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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.
novelvisits's review against another edition
4.0
My Thoughts: Wow! The Girl Who Smiled Beads is everything at once: a heartbreaking, terrifying story of war and genocide and an inspirational story of a girl fulfilling her destiny. Clemantine Wamariya’s memoir smoothly alternates chapters between the six years she and her sister, Claire, wandered Africa in search of safety and a place to call home, and the years after they gained refugee status in the United States. This dual timeline kept both parts of her story in balance.
At only six years old, Clemantine and her 15-year old sister fled their home, their country to escape the war and massacres that were ravaging Rwanda. Clemantine was too young to truly understand, but she was not too young to feel terror and grief at losing the only life she had known.
“I never learned the right words in Kinyarwanda. I hope they don’t exist, but without words my mind had no way to define or understand the awful sounds. Nowhere to store them in my brain. It was cold and green and wet and then bushes and my legs were shaking. And, eyes. So many eyes. My thoughts and senses became jumbled.”
I found both Clemantine and her sister Claire to be remarkable. Claire wasn’t the mother substitute that young Clemantine longed for, but she was a powerhouse at keeping the two of them alive. Every country they fled to, every new camp they made a home in, Claire found a way to make money. They never had much, but Claire kept them alive and moving toward safety. Along the way, Claire picked up a husband that she wished she hadn’t, and gave birth to two children also falling under the wing of her protection. It was Claire who got them to America, where Clemantine thrived and Claire struggled.
In The Girl Who Smiled Beads Clemantine Wamariya laid bare the lifelong wounds of war and how little most of us will ever truly understand them. It’s easy to know of wars happening on the other side of the world, but it’s much more difficult to truly open our eyes and see the human side of the horrors. With sadness, anger, humor and hope Clemantine Wamariya has managed to shine a light on war and on its survival. I highly recommend, The Girl Who Smiled Beads.
Original Source: https://novelvisits.com/mini-reviews-nonfiction-audiobook-edition/
At only six years old, Clemantine and her 15-year old sister fled their home, their country to escape the war and massacres that were ravaging Rwanda. Clemantine was too young to truly understand, but she was not too young to feel terror and grief at losing the only life she had known.
“I never learned the right words in Kinyarwanda. I hope they don’t exist, but without words my mind had no way to define or understand the awful sounds. Nowhere to store them in my brain. It was cold and green and wet and then bushes and my legs were shaking. And, eyes. So many eyes. My thoughts and senses became jumbled.”
I found both Clemantine and her sister Claire to be remarkable. Claire wasn’t the mother substitute that young Clemantine longed for, but she was a powerhouse at keeping the two of them alive. Every country they fled to, every new camp they made a home in, Claire found a way to make money. They never had much, but Claire kept them alive and moving toward safety. Along the way, Claire picked up a husband that she wished she hadn’t, and gave birth to two children also falling under the wing of her protection. It was Claire who got them to America, where Clemantine thrived and Claire struggled.
In The Girl Who Smiled Beads Clemantine Wamariya laid bare the lifelong wounds of war and how little most of us will ever truly understand them. It’s easy to know of wars happening on the other side of the world, but it’s much more difficult to truly open our eyes and see the human side of the horrors. With sadness, anger, humor and hope Clemantine Wamariya has managed to shine a light on war and on its survival. I highly recommend, The Girl Who Smiled Beads.
Original Source: https://novelvisits.com/mini-reviews-nonfiction-audiobook-edition/