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88th out of 435 books
—
113 voters
My War Gone By, I Miss It So
by
Anthony Loyd
Nothing can prepare you for Anthony Loyd's portrait of war. It is the story of the unspeakable terror and the visceral, ecstatic thrill of combat, and the lives and dreams laid to waste by the bloodiest conflict that Europe has witnessed since the Second World War. Born into a distinguished military family, Loyd was raised on the stories of his ancestors' exploits and grew...more
Paperback, 336 pages
Published
February 1st 2001
by Penguin Books (NY)
(first published January 1st 1999)
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Born of a prestigious English military family, Loyd was enamored of war until he enlisted in the Bosnia conflict. Fresh with a degree in photojournalism and no prospect of a job, Loyd decided to go to Bosnia, where the war had been going on for about a year in 1993. Freshly arrived in Sarajevo, he was almost immediately introduced to t he irrationality of the situation. Looking for a guide to help him find the house a contact in London had provided, he soon found one who was more than happy to h...more
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Feb 05, 2008
Ron
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Arm chair Historians, would be journalists, addiction info.
For me, it was one of the better written memoirs I've read in a long time, up there with "Sorrow of War" and dare I say it, "All quiet on the Western Front". It has been out of print I believe.
For the "gun and gear guys it is a let down, but for telling the effects of combat and man's inhumanity to man, it is startling.
To be fair to Anthony, the book is divided into sections; his troubled relationship to his parents: his addiction: set against the backdrop of a correspondent who is strugglin...more
For the "gun and gear guys it is a let down, but for telling the effects of combat and man's inhumanity to man, it is startling.
To be fair to Anthony, the book is divided into sections; his troubled relationship to his parents: his addiction: set against the backdrop of a correspondent who is strugglin...more
3 likes · like · see review
Amazing - nothing that I could write could do justice to what this book did to me when I read it.
Have you ever had a book hit you like a hammer blow to your head and your gut at the same time? That's what Loyd's writing did to me. Ricocheting between wartime and peace, jarring you out of your stupor with no preparation when he describes the horrors of war to begin a chapter, dragging you down with him as he sinks into his addiction to heroin - all this and more made for a haunting, unbelievable...more
Have you ever had a book hit you like a hammer blow to your head and your gut at the same time? That's what Loyd's writing did to me. Ricocheting between wartime and peace, jarring you out of your stupor with no preparation when he describes the horrors of war to begin a chapter, dragging you down with him as he sinks into his addiction to heroin - all this and more made for a haunting, unbelievable...more
This book was recommended to me by my friend David, he thinks it's a great perspective on the war in former Yugoslavia and a great read. At first the author Anthony Loyd irked me with his masculine style. It always annoys me when a book is dripping with predictable gender stereotypical perspectives - in this case, a gross glorification of war and the arguably innate attraction humans have for violence. At least that's what I first though. Reading further I realize that his voice damns that desir...more
I read this for my Eastern European history since 1918 class. This is a very grim picture of the wars in Bosnia and Chechnya in the 1990s. Anthony Loyd was a photojournalist from England (I continue to wonder why the photo on the cover of the book isn't one of his).
Loyd writes about something that is completely incomprehensible to me: he sought out the war in Bosnia because he didn't get enough of war while serving in the military. He saw some truly disturbing things in Eastern Europe and met so...more
Loyd writes about something that is completely incomprehensible to me: he sought out the war in Bosnia because he didn't get enough of war while serving in the military. He saw some truly disturbing things in Eastern Europe and met so...more
Dec 04, 2010
Erik Graff
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Bosnia & war reporting fans
Recommended to Erik by:
Becky
Shelves:
biography
Usually I expect to be choked up while reading war memoirs. That didn't happen often with Anthony Loyd's My War Gone By, the most gruesome account I have ever read of warfare, despite my prejudice, shared with the author, for the Bosnian side of the conflicts between the former republics of Yugoslavia.
