LAUSR

Helms first briefly turns her lens to the significant, yet largely ignored, space of (the politicization of) masculinity in this context, and she then ventures into the arena of journalistic, artistic, and academic opposition to ethno-national scripts that have hijacked the politics of victimhood in post-Dayton Bosnia. It is on these pages that the author’s activist side – however hesitant and aware of the numerous obstacles ahead – is most available to the reader, offering a tiny horizon of hope. Helms is an ethnographer of the Balkans who really ‘gets it’ – her ethnography is refreshing because it is sincere, courageous and rightfully suspicious of the hopeless/hopeful duality which marks the majority of the studies of the region. The author’s knowledge and understanding of history, culture and contemporary politics of the region are truly exceptional. This book demonstrates this impressively through its critique born out of care, and through the intimacy and frustration that stem from its proximity to and perpetual engagement with its subject.