Where the West Ends: Stories from the Middle East, the Balkans, the Black Sea, and the Caucasus

'Where the West Ends' is, at least superficially, a travelogue about the region straddling eastern Europe and western Asia, during the period from 2006 to 2012. The book is divided into four sections covering the Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Black Sea. It's roughly the same region covered by Robert D. Kaplan about ten years earlier in Kaplan's book 'Eastward to Tartary'. But "Where the West Ends" is more personal, and it is astonishing. At times it surreally reminded me of China Mieville's novel 'The City & the City'.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Probably most of us are guilty of throwing around terms like "the West" and "the Middle East" without really thinking too hard about what they mean, or where those places begin or end. If you want to understand what "the West" is, read this book to learn where it is, and where it is not.

There is a persistent feeling of loneliness in this book. It is the loneliness of communities cut off from one another and from themselves; but it's also the loneliness of certain individuals who refuse to be confined within the communal walls that are assigned to them.

There are harrowing stories of violence and cruelty, such as Berisha's tale of the expulsion of the Albanians from Prishtina and the ravaging of Krusha e Vogel. There is Ukraine's memory of the Stalinist "hunger plague" of 1932-1933. But there are also stories of courage and kindness, and of hope.

Three themes emerged for me as I read "Where the West Ends". There is the image of the lonely liberal, surrounded by a sea of increasingly hostile and violent factions. There is the conflict between old traditionalism and new fundamentalism. And there is the improbable eruption of pro-Americanism in the strangest places.

The Serbian film writer Filip David is one of those lonely liberals; so is the half-Serbian, half-Bosnian Predag Delibasic, who takes pride in having declared himself variously a Jew, a Muslim, and a Yugoslav - and claims that nonexistent nationality to this day. Perhaps the loneliest, though, is Shpetim Mahmudi, an Albanian Sufi mystic who must watch the gradual encroachment of foreign-backed Arab islamists on the grounds of his religious compound. His story is tragic.

It also points to something important about religious conflict in the Muslim world: that the conflict is often not - as Westerners sometimes imagine - a case of Western modernity threatening to extinguish Islamic tradition. Rather, it is instead a direct attack on centuries-old, evolving religious traditions by well-armed, well-financed followers of a comparatively recent fundamentalist sect. It is ancient moderation versus newfangled fanaticism.

It should not be news that there are places in the world where America is not well liked. Serbia is one of those places, as attested by the Belgrade taxi driver's curt greeting to Totten at the beginning of chapter 2. What's a better-kept secret, though, is that there are places that are enthusiastically pro-American. "Where the West Ends" visits some of those places: Iraqi Kurdistan, Albania, Georgia, Romania.

Taken as a whole, this book presents a spectrum of individual and communal relationships: nation-states new and old, enclaves and exclaves, secessionist and occupied zones, segregated and integrated communities, and individuals struggling - with varying degrees of success - to behave with dignity and decency amid environments calculated to breed brutality.

What we're left with is an admiration of the courage it takes to succeed. The Georgians in chapter 9 have watched Russian planes burn their forests and bomb their villages. They are angry with Russia, but they do not hate Russians. And Delibasic, at the end of chapter 2, says, "I don't hate anybody" - not even the general who commanded the prison camp where he was once confined.

Still, forgiveness is sometimes born of proximity. In the course of a conversation with a Romanian researcher about that country's Communist past, Totten is reminded of a militant in another place who said, "[They] don't live here ... they live over there, so I don't have to forgive them!"

One final note: The values and traditions that we cherish in the West are by no means assured of continuance. "The West" is an abstraction that exists in space and also in time. If in the title you replace the word "where" with "when", the book is also a warning.

The book ends with an unforgettable scene of desolation. Read the book all the way to the end, to understand why the chilling final pages capture a part of Europe still haunted by many ghosts.

It may seem odd to say that Where The West Ends is Michael Totten's "must-read" book, after his deservedly award-winning The Road To Fatima Gate (as well as his significant book of Iraq reportage In the Wake of the Surge). But the newest book by this talented freelance writer and foreign correspondent is simultaneously the most personally revealing and most durably universal of his three books published to date. It meditates profoundly on the ultimate stakes of all the conflicts and conflicted lands from which he has reported, from Lebanon to Iraq, from the Mediterranean to the Caspian Sea.