A large part of this book is about Loyd's experience as a young, novice photojournalist in Yugoslavia. A small part of it is about his experiences in Chechnya, a portion that could have been left o...more
A large part of this book is about Loyd's experience as a young, novice photojournalist in Yugoslavia. A small part of it is about his experiences in Chechnya, a portion that could have been left o...more
Anthony Loyd goes to the war in the former Yugoslavia as an observer - well, let's be honest, a tourist - and then gradually succumbs to the fascination, tinged with shame, of observing something surreal, dangerous, and yet so central to Europe. The complex and cruel war in between Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Muslims and other overlapping and changing factions was a gruesome continuation of centuries of internecine fighting that was only temporarily halted by the Tito regime - close to a quarter mi...more
This firsthand account of the Bosnian war took me 6 months to read, and was definitely one of the most morally challenging books I've ever read. It was hard for me to sympathize with a man who waded into a conflict that was not his own, and who found the chaos and anarchy that surrounds war so beautiful and natural. A self-professed heroin-addicted atheist "son of privilege" is not the typical perspective I would choose to humor, but Lloyd's memoir is so well-written and honest that I stuck thro...more
If you want to know what the politicians did during the war, read a history, like Yugoslavia:Death of a Nation. Books like that certainly have their importance. But war is always, in these modern times, a two way street: what the politicians are doing, and what the average people are doing. This memoir is about those normal people. Sure, Loyd encounters generals and thugs in power, but only those that actually carry arms, that are there in the thick of it. Not those hanging out in Belgrade or Za...more
I picked this book up to learn more about the Bosnian / Serbian / Croatian conflicts of the early 1990s. There is a lot of detail here, but it's very much a ground view and doesn't go much into the overarching political concerns behind the war. Perhaps that's the point - the picture painted here is of pure chaos, with little rhyme or reason beyond the clashes of various local power groups.
This book is essentially a memoir, so what we get is the author's experience during the war years, which co...more
This book is essentially a memoir, so what we get is the author's experience during the war years, which co...more
Grizzly images seared into brainspace... I hope they dissipate with time. His style leaves a lot to be desired and his thesis of conflict addiction is liturgically rehashed to a numbing point. Leave the memoir, take the jarring history of modern inhumanity left to its own brutal devices while the impotent observers shivered and the pundits traded barbs. The Balkans are endlessly interesting: read Ivo Andric's Bridge on the Rive Drina for an account of the Ottoman years and watch Emir Kusturica's...more
Nothing can prepare you for Anthony Loyd's portrait of war. It is the story of the unspeakable terror and the visceral, ecstatic thrill of combat, and the lives and dreams laid to waste by the bloodiest conflict that Europe has witnessed since the Second World War. Born into a distinguished military family, Loyd was raised on the stories of his ancestors' exploits and grew up fascinated with war. Unsatisfied by a brief career in the British Army, he set out for the killing fields in Bosnia. It w...more
This book adds something missing from most war reporting books: a sense of the author’s place. There is no doubt that witnessing war and speaking to people directly involved affects a writer, but most writers attempt to cover this up by maintaining an authoritative and impartial voice. For all their best efforts, opinion often bleeds through. Loyd takes a completely different, refreshing approach by chronicling his motivations for going to Bosnia, his feelings on the proceedings, and detailing t...more
Jun 28, 2008
Sarah
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
humanitarian aid workers. journalists, soldiers and other war junkies.
having just finished "War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning", I felt compelled to re-read this book to see if it freaks me out as much as it did when I first read it - before I started traveling to war torn countries. I've now been to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Darfur, South Sudan, Central African Republic, and Northern Uganda. Will it still upset me like it did? Or have I become cynical?
Update: Still shocking yet I understand it more. Thank Go...more
Update: Still shocking yet I understand it more. Thank Go...more
One of my all time favorite books. On the one hand it's a masterpiece of war reporting as we follow Anthony Loyd (now, Sir Anthony Loyd) on his journey through the war torn Balkans during the bloody civil war of the 90s. On the other hand, it's an incredibly beautifully written story and Loyd's poetic narrative captures the tragedy and senseless of war unlike any other author I've ever read.... An absolute must read about one man's addiction to both heroine and war.
During my "dark night of the soul" this book made me feel alive. Absolute clarity and awareness recorded in the most horrific of human experiences. I absolutely loved this book. It made me cry and gag with revolt but I couldn't turn away. That's what life is like though if your eyes are fully open. There is beauty too but the dark side here is so present and intense it awoke me from the stupor of an ordinary life. I highly recommend this book.
Oh man ... An absolutely harrowing read about war, addiction, loss ... just so brutally honest.
I think it's the first time I can appreciate the need/necessity of wanting to go back into chaos rather than try to live with the demons in a civilian capacity.
An amazing personal account of the effects of war and how we, as civilians, can never appreciate the contradicting emotions of horror and elation experienced by these men.
I think it's the first time I can appreciate the need/necessity of wanting to go back into chaos rather than try to live with the demons in a civilian capacity.
