Final thoughts on The Monkey House

Just finished Fullerton's The Monkey House and I'm really torn trying to figure out the rating. I loved the descriptions of war and the unforgettable images of the population of Sarajevo, terminally hungry and exhausted and sudden experts on differentiating small arms fire. The last 30-40 pages when Rosso first discovers Tanja is in the hospital, he makes a dash during the night in a flurry of sniper fire and mortar shells, his conversation with poor decent Serbian Dr. Misic who says she will lose her other leg if she remains in Sarajevo and finally his exchanging himself with the journalist Flett to the Serbs so Tanja, Mahmud and Noor could be flown out of the country. He knows the Serbs will almost definitely kill him just for being a Rosso as his father was a Nazi sympathizer and war criminal (the Serbs were targets of Nazi ethnic cleansing.)

What I didn't like was Fullerton takes too much for granted of his reader. I expected and of course didn't mind researching for this book but I wasn't clear on so many things. I still don't think I understood everything at the end. I realize it's a stupid hangup of mine but I think the author should have mentioned what year this takes place as clearly that is significant. The back of the book says 1996 but the Dayton Agreement was signed in December 1995. As I said before I am assuming this is taking place in late 1995 as it seems the war is over in Croatia. Also, as locations are key to the story I think the book could at minimum really have used a map of Sarajevo, if not the Bosnian coast (since that plays a key in the drug smuggling story.)

Maps and dates just tend to be weird peeves of mine. A more general complaint is the story felt a little too insider. I really had trouble understanding some characters' actions, particularly why was Tanja in that cemetary where she got her leg blown off in the first place? It was fairly nonsensical.

Fullerton apparently has done a lot of war reporting and lived in Peshawar (can you imagine after covering the Bosnian War he consented to live in Pakistan?) He has since written 3 other novels. If I were him, I'd be snuggling up to a fire in jolly old England with some biscuits and a cricket match.


Some words he used at the end that I didn't understand:

Roulement is a term used the the British Army for major combat units deployed on short-term duty (usually less than six months)

When Rosso is talking to the Minister after he has arrested Luka (as per their plan as it turns out), he says to him "Hvala" (thank you) to which the Minister replies "Nema na cemu" (you're welcome.) Fullerton prints the English next to the Bosnian but since that's redundant, I thought it must have meant something else.

I like the touch that Anil drives poor, doomed Rosso to the place where Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated in June, 1914 for the hostage exchange. Because of the mosques, churches and temples, apparently Sarajevo is referred to as the European Jerusalem. No wonder it has such a sad history.

Finally, I liked Tanja and Rosso's final conversation where she asks him to forgive himself for being his father's son. The end clearly shows that he couldn't.