It does so while pulling back the curtain on his own life and background more revealingly than in his other books, though it is never self-indulgent. These essays at times become madcap travelogues, in which Totten (and his comrade-in-arms Sean) are like a Hunter S. Thompson and Dr. Gonzo, high not on illicit drugs but rather on a supremely American decency and curiosity regarding the world beyond Totten's native Oregon. We are treated to accounts, alternately harrowing and funny, surprising and heartbreaking, of Totten's travels through cities and places as diverse as Dubrovnik, Iraqi Kurdistan, the Ukraine, and Azerbaijan, yet which all, through conversations with intellectuals and activists, random street encounters, and Totten's detail-hungry eye, reveal volumes about the fault lines between east and west.

These lines run in often unexpected directions--anyone who is confident that he can establish fixed borders in the clash of civilizations should read this book and think again. Totten's politics are refreshingly eclectic, not doctrinaire. He is "conservative" in the sense that he does see the world as an (often lost) struggle between the forces of civilization and those of barbarity. He is "liberal" in that he finds "West" and "East" in flux and not where one would usually expect. One might adapt Solzhenitsyn's famous line to draw the moral from Totten's superb new book by saying that "The line dividing East and West cuts through the heart of every human being."

I have visited all of the countries in this book except Iraq, Kosovo, and Azerbaijan (although I did make it to Nagorno-Karabakh) and at times I hardly recognized them from Mr. Totten's descriptions. It is, of course, particularly confusing that he doesn't bother to date his visits, although some can be deduced from context. For instance, he was obviously in Georgia in 2008. I was there just one year later in 2009, and while Batumi was definitely depressingly battered, I found Tbilisi (aside from the the oldest section) in reasonably good shape, and my hotel in Borjomi was hardly the third world dump he describes. I would especially like to know which year Mr Totten visited Ukraine, because I very much enjoyed Lviv (in 2006), which he trashes. I stayed in a comfortable, new, hotel, I ate very well for not very much (and from English menus), and while the tourist information office was somewhat disorganized they found me a good guide. And the cemetery was beautiful. It is true that buying a train ticket was slow and frustrating, as the clerk wrote everything out in longhand three times, but otherwise Lviv made my revisit list.

While I found some of the sections on the former Yugoslavia interesting, I almost abandoned the book partway through the first chapter. Why should I pay attention to an idiot who drives all the way across Turkey for a couple of hours in Iraqi Kurdistan, knowing that he has no time to spend there, or enough time to return? Then at the end I discover he also doesn't have the sense to learn the Cyrillic alphabet before visiting a country known to use it. I am terrible at languages, but I managed to learn the Cyrillic alphabet without great difficulty. And how come he didn't at least have a guidebook? I arrived in Ukraine in 2006 with two - Lonely Planet and Bradt (just as well, as LP only had a Ukrainian language section!). I really don't want to hear about your difficulties reading menus when you are too stupid to make ordinary preparations. And I took the train - much less hassle than driving, although as far as I'm concerned the worst roads in Europe are in Moldova.

Just shows that you should take more than one person's opinion into account before drawing conclusions. I had a very different reaction to Macedonia as well, but then Mr. Totten didn't visit Skopje, or, I bet, Ohrid. And I found the Albanians just across the border in Korca a lot less friendly than the Macedonians. So, I would say this book is worth reading for some of the interviews, but don't take it as the last word on the area.

That word is thrown about a lot in describing the author, but he's seems a solidly right-wing guy to me. Unabashedly pro Iraq invasion.

Fun new book from Michael J. Totten. Fun, that is, if your idea of thrills is a drive from Turkey into Iraq for lunch, and that surely would be a thrill for me. Where the West Ends expands on Mr. Totten's Dispatches blog for World Affairs Journal. Sections are roughly grouped as the Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Black Sea.

Many authors seem to believe they won't be taken seriously unless their work is laden with ponderous history. When well written that's worthwhile. When it's not, it's the reason tons of books are returned to the shelf half-finished.

In Where the West Ends, Mr. Totten mostly allows a cursory sketch of the past to suffice. I suspect that satisfies most armchair travelers. Then he gets on with the travel writing I like best, what it feels like to get up from that chair and actually go to a place, and what it's like, personally, to be there.

