Buddy Read for Hired Man by Aminatta Forna

[Booknblues]

At least 3 of us are doing a buddy read for The Hired Man for August, we would love it if anyone wanted to join in.

Anyways here is the thread.

[Joy D]

I am in!

[Heather Reads Books]

I just read about half of the book on my long plane journey yesterday... I'm really enjoying it so far! Beautiful writing, and despite a lot of quiet scenes, there is so much tension and meaning packed into everything.

I especially like the contrast of Duro and Laura so far... he is very critical of her (feigned?) ignorance of Croatia's war-torn past but still seems compassionate toward her and her family.

[Booknblues]

Heather Reads Books wrote: "I just read about half of the book on my long plane journey yesterday... I'm really enjoying it so far! Beautiful writing, and despite a lot of quiet scenes, there is so much tension and meaning pa..."

I'm hoping to start it this weekend as soon as I wrap up what I'm reading.

Looking forward to it. I loved Happiness.

[Joy D]

I am about 20 percent in, and loving it so far. I've read her books before so I expected great writing.

[Booknblues]

I'm feeling behind now! I need to catch up.

[Booknblues]

So I've just started yesterday. I love how Forna quietly draws you into the story. I have a sense now of "what is happening here?" She is using Duro's stories of his youth to create a picture, but it is still obscure. I have the sense of tension behind the scenes, but I cannot see it clearly.

[Joy D]

I am going to be reading this slowly since I'm reading a number of books at once. It takes a while to set the stage, and I am not sure where it's heading, but I am enjoying it quite a bit so far.

[Booknblues]

I'm half way through. Here are some things to discuss possibly:

I enjoy Forna's style.
I am struck by how well she writes from a male perspective or so it seems to me.
It seems like we are coming to a collision of past and present.

[NancyJ]

I'll try to get the book. I've had this one on my list for while. I don't remember exactly what happened in Croatia (there have been too many ethnic atrocities in this world). I feel the need to get a brief big picture of the events rather than go in cold.

[Booknblues]

NancyJ wrote: "I'll try to get the book. I've had this one on my list for while. I don't remember exactly what happened in Croatia (there have been too many ethnic atrocities in this world). I feel the need to ge..."

I think that many of us are confused about Croatia and you don't absolutely need to know about it to read the book.

The book that helped me understand the whole Yogoslavia/Serbia/Bosnia/Croatia was The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War. But just some research on the internet might work as well.

[Joy D]

Booknblues wrote: "I'm half way through. Here are some things to discuss possibly:

I enjoy Forna's style.
I am struck by how well she writes from a male perspective or so it seems to me.
It seems like we are coming ..."

I am a fan of Forna's writing - this it the 5th book of hers that I've read - all are high quality.

I agree the male perspective is believable.

I am still behind you guys so I'm not sure yet about how everything is converging, but I expect to find out what happened between Dura and his friend.

[Heather Reads Books]

I am about 200 pages in and I have some more questions/commentary.

So far there is nothing political about the lead up to the Yugoslav war. I am finding this somewhat frustrating. I'm not even clear on who is fighting who and why. I have studied post-Soviet conflicts, though not the breakup of Yugoslavia in any significant way, but I know it was considered an absolutely bloody mess of sectarian and ethnic violence. I am a little disappointed so far there is no acknowledgment of this in the text. Perhaps more comes later? But with less than 100 pages to go I am starting to worry.

Also, I am confused that Duro does not seem to have been pressed into military service during this this time, despite being a veteran? I think he's only supposed to be about 30 or so at this point in time. I don't know what the policies were in the Croatian military, but I was wondering if he'd be called up to fight. So far, nothing. I'm trying to withhold judgment since this book tends to explain a lot in a very economical way all at once, but the vague and minimal style starts to grate on me when it fails to answer obvious logistical questions.

All that said, I still think it's beautifully written and I agree that Duro is a convincing male first person narrator. I just wish he'd stop beating around the bush with some of this stuff.

[Booknblues]

I've finished it.
She does have the very slow reveal.

She does not reveal that much about the fighting, but from looking it up Croatia declared independence in 1991 and then spent the next 4 years fighting. I'm not sure how quickly they developed their military and conscription, although now they do have conscription.

[Booknblues]

I posted my review, but hope to still discuss the book.

[Joy D]

I am behind both of you. I get the sense that this book is more about the outsider, Laura, coming to a place where she and her family are not familiar with the history, and expecting to have a "nice family time" not realizing that the area is still recovering from trauma. The arrival of these outsiders is the catalyst for Duro to revisit his memories, which he has suppressed. At least, that's the sense I get at this point (about 60%).

[Joy D]

I have read quite a bit about the breakup of Yugoslavia, mostly about Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, a good amount about Slobodan Milošević, but I don't consider myself any sort of expert or know the details of how they conscripted.

