Under a Whistling Sky
A Girl's Journey through a War-Torn Childhood
Sifting through wartime memories in search of understanding, Under a Whistling Sky is an affecting memoir.
Milica Vidić Vogt’s evocative memoir Under a Whistling Sky covers the Bosnian War and her emigration to the United States.
Vogt, the daughter of a Croatian Catholic mother and a Serbian Orthodox father, grew up in a village where the adults were all known as uncles and aunts. At police checkpoints, she came to the early realization that her mixed background was fraught: In times of war, people expected one another to choose sides.
Vogt’s childhood fears are lent gravity by the book’s use of the present tense, with Vogt noting early signs of trouble, like changes in her parents’ demeanor, with urgency. She also recalls overhearing a conversation about a burned-out shop and seeing Serbian army trucks roll in. Still, when she was young, her concerns were often more immediate ones. She was upset at being unable to visit her relatives, and she worried when her Croatian teacher vanished and no explanations were forthcoming. As Vogt’s family’s once-peaceful village was besieged, she and her family members became refugees.
The prose is straightforward, eschewing political concerns to focus on Vogt’s family life, all while hinting at the absurdity of strangers restricting her life via border controls. Though it is written from the perspective of her youth, on occasion, a more mature voice emerges:
And the brutal truth is that, in these situations, there are no innocent sides, only innocent people suffering. Instead of connection, people foster separation, and someone we once considered family can become the enemy.
Indeed, the interplay between Vogt’s bewildered childhood memories and her thoughts in hindsight persists throughout. Like war itself, this is sometimes disorienting, but the book keeps a handle on conveying people’s base tribalism in both instances.
The book’s progression follows the escalation of violence, from Vogt’s sheltered inklings of coming trouble through her stark awareness of falling grenades. Her father was drafted, and hunger began to pervade her community. However, while the factual outlay of events is clear, the book is sometimes too short on context, including when it comes to how ethnic factions informed the war. Albanian prejudices toward Serbians, for example, are just glimpsed, not explored.
Though it relates vulnerable moments, the book’s tone is restrained and reflective. Its details sometimes depend on inference: Left to imagine the worst, Vogt works to fill in gaps throughout. Because the adults around her did not believe that she needed to understand their displacement as a child, many of her silenced questions went unanswered. However, the book works toward the poignant realization that the adults in her life were themselves afraid, and it concludes with a greater sense of understanding.
In the intimate memoir Under a Whistling Sky, a family’s wartime losses are considered with renewed hope.
Reviewed by
Karen Rigby
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
