Dense, opinionated, muscular writing. Mrs. West chronicles her journeys with her husband through the Balkans, post WW I, pre WWII. It is a medley of journalism and travel writing, but at times it reads like an adventure novel, with extraordinary setting and eccentric characters who come and go. Her insights into empire are prescient, considering what is happening today. Each chapter rewards and sometimes requires repeated viewing.

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

3* The Return of the Soldier
5* The Fountain Overflows
3* This Real Night
3* Cousin Rosamund
5* Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
TR The Birds Fall Down
TR The Thinking Reed
TR Harriet Hume
TR Sunflower

Rebecca West and her husband visited Yugoslavia following WWI. Weary and cynical of human nature and the political powers of Austria and Germany, West and her husband toured the breadth of Yugoslavia. While noticing the fissures between the Croats, Serbians, Bulgarians, Turks, and Montenegrins that would eventually lead to the next genocide, West did a creditable, if somewhat romanticized, story of the history of these citizens of an ever-shifting frontier.

West did comment that she saw nothing wrong with the nationalism expressed by the Serbs which seemed naive, especially considering the recent end of WWI. It would have been interesting to see how that view might have changed following WWII.

West made some comments regarding the relationship between master and servant in different cultures which can, at best, be viewed as naive, and at worst out and out racist. Also, there were a few comments regarding gay men that smacked of not just discomfort but an actual fear which was rather disturbing.