[Heather Reads Books]

Yeah I think a part of me is simply wishing I knew more blow by blows of the history, which I’m not sure is fair to expect a novel to provide. Once I’m done I’ll reassess how much was explained and if that was enough to satisfy me.

[Booknblues]

Heather Reads Books wrote: "Yeah I think a part of me is simply wishing I knew more blow by blows of the history, which I’m not sure is fair to expect a novel to provide. Once I’m done I’ll reassess how much was explained and..."

I read somewhere that someone mentioned that she should be careful not to be blocked into telling one story repeatedly. I think The Hired Man was her attempt to break out and yet continue telling a story she wasn't finished with.

I'll try to find where I read that.

[Heather Reads Books]

Well, I've finished! I gave it 4 stars ultimately, because the writing was beautiful, and I really loved the beginning and thought the end wrapped things up in a fairly satisfying way. I did think the middle sort of dragged and I definitely wished there were more details and political context of the war given.

My full review is here!

[Booknblues]

It definitely didn't give much context for the war. I thought it was more about how a civil war effects people and how they get past it.

In the book she says "But in this country our love of the past is a great deal less, unless it is a very distant past indeed, the kind nobody alive can remember, a past transformed into a song or a poem. We tolerate the present, but what we love is the future, which is about as far away from the past as it is possible to be."

One point in the book Grace wants to go to church and Duro says that the Orthodox one is closed. Because of that I did a check on Wikipedia and the vast majority of Croatians are Catholic, in Serbia the majority are Orthodox and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they are 50% Muslim, 30% Orthodox and 15% Catholic.

[Heather Reads Books]

I did like that passage, as I thought it was very indicative of a certain post-Soviet attitude in the regions affected by the USSR’s collapse.

I caught mention of how the Orthodox Church was closed and figured it had to do with the religious differences in the town. However I must admit one of the few things I did know about the wars was that the Bosnians were Muslim and there’s no mention of Muslims in this book at all. I’m unsure if demographically Bosnians just didn’t live in the area that was being depicted, but the omission made me curious.

(I did read something after the fact claiming the main conflict was between Croats and Serbs and the Bosnians just sort of found themselves stuck in between, but I don’t know enough to say whether this has any truth to it.)

[NancyJ]

I have 4 (!) new efiles ready for me today from Libby, but not this book. (They approved my purchase suggestion but someone else got to it before me, even though I checked the new arrivals list every hour or two.)

I've only been able to finish 3 books so far this month, and I'm frustrated because this is my favorite tag.

My hunger for cultural books is greater than my eye's ability to read this month. : )

[NancyJ]

Booknblues wrote: "Heather Reads Books wrote: "Yeah I think a part of me is simply wishing I knew more blow by blows of the history, which I’m not sure is fair to expect a novel to provide. Once I’m done I’ll reasses..."

What do you mean. Which story was the original one?

It sounds like I might feel frustrated by my ignorance of history with this book, so I might wait and pair it with a more informative book.

I might prefer to start with one of her other books, about her own culture.

[Booknblues]

NancyJ wrote: "Booknblues wrote: "Heather Reads Books wrote: "Yeah I think a part of me is simply wishing I knew more blow by blows of the history, which I’m not sure is fair to expect a novel to provide. Once I’..."

Nancy, I have only read Happiness which was a 5 star for me. She has written a memoir and several others. I think Heather and Joy have read more of hers and could make suggestions.

I know her father died quite tragically and I think she has written about that.

[Joy D]

I finished the book last night. It will take me a while to process my thoughts and write a review, but I can now add a bit more to the discussion above:

- Duro was part of the "territorial" forces, so he was not ignored by the armed forces, but when the National Guard arrived, he (and the other territorials) were told they were not needed, so they basically took to defending their own territory

- If you read more about the conflicts in Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia (and the entire region at the time), this is consistent. There were not, generally, two armies fighting each other. Much of the conflict was guerilla warfare

- I agree with you, BnB, that the primary topic here is the impact of war, especially this type of war which was not planned and organized strategically, but just fought many places around the countryside. It resulted in people choosing sides, and, like Fabjan, trying to increase his own wealth and take advantage of the circumstances, without regard to his neighbors. This typically happens in wars. We see it in Germany WWII where there were heroic efforts by some citizens to hide the Jews while others were denouncing them to gain favor

- NancyJ, you may want to read the Wiki version of the history of the Bosnian/Serb/Croatian wars before embarking, but I think you can still enjoy this book without reading tomes of info beforehand, as long as you treat it as a character study of what happens to traumatized people after a war where people chose sides, with lingering aftereffects

