity!
Note you really must start with the first book in the series to get a grasp of the plot and a feel for the writers style etc for all obvious reasons (to see if you like it).
Hope this helps with your desicion for the book ;)

Hmmm...........2005-06-09

I was expecting a bit more for the last book, I think it was written a tad perfunctorily near the end. I couldn't say this is my favourite in the series, I gave the others a big fat 5 stars, but this one bored me, to tell you the truth. I did think alot at the end though, when I had finished, I felt attached to Ellie and co. Sad, yes. This series though, awesome, just read them, read them all!!!

The Effects of War........2005-05-02

War is something that effects and hurts many people. It causes young men and women to do and see things that they are not emotionally and physically prepared for.

Ellie and her friends went off to camp for the weekend in this place called Hell. While they were out in the bush, having a good time, they had no idea that while they were sleeping their country was being invaded. They had no idea that their lives had changed forever.

When Ellie and her friends returned home from their camping trip, they knew something was terribly wrong. They then had to learn to avoid enemy soldiers and scavenge for food to stay alive, so they went back into the bush where Hell became their new home. They have also planned dangerous attacks against the enemy to try to help get their country back. But Ellie or some of her friends have had to make the ultimate sacrifice... Their Life.

There are 7 books in this series, by John Marsden. In these books you will learn how war changes the life's of everyone that is involved in it, or even the people that are just around it. You will also learn how the kids that are involved in war, will have to grow up fast, and how they will learn how to survive on their own, without adults.

I strongly recommend this series of books for, both adults and young people. It will teach adults that young people can be independent, and that they can survive on their own. It will also teach young people, that being a kid is the best thing in the world, and that they need to enjoy their youth for as long as possible.

Another Vietnam: Pictures of the War from the Other Side

Average customer rating:

Beautiful Lies
Collection of Posed Propaganda Photos
Very good book, but...
First rate, typical of Tim Page, Chris Riley and Doug Niven
Another look at Nam.

Another Vietnam: Pictures of the War from the Other Side
Tim Page
Manufacturer: National Geographic
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0792264657
Release Date: 2002-02-01

Amazon.com

The groundbreaking publication Another Vietnam: Pictures of the War from the Other Side is an intense collection of images, many never seen before, from the cameras of North Vietnamese photographers. Each included photographer has a chapter highlighting his personal stories and captivating pictures. The stories are riveting and sometimes ironic: one revolutionary photographer falsified identification cards for Communist fighters, another traveled side by side with guerrillas, while another barely escaped a bombing campaign only to be forever haunted by the loss of his film and equipment.

With almost no resources, a serious lack of film, and outdated equipment, these committed photographers used will and determination in order to record history. From film processed under a night sky with homemade chemicals to making one roll of film last for years, each individual tale is a testament to the power of perseverance. Some of the pictures are haunting (a devastated landscape with the intense flare of napalm, an emergency surgery in a mangrove swamp), while others capture a seemingly staged Communist resolve (smiling soldiers with little children, classic hero poses shot from below). This book offers an important pictorial viewpoint and fills in many gaps from the popular Western media coverage of the war. --J.P. Cohen

Book Description

For more than 25 years, American memory has been haunted by photographs of the Vietnam War, the most troubling and divisive foreign conflict in our history. Our collective recollection and deep familiarity with the war has been shaped by the work of the courageous civilian and military photographers who worked alongside American troops on the fields of battle. Yet there remains an experience of the war in Vietnam that we have rarely seen—that of the other side.

Author and veteran combat photographer Tim Page, who was a freelancer for UPI during the war, returned to Vietnam to find his surviving North Vietnamese counterparts, the photographers who spent as many as ten years documenting, with equal depth and courage, their nation¼s conflict with America. From interviews with these forgotten men and from their surprising photographs, a stunning new visual record of the war emerges in Another Vietnam. Among the many remarkable images of daily life and battle on the North Vietnamese side are the elephants moving munitions down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, an impromptu operating room in a mangrove swamp, Jane Fonda on her controversial trip in-country, and American POWs at the Hanoi Hilton. Released to coincide with a major National Geographic Television documentary, Another Vietnam provides a rare and captivating change of perspective and a moving meditation on the sacrifice and loss on both sides of the war.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful Lies.......2005-08-05

The Cliff Notes version of the critics and reviewers who liked this book would be "Yeah, its some propaganda but its more than that". To this I say it is almost nothing but propaganda.

Look at the pictures. All except the most mundane photos are clearly staged. The subjects are all in properly heroic stances, the enemy bodies are all perfectly mangled and in nice rows and the ambushes are textbook perfect. Heck, the smoke even billows just right! A good example is the swamp surgery photograph everyone seems to fawn over. The water is calm, the supposedly wounded soldier is calmly awaiting the doctors and the surgical team show not even an iota of tension. If you believe this is a real time pic, I have some beachfront property in Kansas Id like to sell you!

