Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia (Twentieth-Century Classics)

by Rebecca West

Release Date: April, 1995

Edition: Paperback

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Wonderful

Love it or hate it, anyone with an interest in the Balkans will eventually have to deal with this book. Rebecca West is one of the giants of 20th century literature. Never heard of her? I hadn't either until I read this sprawling opus. Don't be put off by the size of the book, however (West herself writes that most people probably won't read this book because of the massive length). Black Lamb and Grey Falcon is a travelogue detailing West's travels through 1930's Yugoslavia. The book goes far beyond travelogue as West intersperses massive doses of Slavic history and philosophy with her travel accounts. Not only do we see the things she sees, we understand the mentality of the people. These people she meets and places she visits become almost mystical under her magical pen. I read this book over a six week period at the end of the summer. Like West on her travels, I meandered through the book, reading it religiously at times and then setting it down for a bit to read other things. This might be the best way to read the book. It allows the reader to absorb what West is trying to say without being overwhelmed by the immense amounts of information.

I have to say that I was most fascinated by her discourses on Yugoslav history. Balkan history can be a challenge because most of us in the West really don't understand the people or places involved. A section on the assassination of Franz Ferdinand runs on forever and never becomes boring. In fact, I became so enraptured of this event that I started reading other works concerning the assassination. Even though there are some problems with West's interpretation of history, her accounts are so well written that it makes the reader want to go out and read more about these events.

Many have criticized Rebecca West for her bias and her tendency to simplify history. This is a valid concern. Her most serious transgression is her rabid hatred of anything German. It literally infects parts of the book with a somber, unpleasant tone. Right from the beginning of the book we see West criticizing a group of German tourists who are on a train with her as she travels into the Balkans. The bias finds greatest expression when West writes about her relationship with her Yugoslav guide Constantine and his wife Gerda. Constantine is a Jew and a Slav, but Gerda is a German whom West seems to believe is a Nazi. West's slanders on Gerda are endless, so much so that Constantine himself eventually turns against West. What is important to remember is that West is English and World War II was only a few years away. West actually wrote this book a few years after her trip, in 1941, so war was already raging between the two countries. If I were a German, I would be offended by West's comments.

Please read this book. I guarantee you'll enjoy it, at least to some extent. Even if you don't like history, the descriptions of the Yugoslav people and places are enchanting. I wanted to hop on a plane and go to Yugoslavia after reading this book, although it's important to remember that this account was written during World War II and before the Communist occupation that followed the war. I imagine things have changed quite a bit in this part of the world since the 1930's. What prose! What endless beauty! Images that flow like honey! Read this and dream!!

Why the "encyclopedic" is interesting

I read _Black Lamb and Grey Falcon_ about three years ago, just as the Kosovo conflict was at its height, and the book seemed to me then almost an essential primer to Yugoslav history and politics as seen from Anglo-American eyes. West has a strong tendency to simplify history and to write through the lens of prejudices against Germans and Muslims, so don't take her historical accuracy for granted. But she is a sympathetic traveller, a person who is fascinated by foreign places and who understands that cultural context is everything, and simply for this the book is worthwhile.

However, I find the book especially valuable as an example of the "encyclopedic" book: the kind of book that transcends genres (history? travel literature? personal essays? memoir?), that is eager to accumulate and to share knowledge, that a reader ends up wanting to live with. Even though the important conflicts of the day have shifted east from Kosovo (but her discussion of the migration of the Turks into the Balkans is essential material for understanding the place of Muslims in Europe today), her book stays with me: not for what it says about Yugoslavia, but for what it says about how literature can be the tissue that connects individuals and history. Although reading this book is by no means a minor undertaking, it's well worth the time and trouble.