Arian’s Reviews > Black Lamb and Grey Falcon > Status Update

West writes of Bishop Strossmayer of the Roman Catholic Church - and a pro-Croat - 'We regard him with suspicion, we look for the snake beneath the flower. All of us know what it is to be moon-struck by charmers and to misinterpret their charm as a promise... and all of us have found later that that charm made no promise and meant nothing, absolutely nothing. Hence the biographies of charmers...

This extract details Croatia’s internal struggle for free speech and a free press - notably against the Roman Catholic Church which had become predominantly Italian in the 20th century.

A heated debate between Valetta and Constantine.

My favourite extract so far. So so much to unpack. The highlighter has been in use more than ever before!

West’s written observation of the patients at the sanatorium is so so nuanced.

Marko, addressing West. speaks of the Englishman, 'your friend, who showed no emotion at the thought of the spires of Vienna being replaced by minarets, doubtless would expect us to forgive the Austrians for building oubliettes for our heroes so long as they built us chalets for our necessities' - Marko, informing the Englishman that Ottoman Europe was an 'uncomfortably recent' threat . (1937).

West opens her extract in Croatia by introducing the reader to her three friends - Valetta, Constantine, and Marko.

Valetta, a Croat from Dalmatia, believes in an autonomous Croatia and is anti-Yugoslavian, contrary to the other two. Although Marko and Constantine are pro-Yugoslavian, to Marko, Constantine 'seems impious in the way he takes Yugoslavia for granted' as he was born a free Serb.

We are now in Jugoslovenka!

Finally decided to pick up this mammoth of a book.
I am reading the Canons edition, introduction by Geoff Dyer.