This book sounded interesting when I first bought it, but then it sat on my shelf for years. Now that I finally got around to cracking it open, I guess I wouldn't have minded if it stayed there.This is not to say that I hated it; rather, I was just never that interested in the story or the characters, which qualifies, I suppose as a particularly sad irony. I don't actually know that much about Sarajevo, aside from the fact that it was a place where bad stuff was happening. Pretty Birds, unfortunately, doesn't seem to do a great job of clarifying the specifics of that "bad stuff", and while I'm sure that Simon knows what he's talking about, his book never feels particularly authentic.I don't know if it's the obsession with American and British pop culture, which admittedly, for all I know, is an accurate reflection of the interests of teenage girls in Sarajevo. Maybe it's just that everyone in the book seems so glib. Certainly, people in traumatic situations use humor as a way of escaping horror, but at no point did I really feel the painful realities supposedly being masked by jokes and vapid pop cultural references. I'm sure that Simon didn't particularly want to dwell on Irina's rape or any of the deaths she witnesses or otherwise takes part in, but it says a lot that the most emotional part of the book is the death of a doctor who shows up for just a few pages.This feels like a book written by an American. Maybe that's the point; maybe Simon is intentionally making his characters feel like people with the same interests and concerns as his readers in some sort of attempt to force a little empathy. Sarajevo certainly could have used a lot more American empathy back in the 1990s. Instead, it just feels artificial and ham-fisted. It's as though he's trying to have it both ways, forcing his readers to understand the horrors of war without actually having to present them himself.
Scott Simon’s novel PRETTY BIRDS expertly portrays the horrors of war and the enormous toll it exacts on human lives, detailing the siege of Sarajevo through the eyes of Irina Zaric, a half-Muslim teenaged resident. Before the conflict erupts, she is a fairly typical high school student. Her life revolves around her family, her parrot (Pretty Bird), and her friend and teammate Amela, a non-Muslim. She enjoys basketball, pop music and pop culture, especially icons such as Madonna, Johnny Depp, and Michael Jordan. However, with the onset of hostilities between warring Serbs and Muslims in the spring of 1992, everything changes for Irina. War is no longer something she reads about in history books. Now she spends her days stealing from the dead and dodging bullets. Irina’s life is irrevocably transformed as she progresses from blithe teenager to preternaturally skilled sniper. Simon draws on interviews and observations gleaned as a war correspondent during the Bosnian conflict to adroitly flesh out the lives of his fictional characters and lend veracity and immediacy to this masterfully written story. PRETTY BIRDS ultimately leaves you with an indelible impression of the devastation of war.
What do You think about Pretty Birds (2006)?
I was really excited to read a book about the siege of Sarajevo since I am going to travel there soon (!!!), and hoped this book would give me some insight into what went on there. Unfortunately the book has fairly clunky writing and characterization, which I guess is to be expected from a first-time novelist, even if the author is very well respected in other fields. It does humanize the terrible suffering caused by the siege, which lasted over three years, although I hoped for a bit more insight into what actually caused the fighting. The book makes it clear that for most Bosnians, they were totally confused by what was going on and why, as well; they weren't especially religious and didn't identify very strongly with their ethnic group, so when they were suddenly targeted for it they were taken aback. But what I still didn't understand very well after reading this was who was targeting them and what they were getting from it. But can there really be a good reason behind the war coined the term "ethnic cleansing"? Message to humanity: war is the worst. Let's stop.
—Gina
This really was a book unlike any other I've read. The subject matter is weighty, yet Simon approaches it with developed characters who interact in unexpected ways. The amount of humor traded back and forth between characters in this war-torn country is unusual, and yet I found myself believing that such interactions might actually be plausible. We're inclined to believe that serious, fear-inducing, stress-producing events are tackled with somber resolve. However, I think the human spirit prevails and humor may very easily be used as a coping mechanism. At times, a new storyline abruptly begins and the reader is confused about the interweaving characters. Eventually though, the intricacies are revealed and the story becomes richer. I learned a lot about the conflict, the power of human nature (both as a source of good and a source of evil), and came to reconsider previous notions of our psyche.
—Charmayne
I really wanted to like this book (as sad as I knew it would be) but I just had a hard time getting into it. Sometimes, I had a hard time following what was happening to Irena and other times the pages were so boring that I skimmed a few pages at a time. A lot of early references to Madonna, Marky Mark, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, etc. just made the story a little too "cheesy" for me. Also, there was a lot of sexual talk that I just found a little over the top (not that I am a prude or anything). The story is set in Sarajevo when the war breaks out and Irena goes from being the star basketball player for her high school to a sniper in the war shooting at the Serbs unknown to all of her family and friends. In fact the story goes on to show how involved she has gotten that she actually gets to meet Osama bin Laden in his early days when he tried to support the Muslims in Sarajevo. So sad to think that a country who thrived and was proud of all of its multicultural ties for centuries could so quickly be at war busy with ethnic cleansing. Sad ending that I didn't see coming!
—Jodi
