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camila_lezcano's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
bec13's review against another edition
4.75
One of the best memoirs I’ve read. The non-linear storytelling worked great. I think some books on refugees leaving their home country and resettling in another country can add to a white saviour (not saying this is intentional), which is something this book managed to challenge well. it also really showed that things aren’t just fixed as soon as you arrive at a ‘safer’ country
probablyjenna's review against another edition
5.0
Clemantine is a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. She shares her story of fleeing violence, living in African refugee camps for years, and processing the trauma of her childhood. It is beautifully written and so deeply vulnerable; it’s impossible to not become entirely engrossed in her journey. It also feels very painfully timely when you consider the violence currently upending lives in Palestine.
kellyncorrado's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to like this more than I did. The importance of this story being told is so critical; the genocide is something that I was very removed from, both as it was happening and even as an adult. I remember the first I even became aware of it was when the movie Hotel Rwanda came out when I was in high school. But even after that, it didn't feel like something that was discussed enough, at least in my household (and shame on me for not doing my own homework). Despite the horrific events that Clementine experienced, the prose didn't do it for me. It sometimes felt disconnected and randomly jumpy. Sometimes I would get really invested in a particular storyline or thought she was developing and then it would cut. I don't know... so much to unpack here but ultimately it left me a little underwhelmed.
emkatec's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
4.5
audrey_grace's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
tense
slow-paced
3.25
i would’ve enjoyed it more if i didn’t have to read it for school and annotate the whole thing
beckimoody29's review against another edition
4.0
This isn't a book you "like" -- it is hard to read with its almost dispassionate descriptions of war and life as a refugee. Yet it is a book that I think should be read widely. There is a quote that really hit me from the book where Clementine is wrestling with understanding the word "genocide":
This --Rwanda, my life -- is a different, specific, personal tragedy, just as each of those horrors was a different, specific, personal tragedy, and inside all those tidily labeled boxes are 6 million, or 1.7 million, or 100,000, or 100 billion lives destroyed. You cannot line up the atrocities like a matching set. You cannot bear witness with a single word. (p. 95)
Many of the greatest tragedies of our history are too incomprehensible in their entirety. We need to be able to see the individual before we can ever hope to comprehend. I am so glad that the author chose to tell her part of the story.
Mechanically, it goes back and forth from the war years to her life in America. I think it is a good format as I think it would be too depressing to tell the story chronologically. This is a very real book -- characters are both good and bad, even the author. Neither is it all gloom and doom -- there are people who offer food and shelter, officials who bend rules, new dresses, and a Mickey Mouse backpack. Throughout is a tough love that survives and holds on to hope for a better world.
This --Rwanda, my life -- is a different, specific, personal tragedy, just as each of those horrors was a different, specific, personal tragedy, and inside all those tidily labeled boxes are 6 million, or 1.7 million, or 100,000, or 100 billion lives destroyed. You cannot line up the atrocities like a matching set. You cannot bear witness with a single word. (p. 95)
Many of the greatest tragedies of our history are too incomprehensible in their entirety. We need to be able to see the individual before we can ever hope to comprehend. I am so glad that the author chose to tell her part of the story.
Mechanically, it goes back and forth from the war years to her life in America. I think it is a good format as I think it would be too depressing to tell the story chronologically. This is a very real book -- characters are both good and bad, even the author. Neither is it all gloom and doom -- there are people who offer food and shelter, officials who bend rules, new dresses, and a Mickey Mouse backpack. Throughout is a tough love that survives and holds on to hope for a better world.