An amazing personal account of the effects of war and how we, as civilians, can never appreciate the contradicting emotions of horror and elation experienced by these men.
1 like · like · see review
It is a little known war novel that features a modern day Oedipus that escapes boredom of Private School in England to travel to former Yugoslavia to maintain his drug habit and try to describe the insanity of war. Like Stendhal who knows to focus on the individual suffering at war, Loyd ( the protagonist) creates a personal journey that shows the horrors afflicted among us. Overall a despairing but remarkable story of the Serbo-Croatian War.
Memoir from a journalist who cut his teeth mostly in Bosnia (and Croatia and… that conflict). He sort of comes into journalism by accident. He's a little bit of a war freak, and also an admitted drug addict. But his experiences in wartime seem completely genuine. He talks some about how he can't have an objective view of which side is 'right' because of what he's seen. It was a bit episodic, which was actually good since I was mostly listening 5 inutes at a time in the car and such. But the shee...more
A drug addict's journey through war in the Balklans.
Anthony Loyd's stint as a photojournalist in the former Yugoslavia exposed him to some geniune horrors.
Being a journalist - he tells you all about them to the point where you wish he'd stop. The cruelty of the Balklan war is unrelenting and Loyd spares no imagery in showing you how bad it can get.
This is a book to snap you out of any illusions you have about what you see in the news. Loyd illustrates that savagery can be witnessed - even photo...more
Anthony Loyd's stint as a photojournalist in the former Yugoslavia exposed him to some geniune horrors.
Being a journalist - he tells you all about them to the point where you wish he'd stop. The cruelty of the Balklan war is unrelenting and Loyd spares no imagery in showing you how bad it can get.
This is a book to snap you out of any illusions you have about what you see in the news. Loyd illustrates that savagery can be witnessed - even photo...more
Whenever I am asked to pick a favorite book I feel as if someone has asked me to pick a favorite star out of the night sky.
That said this is the book I normally respond with because of the raw hard hitting self honesty with which the author aproaches not only the Bosnian Conflict but also his own personal war raging within himself.
That said this is the book I normally respond with because of the raw hard hitting self honesty with which the author aproaches not only the Bosnian Conflict but also his own personal war raging within himself.
Are you supposed to like this book? It was grim and the pervasive mood was that of rain, gloom, and the misery of an unfulfilled life.
Interesting assignment would be to read this with Jarhead and to compare and contrast the author's experiences and what they thought/think of war and battle.
Interesting assignment would be to read this with Jarhead and to compare and contrast the author's experiences and what they thought/think of war and battle.
This book nearly exclusively informed the character of Leith, a war photographer in my forthcoming novel The Weeds Within. The book is a must of truth and verity about the psychological effect of war on those who witness without being able to change anything about what they see.
I don't really get choked and emotional about books, but this one really choked me several times. Loyd is a heroin addict photographer who travels to the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, and sees some hideous things, all of which he relates utterly fantastically. Truly super stuff.
The setting fades to irrelevancy as we see the stark parallels drawn between actual war and the ones we create for ourselves in our everyday lives and suggests a deeper human need for action or drama or thanatos than can't be delivered by civilized domesticity.
This is a relatively interesting and disturbing account of one man's experience reporting on the Bosnian war. I'm sure there are much better and more comprehensive accounts of this war out there, so I wouldn't choose this one out of a lineup.
It was worth the read for the bits about the wars in Bosnia and Chechnya, but I honestly didn't care about some Brit's personal psychological problems and heroine addiction.
The part about the author that I did find interesting (even though I don't remember e...more
It was worth the read for the bits about the wars in Bosnia and Chechnya, but I honestly didn't care about some Brit's personal psychological problems and heroine addiction.
The part about the author that I did find interesting (even though I don't remember e...more
Unique perspective mixing drug addiction and the horror of war. A fresh look at old topics. No glamor. As gritty as I expected but it also has an honest feel as if the author was feeling his way.
A memorable memoir about the war in the former Yugoslavia that also teaches the reader about the conflict there. Some of the scenes still stay with me years after reading it.
Fantastic, gruesome personal journey into the horrors of war, peace, government hypocrisy, addiction and withdrawal. Lloyd went to Bosnia as a war tourist and isn't apologetic about it, although he does bring the reader along for a awful ride. An essential read for anyone who is at all interested in the Bosnian war or war in general, and especially its effect on the human psyche.
Compelling and good to get an insight into parts of the war I'd not known about before, but in the end too self-indulgent and naked in the wrong measure for me.
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