My War Gone By, I Miss IT So

Product Information

Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Loyd’s graphic descriptions of the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, allow the reader a glimpse through a window into a world many cannot comprehend. Photographer Anthony Lloyd captures this perplexing obsession in the brilliant My War Gone By, I Miss It So.

Lloyd longed for the fury of war but felt he missed it as a British military commander during Desert Storm. Eventually he finds himself, only after getting lost along the way, while experiencing the worst of humanity. This book takes you into a war that you thought surpassed all wars, but sadly today it is being mirrored, and may even look insignificant in comparison to Syria and the Middle East. Among the wars he reported were the conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Iraq.These include his outstanding description of local Croat soldiers bringing their Muslim neighbors and friends to the protection of the UN to prevent their comrades from murdering them and the drunken reunion of rival Serb and Muslim commanders on the battlefield, boyhood friends pitted against each other by the war. And Loyd waxes eloquent on the backblast of his war time, a heroin addiction that begins before his arrival and becomes the only way he can survive his breaks from the fighting' Salon | 'First-rate war correspondence . My War Gone By, I Miss It So, Anthony Loyd's provocatively titled memoir of the wars in Bosnia and Chechnya, challenges many of the conventions of the genre. Nevertheless, no bias against Serbs or Croats (their ethnicities) is present and particularly interesting was his description of how thousands of Serbs and Croats fought for the supposedly Muslim government. One of my favorite parts, for example, was Loyd's description of the fighters of the Croat HOS militia who fought the Serbs at the frontline by day and partied in happening bars by night.

There are labels which brand sentiments according to share rather than detail, words like ‘afraid’, revolted’, ‘shocked’. This may be the book these wars needed—an angry, confused howl against the obliteration of all we consider humane.Loyd experienced the raw emotions and love affair of war while simultaneously losing the ability to relate to friends who lack the ability to sympathize. He’s shone a light into the darkest corners of his psyche and smeared his beating heart across the page. It’s either one or the other – war or oblivion – he simply cannot cope with the peaceful, civilian life going on around him.