And heres another thing. There are only three pictures involving the American military. Ive seen pictures from Communist Bloc sources of Communist Vietnamese troops prancing around dead Americans. Why are these not in the book? My guess is the editors couldnt get their sources to part with such pics. Its not something the Communist Viets would want to reveal at a time when theyre fresh out of friends and desperately needing US economic assistance!

Do I think this book is worthless? No. It does give us at least a partial image of how the other side saw things. And the pictures do have a stark grandeur to them. The problem is the editors try to make this tome to be something that its not. Its a collection of propaganda photos. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Collection of Posed Propaganda Photos .......2005-07-12

This book is a collection of posed propaganda photos by the same people that brought you reeducation camps and inspired millions of their fellow citizens to flee abroad.

I can't believe anyone is gullible enough to believe that all but a handful of these photos were anything but posed propaganda. You see "combat" photos with soldiers in spotless uniforms, clean faces and purposeful (but never frightened) expressions. I suppose the editors just couldn't pass up an opportunity to denigrate the U.S./South Vietnam War effort.

If you want to know about real life in Vietnam and how the war influenced it I suggest you read something by Duong Thu Huong instead of spending your money on this silliness

Very good book, but..........2005-01-08

Tim Page's Nam is one of my most cherished books about military history because the spectacular photographs succeed in conveying not just a visual depiction of the war but also the emotions of its participants (in the case of that book , focusing primarily on U.S. forces). I was therefore very excited to see this new volume compiled by Page and his team, which is full of photographs of the war from the perspective of the North Vietnamese. However, I gave this book four stars rather than five because of one disappointment I have with it: Nearly all the photos depicting battles or battlefields or in any way involve "the enemy" focus on ARVN forces. There were hardly any photos that had anything to do with U.S. forces or any of the other foreign armies defending the South. This struck me as quite odd. I realize the book's authors are limited by the photographs available to them (i.e. ones taken by photographers travelling with Viet Cong and NVA forces), but surely it can't be that these photographers never took pictures of subjects that involve forces other than the ARVN. In this sense I felt like the book fell short of telling the entire story of the other side. However, this book is still very much worth owning, so don't let my one complaint scare you away.

First rate, typical of Tim Page, Chris Riley and Doug Niven.......2002-12-07

Having studied Tim Page's great work "Requiem" tens of times, each time seeing something new in the striking photographs, and having seen Riley and Niven's brilliant work on the killing fields of Cambodia, I knew what to expect when I opened "Another Vietnam." This is a natural follow-on to "Requiem" and reflects Tim Page's admiration for war photographers on all sides. I have the feeling that Tim Page is still at work seeking out new information on some of his closest friends who disappeared on the battlefields of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. I hope to see more film documentaries from Tim Page. His investigations, first documented in his film "Danger at the Edge of Town," will continue until all his colleagues are accounted for. No one can accuse Tim Page of having forgotten his heroic comrades. They live on in his lifetime of work.

Another look at Nam........2002-10-14

Most of these pictures record tiny episodes, but those thinkers with a long view might refuse to accept that there were ever two Nams in the 20th Century. When France tried to pick a southern area called Cochin China for itself as a French colony in 1945, there should be little doubt that it was merely usurping part of Ho Chi Minh's independent Vietnam. A picture shows Ho in Hanoi, 39 days after his declaration of Vietnamese independence on Sept. 2, 1945. The picture of Le Minh Truong by himself, Kontum, 1972 (p. 114) is as unexciting as my own pictures taken in that area in 1970. The surprising picture on page 49 was taken May 9, 1973, soon after the American withdrawal: "Cuban leader Fidel Castro hoists a victory flag at the site of the strategic 1968 battle [Khe Sanh]." There are so many troops in the picture that it doesn't show any bomb craters, and a mountain in the background (possibly as far away as Laos) shows that the area was not entirely leveled. Khe Sanh had the highest priority for B-52 strikes when North Vietnamese troops threatened the U.S. troops there and this book says that "was part of the North's plan to divert U.S. and South Vietnamese forces from population areas prior to the Tet offensive." (p. 49). This might provide a lesson for anyone planning a war against American forces, which are bound to rely on a strategy which depends heavily on bombing, and Americans are organized so they pay more attention to their top priority than to anything else. A panorama made from six negatives of "supply trucks rolling through a ghost forest denuded by defoliants dropped by American planes" (p. 135) shows some of the damage from 40 million pounds of Agent Orange "which were sprayed over five million acres, creating environmental havoc." (p. 135). Such tactics suggest that the war was against Nam as a whole, and not a strategy that would have been adopted by one half against the other. The American Civil War was pretty bad, but Abe Lincoln never nuked the South. General Sherman was hard on South Carolina, but not as bad as Americans who wanted to nuke Nam. The defoliated mangrove forest, Ca Mau Peninsula, 1970 (p. 104-5) looks awful, "Americans denuded the landscape with chemicals to deny cover," as if we were involved in a cat and mouse game, but couldn't decide how serious we wanted it to be. A weird picture in which "An NVA soldier positions a Chinese-made mannequin" (p. 60) (a long time after Hamburger Hill) is the perfect: SO? SHOOT ME picture.

