Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust

by Imaculee Ilibagiza

I stumbled upon this book in my quest for interesting memoirs and I must admit I was not disappointed. The book is written from Imaculee's perspective and starts off on a nostalgic note where she is describing her childhood. Her vivid description of the lush Rwandan countryside will make you long to visit shagz. The first few chapters suck you right in and this lays the groundwork of how deep an emotion you'll feel for the rest of the book. It's pretty obvious that she had a happy childhood, but was also very sheltered and mostly unaware of the political climate in the country. Therefore, when she wakes up one morning and Hutus are suddenly butchering Tutsis with machetes, it takes you by total surprise and you're right there with her wondering what the hell is going on.

The rest of the book takes you through the long, awful days spent in hiding with seven other Tutsi women in a tiny little bathroom that belongs to a Hutu pastor. I read the book while holding my breath and felt as though I were in that bathroom with her, willing those Hutus that are looking for her to disappear. How they all survive until the end of the genocide is truly remarkable and Imaculee's own intelligence and quick thinking is evident. There are many vivid descriptions in the book that will stay with you long after you've put the book down. Mine is the one where her oldest brother's head is split in half because the perpetrators wanted to see what "the brain of a person with a Masters degree looks like".

Overall, the book is well written and gripping enough to make you want to read it nonstop. However, this is a very personal representation of history and if you're like me, you will end up with a lot of unanswered questions when you turn the last page. It was not until after I'd read the book and was busy recommending it to everyone I knew that I found out her story has been featured on Oprah and a few other places, so many people are probably familiar with the story. But, it's worth a read. It's a testimony to how truly animalistic humans can be, but it is also a testament to the strength of the human mind and how hope and faith can help you survive trauma.

Overall, the book is well written and gripping enough to make you want to read it nonstop. However, this is a very personal representation of history and if you're like me, you will end up with a lot of unanswered questions when you turn the last page. It was not until after I'd read the book and was busy recommending it to everyone I knew that I found out her story has been featured on Oprah and a few other places, so many people are probably familiar with the story. But, it's worth a read. It's a testimony to how truly animalistic humans can be, but it is also a testament to the strength of the human mind and how hope and faith can help you survive trauma.


~SBB~

Shalimar the Clown, by Salman Rushdie

This is the first book by Salman Rushdie that I ever read. Initially, I wanted to start with his other book which landed him a fatwa - The Satanic Verses - since it was out of stock I read Shalimar instead.

A very well written book about a young indian village girl-a dancer, who marries his childhood sweetheart-an entertainer a.k.a clown, later turned killer, and leaves him later on for an american ambassador, a married guy with a frigid wife hence the roving eye. In the end, things don't go as she thought they would and she goes back to the village, where she lives as an outcast, until her husband comes to kill her. Let me not spill more beans now.
I really liked the way the story flows though Salman tends to take meandering paths to get to the point, so if you are impatient, it might not really tickle you. There was one section where he went on about some parties (political) and they were all abbreviated (HDG, KIR, MJU, ALZ, BPT etc) It looked crazy but since i skipped that page, i was alright with it:-)

The last part of the book was wonderful, did not want to put it down. A really nice book, not fast paced but has parts that grip. Definately 8 out of 10.

Review by Chatterly

MESKEL

I always thought of Ethiopia or Ethopia as I so fondly love to call this marvelous African gem, as a place where chics have this incredibly soft and oddishly but nice wavy hair…I still do by the way, but after reading this story my perspective of these beautiful people was refined. This land, this high land- “The roof of Africa”- is the setting of Meskel. A story about Greek immigrants that moved into Ethiopia in the early 20­­­th century, the story is nothing but illustrious, a documentary of sorts telling graphically, a story of a people endowed with a rich culture. It is against this background that Mellina and Lucas Fanouris now Kenyan immigrants (I know!! Don’t they ever get tired of their nomadism?!) tell the 2-generation story which culminates in their fleeing their “homeland” during Mengistu Haile Mariam’s “Red Terror”, remember?
Yeah that’s the I-want-to-sound-knowledgeable-opinion; this is my raw take: I think it’s a book that you’ll be proud to read, not because its interesting but because it’s an “EthOpian family saga”, you get my drill? Yeah its those books that you’ll read for months at times putting it away so far because its exhausting to read details of some ‘immaculatte’ orthodox catholic ceremony, because, well the cover defines drab and yes sometimes it’ll leave you wondering “What the hell am I doing reading this? Isshh?”.
But hey don’t listen to me, believe it or not, I know about the “RED TERROR” now and the barbaric tyranny of Haile Mariam and the ‘glorious’ reign of the Emperor Haile Sellasie and his down fall on his 80th birthday? I forget… Anyway it’s a great book for y’all out there with literary egos and a knack for historical and socio-political literature.
In my honest opinion though, out of five yawns: I give it 3. Out of ten laughs,: I give it 0.5.
Real stories are made realer by pictures? Well you won’t be disappointed there…
Read Meskel…(1926-1981).

Review by Bantutu