Matt McAvoy Book Review

To tell the truth, I was expecting something a little different from this book.  No particular reason, but from the title I had a hunch that An Independent Woman In Yugoslavia was going to be perhaps the travel memoir of a midlife divorcee ticking off a bucket list entry.  And if I’m being even more truthful, I’m very glad that it wasn’t.  Instead, what this book actually is is a memoir of a very normal life, if lived by an extraordinary woman.  Iris is an achiever, no doubt, and an incredible grafter.  Someone who not only raised three children but built a career in a tough communist environment, then her own business.  What happened after that is something of a mystery, because her tale essentially ends about the time that war broke out in the former Yugoslavia, and of course we all know what came next.  One can only really dread what happened to Iris’s life, family and all she had worked so hard for, as an effect of that war.  Sadly, nowadays when many of us think of Yugoslaiva, we think of the conflict, and particularly poignantly at the moment, we may draw parallels with the situation unfolding in Ukraine.  But the fact that Iris chooses to end her book at this very point is perhaps vocal in its point; her way of saying that war is not what her book is about, and is not what her home is defined by.  That, too, is very much to her credit.  I simply hope that she went on to live the good, successful life she absolutely earnt.

As well as a headstrong, ambitious and focused person, Iris is also a tremendous writer in the English language – I can only assume the outstanding quality of writing in her own tongue.  Her self-professed achievements and character strengths are given credentials by her literary talent.  There is no real high drama or melodrama – this is not a chronicle of abuse, misogyny or discrimination; it is simply Iris taking stock of her own life, as she remembers it.  Her ability and drive to do this are enviable traits to have, and she is fortunate to have the tools available to enable her to pass on her experiences, which will be of great value to any young women who feel that the choices in their life are to be sorted and separated by sacrifice.  Iris shows the reader that they can achieve all of the things they want; indeed, remember that when the end comes in this book, it is not through any fault of Iris’s choices or the course of her life, but rather because of bigger geopolitical factors beyond her control.  But there is a cost to this achievement, and that is that one must be strong enough to upset people, from time to time, because speaking one’s mind is imperative.  A sound advisory composition by a very gifted writer.