My War Gone By, I Miss IT So

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Through the ages, people have struggled to find their place in the world taking different journeys on their path of life. The book was great but a bit much for me that I couldn't get certain scenes out of my mind for a while. There's bloodred-vivid descriptions of the fighting, sure, but there's also the dark poetic insight of a man who's seen humanity at its worst. In addition to the stimulation engendered he was also fighting a heroin dependency that reared up when the buzz of the danger passed. Loyd could see that any rational person would want to break the four-minute mile getting across and hated the thought of dying on his first day because of a need for politesse.

An extraordinary memoir of the Bosnian War … savage and mercilessly readable … deserves a place alongside George Orwell, James Cameron and Nicholas Tomalin. The writing is effective, but far from brilliant, and the stories go from the dealing with addiction back in London, uninteresting for war history buffs, to the gory details of war, which the author uses as starting points to reflect on war at various levels. He left behind a damaged, distinguished military family and swapped one kind of addiction for another; drink and drugs for the adrenaline of combat. If you’re impressed with the way Philalawyer juxtaposes self-awareness and a sort of helpless self-loathing, you’ll be blown away here. Numbness or self-glorification, the two poles that capture most battles memoirs are non-existent in Loyd’s work.

in] the great tradition of Hemingway, Caputo, and Michael Herr' Boston Globe | 'My War Gone By, I Miss It So moves at the pace of a thriller. This harrowing account shows humanity at its worst and best, and is acknowledged as a classic of the genre.

Freshly arrived in Sarajevo, he was almost immediately introduced to the irrationality of the situation.

Loyd’s journey relates to all those who have firsthand experience with war, as well as their loved ones, and the struggles to rebuild some resemblance of their past life that exists in stark contrast to their experiences.

It was not that I no longer missed those close to me, merely that I felt so detached as to be suddenly unaware of what I wanted or care about outside the immediate realm of Bosnia. a raw, vivid and brutally honest account of his transition from thrill seeker to concerned reporter' Philip Jacobson, Daily Mail | 'Chilling . The descriptions of mortar-damaged flesh in Bosnia do not depart easily from the consciousness of the reader, who is left shuddering at the damage they must have inflicted on the author.Loyd has gone to hell and back and is telling us what he's seen in sometimes beautiful, always pungent prose.

But druggy ruminations are notoriously shallow, and an "existence is meaninglessness" POV makes for dreary reading. Lloyd] has written an account of its horrors that will wipe out any thoughts you might have had that we have reached the limit of the worst human nature has to offer.

He had the vulnerable purity and courage that would ensure he was among the first to get whacked on the front. Loyd has taken a step toward resuscitating the somnolent language of conflict-at-a-distance, bringing a war often seen through a haze of euphemism into sharp and jarring focus.