Something more of a diary or a long letter home than I had expected. The author visits people and recounts their conversations, many of which remind us how mis-understood the poor Serbs really are.

I read the book just after it was published and missed an opportunity to speak with the author at an appearance she made in Chicago. My only criticism is that the questions the author poses about the Serbian people and their situation during the war are never answered. I was waiting for some insight about the situation and some perspectives on solutions to the political problems in Belgrade. Nothing was answered or ever raised. We simply get a diary of small vignettes. If she really did meet all those people, I'm surprised that the author didn't have an answer to the question she posed about the Serbian people and their mindset. I sent her a note inviting her to research some of the writings by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich, a Serbian Bishop, and survivor of the Holocaust. His take on the Serbian people, their faith and their tenacity would have explained everything to her. "The Serbs will choose the difficult road because it is the right one, the Christian one."

I would've titled this "A Peek into Serbia" but Levinsohn's description of life in Belgrade v. the rest of more rural Serbia was a surprise to me, as was much of the material in this book. A flowing descripteur, Levinsohn transports us to the dusty but beautiful capital of the former Yugoslavia, and allows tainted Western minds to experience the life of a passionate country and culture, one quite unlike any Americans have ever experienced on paper. The politics of the novel can get complicated, especially since the book is nearing ten years old, and the speculations as to whether or not Milosevic will go to trial in the Hague are tedious to readers, since he has already been there several months. In any case, this book was terrific, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to better understand the mentality of Serbians. Her view of Serbs as "victims with a certain victim mentality" was quite refreshing when splashed against the Western view of Serbs as the guilty party of the war in Yugoslavia and it's casualties. The most appreciated part of this book was Levinsohn's desire to get to the heart of the split of Yugoslavia, and to try to lift some of the intense blame placed on Serbians. In my eyes, she has shed some light onto the matter, more than I can say CNN ever did.

It is obvious after reading this book that the author has not even heard Farrakhan speak or at least did not listen with an open mind.

I doubt that the author has even been to the mosque to hear any of the ministers.

If you have an opinion on the Nation of Islam, it is better to hear a speech first hand or talk directly to a member. Save your money by not buying this book.

Levinsohn, has an intelligent mind and a good knowledge of race relations in the United States, but she remains captive to a far-left mentality that distorts her understanding of this subject (poor black women in search of domestic work she terms "victims") as well as international politics (the Kuwait conflict she dubs "George Bush's curious war against Iraq"). Her ignorance sometimes causes her needlessly to speculate about well-known facts (such as the physical characteristics of the NOI founder, W. D. Fard, whose huge portrait has graced many of the movement's public events). She repeats old mistakes (that Farrakhan was expected to succeed Elijah Muhammad, that Malcolm X was more powerful than Elijah Muhammad) and initiates new ones (Farrakhan never mentions in speeches the old NOI goal of a separate black state, that the NOI does not follow up on its threats of violence).

Despite these shaky underpinnings, Levinsohn does offer insights to help decipher Farrakhan, showing the role of his family's West Indies background and explaining the "aura of madness" that surrounds him. She calls him "the most influential man in the black world" but also "one of the shrewdest opportunists in recent history," someone who "doesn't care" about such issues as job training and the problems of the black poor. Instead, his "interest is in building a great and strong Nation of Islam, with branches wherever there are black people."

Middle East Quarterly, December 1998