Much more personal, and personable, than lots of today's current affairs writing.

I expected more from a seasoned reporter visiting some of the most alien and violent parts of the world. The book's tone is eerily flat and undramatic - as though it was written by government employees or a junior high school student. I'm used to the travel writing of P. J. O'Rourke, who spices his travelogues with anecdotes, observations, and ruminations about the colorful locales he visits. (See "Holidays in Hell" for good examples.) Michael Totten's book is more dry reportage. Exact quote: "I don't remember what time we crossed the border. Eight o'clock in the evening? Anyway, it was dark."

As I said, I expected more. I may buy Totten's next book, but I'll read the reviews before deciding.

Where the West Ends is a travelogue thru Turkey, Kurdistan, the Balkans, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Ukraine. At times, the book feels disjointed, Totten seems unsure whether he wants to be more Bill Bryson, by describing with humor the places he travels to and his sometimes funny interactions with the locals, or Robert Kaplan, by describing the places in more historical and political terms. For example, his travel through Turkey and the Kurdish region of Iraq feels more like the adventures of two frat boys - especially the dialogue with his friend, Sean, in an exotic locale. While in the next section of the book, he is obsessed with the political and historical significance of the Balkans.

He seems at his best when he is more Bryson and less Kaplan - I found his descriptions of the train travel in Azerbaijan and Georgia and his road trip through Ukraine to be particularly fascinating. Having traveled in the past few years through parts of the Arab world, I also found it interesting that he could get by easily with English there, but had real difficulties in communicating in Ukraine. I had assumed, like Totten, that English is the lingua franca through most of the world these days. Apparently, as Totten found out, that is not true in Russian parts of the world.

All in all, I would recommend this book especially the parts about the former Soviet Union.

Michael Totten, author of The Road to Fatima Gate, On the Hunt in Baghdad, and In the Wake of the Surge, is one of the best journalists of our time. His reporting of the wars in Iraq and the Eastern Mediterranean have been truly superior. In addition, he has visited and written about conflicts and conditions in places few people know of, such as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He was one of the first independent journalists on the scene following the 2008 Russian invasion of South Ossetia in the Republic of Georgia, and his 2009 report from Libya is stunning. His reporting is always extremely detailed and accurate, and his work is a prerequisite for anyone trying to keep tabs on some of the active and latent conflicts of our day.

In Where The West Ends, Totten expands on previous work to take readers on a journey through the transition zone between the "West" and "East" - a daunting task, as his narrative quickly shows that the line of demarcation is not quite so fine as simple media reports would suggest. Each chapter recounts a different journey through the places that have been influenced - or, in some cases, torn apart - by the tug-of-war between several civilizations. His journeys include the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Georgia, and a variety of other locales.

Consistent with his top tier articles, Totten has an unrivaled ability to make you feel as if you're there alongside him as he describes the events, locales, and especially the people he encounters. Surprisingly, his prose is also devoid of agenda or obnoxious bias - neither right nor left, he informs his reader while allowing them to come to their own conclusions on policy and ideology.

Where The West Ends is a fantastic, coherent, readable book that is relevant to a variety of audiences. Those researching modern interstate conflicts, the socio-political fallout from the end of the Cold War, or the regions in question, will find it indispensible. Those looking for a great travelogue by someone smarter and more experienced than a recent college grad will devour this book. In fact, I can think of few adult audiences who would not benefit from reading a copy of Where The West Ends. I simply cannot recommend it highly enough.

Totten is an excellent journalist. He takes risks, reports stories, and reaches places that not many other American reporters do. "Where the West Ends" is a lighter work than I expected but it managed to be thoroughly entertaining while also teaching me so much. While the individual missives from various countries were, on their own, excellent, the book as a whole paints a vivid picture of a clash and blurring of two civilizations. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Mr. Totten has great insights into the history, distant and recent, of the societies that border the core countires that define western civilization. This knowledge constantly informs the twists and turns as he takes the reader across borders and into unfamiliar places. The trip through the intracacies of the former Yugoslovia is very captivating. He does not hide behind political correctness (e..g the Serbs really were brutal and the Turks really were brutal); doing so only when it spares him from bodiily harm as he travels much more deeply into dangerous locales than even the most ardent tourist dares to do.