Rating: 
Summary: Heart full of napalm
Review: My War Gone By is a brutally honest account of Loyd's penchant for destruction. It's war journalism, but so personally invested that it takes on a life beyond mere news reporting. You may not agree with Loyd's moral complacency, but you never doubt that he means what he says. Loyd's book won't help you to understand the political and military complexities of the Bosnian war(s), but it will transport you to the front lines, and beyond that to the reasons why Loyd loves being there.
Rating: 
Summary: A face from the other side of the mirror
Review: "I did not know the details but I decided to go there...I felt young and lucky." Few war correspondents of any age have been as devoid of a sense of calling as Anthony Loyd. In 1992 he went to Sarajevo with a diploma in photography as his "cover" and an adolescent's fascination with war as his real motivation. If he went there to find himself, he succeeded. He lost himself as well. A cameraman friend of mine remembers Anthony Loyd in Bosnia as friendly, modest and generous. These qualities might have driven an entirely worthy account of the Yugoslav wars. But it is Loyd's other side, his darkness, that makes this such an extraordinary and essential account. Prostitute the values of home, he writes, and "your wisdom multiplies". He hangs with crims and victims, romantics and murderers. In time his ignorance and cynicism metamorphisises to awareness, to rage, to disillusionment, and ultimately to his own dark clarity. This is a helluva book about war, and of the high price of the knowledge of it.. It looks unflinchingly at atrocity, at notions of courage and idealism, at the instinct to attend wars that are none of your business, and the other instinct of powerful nations to avoid wars that should be their business. It gives a belly-up view not only of the Bosnian conflict in all its varied guises, but of Chechnya as well. Loyd, inevitably, becomes a casualty himself. The sane man's response to such things is to act in an insane way. Heroin does it nicely. Give this man a mug of sljivovica and a pillow for his head. The prices he has paid are his, but he has written a roiling, shrapnel-blasted cracker of a book that renders most everything else in the genre pale: a terrifying, compelling, inverse morality tale. It is indecent that awfulness on such a scale should be such a good read.
Rating:
Summary: Dark Reflection
Review: Without a doubt the most haunting and powerful book I have read. The book covers his journey through the conflict in former Yugoslavia, his changing views on morality and the true horrors that man can produce. All this is written in some of the achingly poignant language. At times humorous, at times enough to make you cry in public. If anyone ever felt the need to justify their existence by placing their life in jeopardy this book I would hope, should stop that or at least allow the thrill-seeker to realize what they are with honesty. It is this honesty, couple with the emotional deadness caused by heroin addiction which allows him to write with a clarity that transcends the preaching,gore-filled or jingo erotic accounts that are so often abound in combat literature. Read it and it will change your perception of what morality is. It's not an easy ride but I did find a light in it.
Rating:
Summary: I miss it so...
Review: That's how I felt when the book ended. I missed it. Loyd does an excellent job describing the horrors of war and his own addiction to heroin. To really simplify things, he does a nice job of presenting the 'duality of man' in war. That is, man's capacity for evil and compassion exist side by side. It's a sad, tragic tale of both journalist and war. The best part about this book is that their are many unanswered questions, such as does Loyd really miss the war? Also, many of us can surely relate to the inability to find intimacy with another partner or other people. Why is Loyd unable to do this? What's it mean to be a soldier in the new century? What responsibility does the US, Western Europe and UN have to resolving and intervening in conflicts in faraway places? Loyd gives thoughtful insights to these tough questions. His book is excellent and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating, eye-level view of war
Review: Loyd is very honest in his accounts of the realities of his own life. As other reviewers have noted, the book is as much about himself and his reactions to the war as it is about the war itself and history. He mixes theses elements so well, and tells his story so openly, that I found the book hard to put down. The accounts of fire fights and the atrocities are scary, and the brief account of his time in Chechnya suggests that experience was too much for even him. His description of his estrangement from his Dad was heart-breaking, a wound that may never healed. Loyd's photo on the back cover kept looking back at me as I turned the pages. A very good read.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful
Review: This is one of the most intense, evocative and powerful books I have ever read. From the beginning the reader plunges into Loyd's personal hell of unrealized ambition, a dysfunctional family, and an addiction to, alternately, danger and drugs. Alternating between England and the shattered regions of the former Yugoslovia and Chechnya, we come face to face with a young man whose psyche mirrors the shattered landscapes he explores. What makes this book truly important, however, is that Loyd brings no sense of self-pity, no guilt to his narrative. This is not to say he is amoral, but he doesn't use the horrors he has experienced as an excuse. A reason, yes, but never an excuse. This work operates on so many levels I could never do it justice in the brief space allocated here. Suffice it to say this is a haunting, moving, powerful book. It is not an easy book to read, but it is well worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing capture of the senselesness of war.
Review: It usually takes me a couple of weeks to finish a book, this one took me just two days. I literally took time off to read it! That being said it's haunting reading that stays with you for a long time. Unlike one of the previous revieuwers, who felt distracted by Anthony's personal struggles with addiction and his father, for me they made the book even more personal and interesting. A must for people that are not satisfied getting their sanitized version of conflict via regular media outlets.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: Mr. Loyd's book is one of the finest, most fluid first person books to have been written on the Balkan conflict. Behind the folly of traditional media reports, the true conflict emerged as one of intense hatred and at once complete understanding. The accounts which Mr. Loyd portrays honestly make you feel like you can smell the fear and the passion which engulfed the region.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling
Review: Loyd's account here is very personal and at times very moving. The fact that he is so candid about his own "addiction" to seeing war and witnessing violence first hand (as well as his heroin addiction) is what makes this such a compelling read. He is also one of the the few, if not only, correspondents to be posted in the Balkans who willingly admits that he was something of a war tourist and a voyeur, viewing the suffering of others secure in the knowledge that he could leave any time. Generally Loyd's book is also free of the often sanctimonious moralizing found in accounts written by Glenny, Reiff, Vulliamy, Bell and scores of others. I can't think of any specific reason why this book is such a good read; it just is. Read it.
Rating:
Summary: War - In all it's Glory
Review: In travelling to Bosnia to cover an emerging conflict without an employer to pay his way, Anthony Loyd took an enormous risk. And yet, it was nothing compared to the risks that he would take once he had buried himself in the war. This is an intensely captivating account of Mr. Loyd's years covering the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. It is also gruesome and disturbing. There are some who will surely be offended with the casual glee with which he describes gruesome situations and the loss of human life. But he writes honestly, and it is this that makes his story especially compelling. He also writes with feeling. During his years as a correspondent, Mr. Loyd developed relationships, shed tears, and saved lives. In reading his account you can't help but think that there is part of him that is no longer British and that his involvement in the war taught him to love the land that it was on and the people who fought it. His passion shows through in his writing.
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