I found a lot of irony in the information on page 56 about only 8 of 109 students (the guys who are smiling) being accepted into the army in Hanoi, Aug. 1971. The standards were tough: these "young men were chosen because they had good revolutionary credentials, which usually meant that they didn't come from landowning families." This sounds like a perfect way to pick people who would be willing to hold on to a government job, regardless of the circumstances. The increase in the NVA, from 35,000 in 1950 to over 500,000 by the mid-1970s, didn't require a mandatory system until 1973, when the United States withdrew and the NVA was free to pursue military objectives without being bombed. With the use of American support, South Vietnam's ARVN were capable of suffering "243,000 dead and a half a million seriously wounded." (p. 202).

Picture (p. 218) Russian MIGs "at a remote air base" on January 1, 1973 and the military parade (p. 220) on the outskirts of Hanoi in October, 1973, after the United States had stopped its bombing. Hiding all these things is the result of a lot of effort. On page 54, Hanoi, 1972 "Military trucks park in relative safety in front of the French embassy. . . . In November 1971, however, American bombs accidentally struck the embassy." It sounds like the embassy was still pretty safe, but the attack on the U.S. Embassy by a squad of Viet Cong sappers on January 31, 1968, mentioned on p. 151, definitely sounded intentional.

Average customer rating:

Where the boots hit the ground

The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War
Ali Ahmad Jalali and Lester W. Grau
Manufacturer: U.S. Marine Corps Studies/Analysis Div.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Bear Went over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan

Tactics of the Crescent Moon: Militant Muslim Combat Methods

ASIN: B000KD7794

Customer Reviews:

Where the boots hit the ground.......2007-02-05

A detailed and thorough study of Mujahadeen tactics as they developed in the Soviet-Afghan war. A must read for anyone wishing to learn more about this troubled country and the warrior spirit that forged inovative responses to Soviet technology and tactics. This may be the definitive work in the west on the topic of guerrilla tactics in Afghanistan.

Average customer rating:

A grim, sad tale of abuse.
Suffering, humiliation, love, revenge and companionship
compelling ...
Written by a man
"Vengeance is mine" saith Hanna X.

The Other Side of Silence
Andre Brink
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156029642

Book Description

With hopes for a better future after a dismal past, a young German woman dreams of escape to her country's colony in South-West Africa. When she learns of the women being transported to the colony to attend to the needs of male settlers, Hanna X takes the leap.

In Africa she is confronted with the harsh realities of colonial life. For resisting the advances of a German officer, she is banished to Frauenstein, a phantasmagoric outpost that is at once a "prison, nunnery, brothel, and shithouse." When the drunken excesses of visiting soldiers threaten the young girl who has become her only companion, Hanna revolts. Mounting a ragtag army of women and native victims of brutality, she sets out on an epic journey to take on the German Reich. Combining the history of colonialism with the myths of Africa, this is an exquisitely written tale of suffering, violence, revenge, and, simply, love.

Customer Reviews:

A grim, sad tale of abuse........2006-04-08

"The Other Side of Silence" is one of the bleakest novels you'll ever read. It is essentially the story of one woman's unending suffering and misery. With each new stop in her life comes a new abuse. An orphan, she shuffles from one person to the next and almost always encounters someone who wants to exploit her. Everything is taken away from this woman, Hanna, including, at one point, her last name. When she finally, briefly finds love, that too is cruelly stripped from her.

I'll admit, despite some obvious flaws, I found Hanna's story engrossing and compelling. I really felt for this woman and became involved in her tragic life. My complaint, though, is that Brink's characters are too black and white -- either "evil" or "good." Catholics take a particular beating here (they are either rapists, sadists or hypocrites) and men do, too. It seems in this world that you are either malevolent or an angel. There are also too many cliche scenarios (mixed in with the more original and unique turns in the story they feel quite clunky).

All of this refers to the first half of the book. Part two of the novel takes an entirely different direction. Hanna, with a young orphan (Hanna all over again) and a ragtag army, sets out on some lofty revenge. I found this section of the book highly misguided and almost ruinous. It severely damages the book. Brink seems unsure himself about Hanna's rampage. He questions exactly why they're doing it and if it's a good decision, and he starts to write the officers they kill as nothing more than foolish kids, which makes Hanna seem just as cruel as the people we're supposed to be happy to see die.

The whole thing feels absurd anyway. One attack by Hanna's army on a fort is laughable. As the men of the army ambush officers in the desert, the women start to knock off men one by one at the fort, right out of "Ten Little Indians," and as men keep getting killed after going off with the women and the women keep firing shots into the air toward the desert as signs, you have to wonder exactly how long it will take the German officers to figure out that this party that has just arrived -- and brought with it sickness and death -- is not friendly. The whole episode is like a bad sitcom.