- I agree with Heather that it would have been helpful to understand more about the religious differences by including this info in the book, but I have read other books recently where the reader has to do a lot of research to fully enjoy it (e.g., Shalimar the Clown by Rushdie - you need to know quite a bit of Kashmiri history to fully appreciate it)

- And finally (now that I've written a book about a book lol), Aminatta Forna is one of my favorite writers. Here are my reviews of her other works, in case you want to check them out:

The Memory of Love - 5 stars- My Review

Happiness - 4 stars - My Review

The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion - 4 stars - My Review

Ancestor Stones: A Novel - 4 stars - My Review

The Devil that Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Quest - 4 stars - My Review

[Heather Reads Books]

Joy wrote: "Duro was part of the "territorial" forces, so he was not ignored by the armed forces, but when the National Guard arrived, he (and the other territorials) were told they were not needed, so they basically took to defending their own territory"

I did notice this part after I made my original comment, so I was satisfied, though it did take me longer to get that information than I would have liked (hence me wondering why he wasn't conscripted).

"If you read more about the conflicts in Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia (and the entire region at the time), this is consistent. There were not, generally, two armies fighting each other. Much of the conflict was guerilla warfare"

That is good to know! I think perhaps a larger question here is whether a novelist has a responsibility to flesh out the particulars of history, or can just assume it doesn't matter and let the reader do their own research. With my own writing, I was definitely taught to assume the reader knows nothing and to fill in any blanks for them, but preferences may vary.

"I agree with Heather that it would have been helpful to understand more about the religious differences by including this info in the book, but I have read other books recently where the reader has to do a lot of research to fully enjoy it"

Relatedly, I did do some research and flag a few nonfiction books to check out about the Yugoslav wars in case anyone is interested. I haven't read them yet so I can't speak personally to their quality, but they might be a good place to start. If anyone knows more about the topic and has some recs, I'll gladly take them too!

New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era - specifically about warfare in the period directly after the collapse of the Soviet Union

The Death of Yugoslavia

Balkan Tragedy: Chaos and Dissolution after the Cold War

[Joy D]

Thanks for the non-fiction recommendations. I can recommend two works of fiction that shed light on these conflicts (both 4-star reads for me):

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht

And one that goes back much further into history of the region:
The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andrić

Heather Reads Books wrote: "I think perhaps a larger question here is whether a novelist has a responsibility to flesh out the particulars of history, or can just assume it doesn't matter and let the reader do their own research. With my own writing, I was definitely taught to assume the reader knows nothing and to fill in any blanks for them, but preferences may vary.."

You are right, it is a personal preference. I never expect an author to provide all the needed background. I tend to do that myself whenever I read a book. Providing a lot of history can detract from the storytelling, depending on how it is conveyed, of course.

[Booknblues]

For books, the one I mentioned earlier The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War is quite good. It is not just about the war, but also about the start of WWI and the author walks what was once Yugoslavia. Tim Butcher the author was a war correspondent during that time and does explain it quite well.

The other book I read is a fiction Girl at War and it was quite good. It tells of the part Croatia played but of course we see it through a child's eyes.

[Joy D]

Booknblues wrote: "For books, the one I mentioned earlier The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War is quite good. It is not just about the war, but also about the start of WWI an..."

I own a copy of The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War - not sure when I will get to it, but hopefully soon.

I will check out Girl at War. I had not heard of it.

[Booknblues]

I think you will like it. It has been a while since I read it. I remember that she visited some place on the coast.

[Joy D]

Finally finished my review for this book.

Finished #11 for August:

The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna - 4 stars - My Review

Link to my PBT Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Duro is a handyman living in a small Croatian village. He is hired by Laura, an English woman whose family has purchased a vacation home in the area. The story is told in first person by Duro. It is about an outsider, Laura, coming to a place where she and her family are not familiar with the history, and expecting to have a "nice family holiday," not recognizing that the area is still recovering from trauma. The arrival of these outsiders is the catalyst for Duro to revisit his memories, which he has suppressed. It gradually changes into a tale of war and betrayal.

It is a character study of what happens to traumatized people after war, where people chose sides, pitting neighbor against neighbor, and resulting in lingering aftereffects. It may be a good idea to read up on the history of the Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian wars beforehand, if you are not already familiar with it, since the author does not provide many details.

It is a slowly developing story, where the reader gradually becomes aware of Duro’s past. This method is effective in spurring the reader’s curiosity. I very much enjoy Aminatta Forna’s writing style. She has previously explored similar themes in another part of the world (Sierra Leone).

Forna is one of my favorite authors. I can also recommend:
- The Memory of Love - 5 stars- My Review
- Happiness - 4 stars - My Review
- The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion - 4 stars - My Review
- Ancestor Stones: A Novel - 4 stars - My Review
- The Devil that Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Quest - 4 stars - My Review