PositiveZZYZZYVA... a nuanced picture of Hemon’s life emerges, yet it is not the singular, master narrative imposed by the standard memoir format ... The force of Hemon’s writing is undeniable, and several of these pieces are exceptional; yet the collection is at times ungainly, with instances of repetition that give it a restless quality, a sense, if read straight through, of pacing in concentric circles around the book’s core subjects. This is not entirely for the bad: it’s interesting to see Hemon working and re-working his material, approaching the material of his experience from varying angles (much as he’s done in his fiction), and seeking narrative arcs in that material. This may be an unintended consequence of grouping pieces which were written separately and as stand-alone essays, but the effect is also an honest message about how we tell ourselves the stories of ourselves, revising and reflecting as we go along ... His recollections open up a world unfamiliar to many Americans, and make Sarajevo a vividly complex and compelling place ... His styling has the immigrant’s studied hyper-awareness of how the language works, and, at times, an inflected cadence that is beautifully unusual ... Hemon examines the ordinary and profound truths of family life and shines an inquiring light on his own interior life, all amid political upheaval and exceptional historical circumstances. Readers of Hemon’s fiction may find some of the terrain covered here familiar in its fundamentals, echoing material found in his stories and novels. The thrill of discovery, then, is in smaller moments, a continuation and deepening of what we’ve come to admire in this author’s writing ... These are pieces crafted to stand alone, some more enduring than others. Now, collected in this memorable volume, they still stand as distinct aspects of a vista, each an integral but independent part of the scene—perhaps a fitting metaphor for the imperfect narrative bent of memory itself.