The first part of the book centers on Hanna's time in an orphanage and her stay in Frauenstein, a massive edifice in the African desert. I found her history -- violent and depressing as it was -- fascinating; Hanna becomes very real to you. You do want her to take the young orphan, Katja, and get away from Frauenstein, and briefly the book keeps pace by introducing a rather scary missionary when they leave, but as soon as this army forms and Hanna incessantly tries to justify what she's doing, the book falls flat on its face. And the ending is utterly contradictory and wholly unsatisfying.

I give the book four stars because for me it is really two books: Hanna's history, and the tepid revenge conclusion that has no real need to be here. Without the latter -- and with a real finish, in which Hanna saves Katja -- it would have been nearly perfect. But even as it currently is -- mightily flawed -- it is still worth reading.

Suffering, humiliation, love, revenge and companionship.......2005-11-03

Mr Brink tells the haunting story of Hanna X which takes place at the beginning of the 20th century in the German colony of what was then called Deutsch-Südwestafrika (German South-West Africa), now Namibia. It was then the custom that the Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft sent hundreds of women and girls to Africa "to assuage the need of men desperate for matrimony, procreation or an uncomplicated" love-making.
Hanna X, resident of a forlorn place called Frauenstein in the middle of nowhere in the desert, contemplates her face in the mirror. Tufts of blond hair hacked off with a kitchen knife, part of her right ear is missing leaving a dark hole, she has only part of the left eyebrow left, her face is criss-crossed with scars and most frightening of all, she has no tongue, only a small black stub, far back. The sound she utters is Ahhhhh... How did Hanna X undergo such hideous mutilations and who inflicted them to her?
And so the narrator traces back the harrowing tale of this poor orphan back to her childhood in Bremen. She grew up in an institution called the Little Children of Jesus where her books were confiscated by Frau Agathe, where she was "touched" by Pastor Ulrich and beaten regularly. Hanna found refuge with her teacher, Fräulein Braunschweig, who let her read stories like "Die Leiden des Jungen Werther" or that of Jeanne D'Arc.
Her years in service were also marked by desolation. With the Klatts for instance. Frau Hildegard was a mean-spirited woman and Herr Dieter had to be "serviced" for a few Pfennig. So Hanna decided to apply with the Kolonialgesellschaft and was granted passage to Africa by Frau Sprandel who dismissed her with the premonitory warning not to "expect too much of her palm trees". It is on board the Hans Woermann that Hanna experienced love and tenderness for the first and only time in her life with a girl called Lotte. It was after their arrival in Africa, during the train journey which was to take them to Windhoek, that Hanna was confronted with Hauptmann Heinrich Böhlke and the outcome of this encounter was what Hanna now sees in the mirror in Frauenstein: a monstrously disfigured creature...
Such humiliation and dismemberment was inflicted to her not because of anything she had done but simply because she was a woman. From then on, it is hatred that drives everything she does "as inexorable as the desert sun". This hatred is a form of liberation for Hanna as she begins her long journey with Katja towards the confrontation with the man or men who turned her into something "like out of hell". As the two women set off in the desert towards Windhoek, it is to keep an appointment with destiny...
"The Other Side of Silence" is probably the best novel ever written about the horrors of colonialism in Africa. Some passages in the book remind the reader of what happened during the Holocaust. Mr Brink has rightly been compared to the greatest writers of our times like Solzhenitsyn, Garcia Marques or Peter Carey.

compelling ..........2004-07-29

As a student of South Africa, I found The Other Side of Silence a fascinating addition to my understanding of the country's early colonization. The language is spare, important when mutilation is central to the storyline. I read it twice, the second revealed nuances missed during the first. On my recommendation, my book club will read this ...

Written by a man.......2004-04-16

No, I'm not a raging feminist who critiques all books on this subject but this does reasonably explain this one's faults. It's always a risk writing from a character's perspective who is of the opposite sex. Even an accomplished writer like André Brink can't make it float.

Now that I've stated this, I admit that it would be hard to give examples without giving away the whole story line. For those who read the book, what happens to Gisela bothers me. These are not the actions a mother would take. Also, what was Hanna looking for in Africa? What did she really want? She never ponders marriage, children, pursuits of women in her age. At least say why or why not and what alternatives were offered to her in those days (not many, I expect).

The only sympathetic male character was introduced in the last few pages. Otherwise, they're all evil.

It's true that the book gets so gory that you stop caring. It numbs you after intially being so shockingly horrible. With the holes in the plot, it starts to ring very untrue and unbeliveable. That was pretty compicated surgery, preformed on a train?? What happens with her little band bother me (only Katja and Hanna left?). How were they able to eat in the desert? The first fort takeover was almost silly. You'd think the German soldiers were the dumbist on the planet. I could go on and on...

