Black Lamb and Grey Falcon is a legitimate literary classic. Rebecca West's prose, her observation and storytelling are sharp, thoughtful and well-rounded. West wrote the book about six weeks of travel she and her husband undertook through Yugoslavia in 1937. Viking Press published it in 2 volumes in 1941.
The work follows their travel route and is easily enough followed on paper, though the subjects range far back in history. West's irritation at the amount of history about Yugoslavia that was unknown or ignored in the West is palpable and fuels much of this book. It is at times exhausting to be faced with so much information, so many places and peoples and at the same time, that exhaustion was exactly right. There is no absence of love for the people she meets and the land she travels. While her approach does romanticize the roles of history and culture, it is not careless and it is not without meat.
There are few travel narratives I have read that do not owe a debt to Rebecca West. The work of reading this is well worth it.
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| Yet another doorstop. Read this in chunks. |
It was utterly shocking to read. Rebecca West was then utterly unknown to me (as are most of the women who wrote for magazines since ever)(unless I've dug up their collections or travel books)(or someone mentions them in one of those books intended to redirect your attention away and toward and thank you for acknowledging this exceptional writing), and while I still know very little about her, this book is an anchor of my travel writing library.
She is not always a comfortable companion and she travels uncomfortable roads. Her extreme anger at nuns is distracting for me, though it does not affect the storytelling, only the audience. She is clearly writing from a specific perspective, one that is privileged, colonial and monied.
The history and sense of need for understanding and compassion in the face of overlapping layers of ludicrous administration, wartime decisions, environmental degradation and the subsequent cultural developments is as relevant today as it was in the years leading up to the second World War.
Paying attention to someone else's truth can lead to a need to wash your face right off when they are done speaking. That conflict is ever-present here. It comes with greater understanding. Whether that understanding is needed in your own library is entirely a matter of perspective. I keep it in mine as an active reminder to do better and learn more. Also her prose and her path are gorgeous.