He's still a great writer but "A Dry White Season" was much better. My South African cousin gave it to me, saying that it could describe the situation in her country better than she could. I couldn't bring myself to watch the film. The injustice that Brink pulled off there was so real. He lost that with this book.

Am I a hypocryte if I go out and buy the sequel? He says he'll write about Katja's child. I think it's a testiment to his writing. Too bad his talent is wasted on a feeble plot.

"Vengeance is mine" saith Hanna X........2003-07-07

And she says it in a big way.
This novel takes place in the early years of the 20th Century, among the German-occupied colonies of South-West Africa. From her earliest years as an orphan, Hanna X, the main character in Brink's novel, suffers incredible amounts of abuse. First off, there is the unreasonable strictness of Frau Agathe to deal with. Beatings are a regular thing at the orphanage "because it is a Christian place where evil will not be tolerated." Then there is the lecherous priest, Pastor Ulrich, who violates her physically and spiritually. Then, a series of transitional periods where the young Hanna is shipped from one place to another, and these experiences always result in trauma, disappointment, disillusionment. Her life becomes characterized by alienation, loneliness, pain, loss, and denigration.
Throughout all of this, Hanna hangs on to a fleeting childhood memory, something she refers to as "The Time Before"... in which she remembers meeting an Irish girl named Susan at the beach of the Weser in Bremen. Susan gave Hanna a shell, and told her to listen to its inner sounds. Hanna keeps this shell, and for her it comes to represent the "silence which she carries deep within her, from the lost time before she ever arrived at the orphanage..."
When Hanna hears that hundreds of women are regularly being shipped from Hamburg to the remote African colonies to serve as wives for the men stationed there... she signs up. What could be worse than what she is presently experiencing?
She arrives at Swakopmund, and ends up at an extremely remote secular nunnery known as Frauenstein.
Here (and on the way here) she will learn that there are places worse than the orphanage. Much worse.

What follows is a very dark story. Do not be mistaken, this is a story difficult to read for its brutal depictions of torture and violence, but written in a style and with an imagery that is evocative, unmistakingly vivid, even beautiful.
However, this is in no way a beautiful story where all is resolved at the end. Where justice has its day, where all is made right. One ought to be prepared for this fact.

It shows the most absolutely horrid aspects of human nature, and always face-up, in the full light of the hot sun. Not only are the perpetrators of crimes against Hanna (the heroine) shown in all of their shameless ghastliness, but she herself becomes nearly as brutal in the latter half of the book. There comes a time when Hanna says "No more" and understandably, we want her to succeed in her plans for vengeance against the greatest of crimes that have been commited against her. She assembles a ragtag band of vigilantes, those who have suffered injustices of their own, and together they set out on a quest to reclaim dignity, with Hanna as their (mute) leader.

This is a difficult book, but only because of its subject matter. The way it is written makes me want to read more by this wonderful author.

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True Horror

haunting

kinda enjoyed it...

A fantastic contribution

The Other Side
Jason Aaron , and Cameron Stewart
Manufacturer: Vertigo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1401213502

Book Description

This hard-hitting graphic novel examines life on opposingsides of the Vietnam War through the eyes of two young men.Bill Everetteis a 19-year-old Alabama farm boy who's been drafted into the Marine Corps,while 19-year-old Vietnamese farmer Binh Dai enlists in the People's Armyof Vietnam to fulfill his duty to his country.Along the way, Private Everette encounters demonically vicious drillinstructors, talking maggots, voiceless ghosts and a rifle that begs him toshoot himself.Vo Dai must undertake the long march south through blackforests and bloody swamps, past tigers, dragons and mounds of dead.Bothmen struggle with their own demons and nightmarish visions ... before theirinevitable showdown.This impeccably researched, critically acclaimed book heralds the arrivalof two new superstar talents: writer Jason Aaron and artist Cameron Stewart(SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY).

Customer Reviews:

True Horror.......2007-08-25

At first I wasn't sure of what to make of the ghostly visions seen by Marine Private Billy Everette in this comic, but by the end of the book, and its final shot (to the gut), the whole thing came together in expert fashion. At times the back and forth between the U.S. soldier's and the Vietnam soldier's story got a little too choppy, and some of the events feel like we've watched them unspool on movie screens before, but Cameron Stewart's grisly rendering of Jason Aaron's script made the horrors come to life in shocking, effective detail--and in ways we've never seen on a comic book page or anywhere else. And it only gets more cringe-inducing the longer it sits with you. Good stuff.

haunting.......2007-07-13

I didn't expect a comic to be so moving or for its story to linger with me. Innocence Lost is a theme much explored in the best of literature, and it gets a fresh take here. By showing us how war damages in particular two soldiers, American and Vietnamese, Aaron shows how war damages us all. The dialog rings true, and the pacing is excellent. I look forward to seeing more from this exceptionally talented writer.

kinda enjoyed it..........2007-07-08

if i were you, i'd check this out of a library or buy it from a used book store.

its a good read (will only take an hour or two), but i'm not sure this is one that HAS to be in your library.

A fantastic contribution.......2007-05-26

While I've always had a soft spot for comics like The Nam or Vietnam War Journal, the latter of those was probably my favorite for its more unflinching depiction of war and the characters' knee-deep-in-it placement. While I'll always applaud Marvel for even putting out The Nam, I always felt like too many issues left the devastation in the background, in the form of explosions on the horizon with characters reflecting back on it from their safe distance. That and the Punisher cameo. When I found Apple's Vietnam War Journal, it seemed a much more intense and authentic experience - it wasn't a Marvel comic, so you knew someone was going to die and stay dead; hell, it was in black-and-white - anything goes. Anyway, let me get to the point before I further digress into my criticisms and verbose rants (insert trademark symbol). It's been many years since either of those books have seen print, and - as far as my memory serves - the comic shelves haven't seen a war comic in quite some time, aside from a handful of Ennis titles. So it was a pleasant surprise to see Vertigo putting out this mini-series last year; even more so that it was really good.

Jason Aaron is related to the late author Gus Hasford (The Short Timers, among others, which became Full Metal Jacket), and it was nice to see that unforgettably great phrases like "get ready to run like a bald-headed chicken f***er" run in the family. In fact, one of the great things about this title is the superb balance of good dialogue and resonating imagery. Whether it be talking rats taking dibs on a young private's eyes when he dies, ghastly uniformed skeletons in the chopper waiting to land with everyone else on board, or heaps of bodies unceremoniously populating the setting, the line between the "real" and the "unreal" becomes moot in war, and they are both just as haunting. Cameron Stewart is a good asset to Aaron's script as well, and his art delivers the same "freaking-creepy" factor which I liked in some of his past work, like Seaguy.

If you missed the mini-series, pick up this newly released trade; it is not your typical Vietnam War story, and while that is one of its greatest strengths, it is such an engaging read that even the most rigid advocates of formulaic plot will have trouble not enjoying it. Yes, even you die-hard Marvel people (sorry, I couldn't resist). While you're at the comic shop, look for Aaron's newest from Vertigo, Scalped. It is just as good. Trust me, Captain America will come back, Superman will still fly, and The Crisis of 52 Infinite Civil Wars will come and go and come back again and again, and you won't be missing too much by passing on those and instead trying out something new. Who knows, when it's done this well, you may never go back to tights and capes again. Besides, Steve Rogers never had dialogue as good as "I'm ready for death ... and yonder the f***er comes."

Balkan Express: Fragments from the Other Side of War

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depressing but helpful
The intimacies of war
Powerful, Compelling and Shocking!
A Yugoslavian woman becomes a Croatian woman.
Living War

Balkan Express: Fragments from the Other Side of War
Slavenka Drakulic
Manufacturer: W W Norton & Co Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Slavic | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0393034968

Customer Reviews:

depressing but helpful.......2005-06-24

This book was published in 1993. This makes it hard to read, since several times Drakulic talks about the war being "almost over". When one knows that the worst in the former Yugoslavia was yet to come this makes this depressing book even more depressing. But, it's worth reading to get an inside account of how the war in Yugoslavia seemed to a smart, cosmopolitan reporter. It's not a history of the conflict nor an analytic account of it. You'll not fully understand the war or why it happend by reading this book. But, you'll understand the people to a greater degree. Drakulic is a very sympathetic writer who portrays her subjects (including herself) in a very humane way at a time when it was all to easy to forget the humanity of others. It's worth reading for that alone.

The intimacies of war.......2004-07-28

THE BALKAN EXPRESS: FRAGMENTS FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF WAR by Slavenka Drakulic, is a book of short essays that are memoirs and written illustrations of what it is like to find the country in which you live divided by war. Under Drakulic's hand, this stops being a political abstraction of battling ideas (pan-Slavism vs. independent nation states), but a physical and psychological hardship of the intimate and emotionally scarring, deadly violence and nihilistic realities of war in one's own neighborhood.

While this book -- published in the nid 1990s, with essays dating from July 1991 to January 1994, through the complete Croatian war of secession and the beginning and continuation of the war in Bosnia that killed 200,000 and displaced millions -- is somewhat dated for us now that we know of the end of the war in the former Yugoslavia, the division of Bosnia-Herzegovina (and the eventual war in Kosovo), the timelessness of the ideas she expresses about war seems as if it would always be salient, especially now as the United States has soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Drakulic, who also wrote Cafe Europa and S: A Novel about the Balkans, details the outcomes of war, sometimes unexpected, sometimes not. While she mentions violent and ghastly images of war (a young couple of lovers, a Serb and a Bosnian, who have obtained permission to leave Sarajevo for Belgrade are shot in the no-man's land outside the city on their officially permitted leave-taking, the bodies left in the grass for days), she dwells more on the psychological understanding of war in one's own country, one's own city, one's own neighborhood. ("My friend in Paris who moved there when she was 10 years old, at the end of the Algerian war, told me that her teacher had asked her why, even after years of living in France, she walked down a street zig-zag. This is how you walk to avoid a bullet, she explained to her teacher. And this is what the generation of children who survived a war in Croatia will do, walk zig-zag and run to hide in cellars at the sound of aeroplane.")

Drakulic notices that war became real to her in small, personal moments of realization, such as when she sent her college-age daughter from Zagreb to live in Canada with her Serbian father, and saw that her daughter was taking clothes for all year round and her worn, stuffed, childhood stuffed-animal companion, in case she couldn't come back. She sees how she herself judges a refugee friend negatively for wearing fancy shoes and makeup, realizing that she has an underlying belief that a refugee should have no joy. She notes how the war follows refugees wherever they go; the war follows her to Slovenia, a famous Croatian actress to New York and her friends to Paris in their thinking and values. She writes about the shock she feels when she meets a young man, a soldier from Vukovar, in Zagreb after the city fell to the Serbs, who was so young, she can't get past what he's been through for his age.

A recurring theme of the book is how the war has taken a pluralistic nation of apolitical people (in her generation, born in the 1950s), who didn't notice or care about who was Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, or their religions, Orthodox, Muslim and Catholic, respectively, and obliterated them as individuals in favor of categorizing them as Croatians, Bosnians and Serbs above all else, and refusing them the right of being their own persons and "othering," as the literary critics say, those in different demographic categories, drafting them to kill those Others, or support the slaughter of those Others because their lives now depend on it.

This book is highly effective in helping one see what it would be like to have war break out within 100 miles of you, and come nearer every day. Though Drakulic writes that the war in the Balkans can be held, emotionally, at a distance by Europeans ("the 'other' is the lawless 'Balkans' they pretend not to understand") and by Americans ("For the USA it's more or less a 'European problem'), she destroys any complacency the reader might feel as far away in time and space from the Balkans with her highly intimate and moving glimpses into the psychological horrors of war in a world more like ours than it is different.

Powerful, Compelling and Shocking!.......2004-03-01

This book frightened me but also made me aware of the dangers of saying that we live in a safe world. Nothing could be further from the truth! I am an avid reader of the war in the Balkans and have found only one other book that so graphically depicts the atrocities and harsh realities of modern-day war. Beautifully written and easy for the layman to understand.

A Yugoslavian woman becomes a Croatian woman........2003-03-09

I thought Drakulic's writing describe the feelings of someone's whose society has been destroyed and a new one springs up. Her feelings as well as others are exposed in this book. This book summarizes the dispair of those who witnessed the Serbo-Croatian War of 1990-1991. I think the feelings described in this book, might only apply to the minority of the Croatian people. It certainly conveys a mother's anguish at seeing her child in a country at war.
I think this book conveys the human disaster of war. People suffer in a number of ways. They may not be soldiers, but they still suffer. Old ways die, and new ways may not be convenient to old people. Opportunities arise as can be seen where the woman confiscated another woman's apartment. War makes people old. I think all these feelings are conveyed in the book.

Living War.......2001-12-31

I read this book while studying the Balkans in school and shortly after September 11th. The book is about living war, a concept that is impossible to understand until one has been in a war like situation or has read this book. While I know that I can never say I felt as much pain as she did, I do have a better understanding of what it must have been like for her after 911 and after reading this book. It is an enjoyable read with the ability to touch on deep subjects without being too complex.

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The Struggles Of A Teenage Boy During WWII
It is an adventure for a 14 yr old boy.
REVIEW FOR THE MAN FROM THE OTHER SIDE
The Man From The Other Side!!!!!!!!
Locked In Time

Man from the Other Side
Uri Orlev
Manufacturer: Puffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140370889

Book Description

The true story of a teenager's experiences in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II, as he discovers his own heritage and finds himself caught up in the war through underground dealings.

Customer Reviews:

The Struggles Of A Teenage Boy During WWII.......2006-03-16

When Marek discovers a shocking secret about himself, he decides that he must help the captured Jews fight the Germans. While the Nazis are imprisoning Jews in the Ghetto, Marek is helping one Jew avoid capture. Will Marek be able to help the Jews in their fight against the Nazis? During World War II, a teenage boy named Marek lived in Warsaw with his mother and stepfather, Antony. Although Marek witnessed Nazis imprisoning Jews, he joined his friends in robbing an escaping Jew. Marek discovered he was partly Jewish and his guilt caused him to use the stolen money to help another Jew, Pan Jozek, hideout. When the Jews rose up against the Germans, Marek and Pan Jozek snuck into the ghetto to help the Jews. Pan Jozek was killed before Marek and several other Jews were rescued by Antony. After escaping from the ghetto and the Germans, Antony, Marek, and Marek's mother left Warsaw to live with Antony's sister in the country. Antony risked his life to save Marek and as repayment Marek agreed to let Antony legally adopt him. I recommend that everyone read this book about a young boy and his struggles during World War II.
The situations the characters in this book go through seem incredibly realistic. Marek had to cope with the fact that his father died and his mom had remarried. Pan Jozek narrowly escaped the Germans and had to prevent being imprisoned or killed. Marek and his parents left the busy, chaotic city of Warsaw and moved to the quieter, more peaceful countryside.
The characters are described in great detail. Marek is a fourteen-year-boy who is partly Jewish. Pan Jozek was a Jewish man who was studying to be a doctor before the war; he had gentle eyes, high cheekbones, and an amiable expression. Marek's grandmother dressed in large skirts with multiple pockets and his grandfather's old jacket.
The setting is also described in detail. Theater Square was a small area in town similar to a strip mall and park combined. The Jewish ghetto was a small area filled with many people; it was destroyed when the Jews started an uprising against the Germans. Marek's apartment was just the right size for their family of three.
I recommend this book to everyone. It is a wonderful story about the struggles of daily life during World War II. The characters, places, and events in this book are described in such detail that you can actually picture the story taking place in your mind.
~V. Newberry

It is an adventure for a 14 yr old boy........2005-03-12

The Man from the other side is about a 14 yr old boy who helps his stepfather smuggle food for the Jews. This book has Jews, polish, and Germans during the war. I like the book because it has adventure for a young boy who lost one of his friends because of a German who killed him by a pistol. His stepfather wants to adopt him though. I disliked the book because it talks about smuggling food which has none thing to do with World War II.

REVIEW FOR THE MAN FROM THE OTHER SIDE.......2005-01-07

The Man From the Other Side, by URI Orlev is a great and amazing novel. It is about a fourteen-year-old boy, Marek, who lives in Warsaw, Poland. He lived in a ghetto or an enclosed area where Jews were kept and told to stay. The nazi's would torture and kill them to rule their lives. Lucky for Marek, he was catholic, so hid not feel the pain the Jews did. You as the reader follow the life of Marek throughout the story.
I think this book is really great and fascinating. The characters are really well brought in the story. It is almost like you are actually there in Warsaw, when all of this is taking place. I think that if you read this book you will be very impressed. I think this book has a very valuable moral to life. It is that always help those in need and to not single anybody out because of their backround. It is basically saying do not discriminate anybody.

The Man From The Other Side!!!!!!!!.......2003-04-22

The Man From the Other Side is a well written by the author he explains the story and other details really well, I could basically see the people in my head when I read the book. This book is placed in the 1940's in Poland were a fourteen year old boy named Marek, and his step-father smuggle goods through a sewer into the jewish community. Marek finds during the book that he is half jew and decides to help another jew he meets to escape from Poland and away from the Nazi.

I would highly recommend this book to people that like or are interested in WWI because it talks about the enivorenment the jews lived in which, was really detailed by the author. Also the author painted a perfect description of the jews and the way they lived. If you want to find out more for yourself take a risk and READ THE BOOK!!!

Locked In Time.......2002-09-20

This book is really getting good so far.
Im on the 9th chapter and what I read is so far good.
Im sure it will be good at the end.

The Sickle Side of the Moon (Collected Letters)

Average customer rating:

Esteemed author

The Sickle Side of the Moon (Collected Letters)
Virginia Woolf
Manufacturer: The Hogarth Press Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

Esteemed author.......2005-04-26

This collection of letters is edited by Nigel Nicholson. Lytton Strachey died in January 1932. Ottoline Morrell, hostess at Garsington Manor and Bedford Square, had known him, loved him, and was one of the recipients of a number of letters from Virginia Woolf.

In this period, 1932 to 1935, more substantive letters were exchanged with Ethel Smyth than with anyone else. During the summer of 1932 Virgina and Leonard spent a month in Greece with Roger Fry and his sister.

Mrs. Woolf declined with thanks an offer to write for THE NEW STATESMAN. She wrote to Ottoline Morrell that being in London presented a perpetual round of going out to dinner with company. She advised Ethel Smyth that she dislked scenes. She felt that Bloomsbury as a word stood for very little.

Virginia Woolf, we learn, preferred the Brontes to Jane Austen. She thought THE CHERRY ORCHARD could not be acted in English. She published an essay on Turgenev in THE YALE REVIEW.

At one point Ottoline Morrell is described as a weeping willow in pearls. The death of Roger Fry was a sad event since he was so much of a friend to everyone. Virginia Woolf thought that the Victorians, Hardy, Dickens, and Trollope, had a sense of an audience and created their characters mainly through dialogue.

Good manners and kindness are much in evidence in this collection.

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