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readingpanda's review
4.0
I have to admit to being an American who knew very little about how the Rwandan genocide had come about, and in fact about the real scope of it. I am considerably more educated after having read this book.
If you've seen the movie Hotel Rwanda, you know the basic outline of how Paul Rusesabagina sheltered approximately 1,200 people in a hotel in Kigali. In the book, he tells how he did it - by calling in favors from people whose acquaintance he'd made as a hotel manager. That doesn't begin to describe how much he had to use his wits. He had to sit down and talk with people who were commanding others to hack their fellow citizens to death with machetes, and often doing it themselves as well. He had to face these men and find a way to whatever small measure of humanity might be inside them. Failing that, he had to figure out what sort of bribe might allow them to make a deal with him.
It's inspiring what can be accomplished by simply doing what seems to need doing. Luck was involved, and perhaps some naivete on Rusesabagina's part, but it was a combination that worked miracles for his family and the refugees he housed in the Milles Collines Hotel.
If you've seen the movie Hotel Rwanda, you know the basic outline of how Paul Rusesabagina sheltered approximately 1,200 people in a hotel in Kigali. In the book, he tells how he did it - by calling in favors from people whose acquaintance he'd made as a hotel manager. That doesn't begin to describe how much he had to use his wits. He had to sit down and talk with people who were commanding others to hack their fellow citizens to death with machetes, and often doing it themselves as well. He had to face these men and find a way to whatever small measure of humanity might be inside them. Failing that, he had to figure out what sort of bribe might allow them to make a deal with him.
It's inspiring what can be accomplished by simply doing what seems to need doing. Luck was involved, and perhaps some naivete on Rusesabagina's part, but it was a combination that worked miracles for his family and the refugees he housed in the Milles Collines Hotel.
dkeane2007's review against another edition
4.0
What would you do if your entire world descended into hell? I can only hope that I would react with the honest dignity of this story of trying to do one's best in the midst of insanity.
bunn's review against another edition
While I didn't enjoy it, I can't rate this book. I feel that it's unfair to rate an autobiography.
colleenish's review against another edition
5.0
I discovered this book in an high school classroom. Apparently it's a book that the whole or major parts of the class reads because there was an abundance of copies. It's not a very long or difficult book, but I learned so much about Rwanda, such as information about the UN's part in everything. The book has a silver lining despite being about genocide. This story is the basis of Hotel Rwanda, which I have never seen.
I love stories like this, that teach us about what being human is fundamentally about with very little whitewashing. I think that some of the lessons in this book are things that high school students desperately need to know, and so I am proud that it would be taught in our schools. I just hope that we are listening.
I love stories like this, that teach us about what being human is fundamentally about with very little whitewashing. I think that some of the lessons in this book are things that high school students desperately need to know, and so I am proud that it would be taught in our schools. I just hope that we are listening.
marsenault13's review against another edition
4.0
This is such a necessary story to read. It tells the story of an ordinary man that fought with the best of his skills against the horror of genocide in his own country. He used his knowledge as the manager of a high-class hotel to schmooze his way through a great number of horrific things. The tale is so sad, but so good to know that he and many of his family made it , and that he saved so many people at the same time.
cocoonofbooks's review against another edition
4.0
This was a hard book to read, but an important one. This 200-page book was my introduction to the details of the 1994 Rwandan genocide told through one individual's experience. Rusesabagina, whose story was told in the film Hotel Rwanda, was a hotel manager who sheltered over one thousand refugees in his hotel during the massacre by taking risks and calling in favors to the powerful people who had regularly stayed in his hotel. What is just as important as the facts of his story are his reflections on how the genocide happened. His primary audience for the books seems to be Americans (based on certain analogies he makes), and he calls out the mistaken ideas that Americans are likely to have about how a genocide attributed to "tribal factions" means a bunch of uneducated, primitive Africans fighting each other. When he explains how slowly the groundwork of hatred and fear was laid that eventually led people to kill their neighbors and friends, it's difficult not to see parallels to many other instances of racial prejudice that have started off with unchecked hateful rhetoric, including in our own country today. He also doesn't hesitate to call out the failures of other countries to lend aid, including the painful irony that once those who committed the genocide were driven out of the country as refugees, they received immense amounts of aid from the United States, who couldn't be bothered to step to aid victims in while the killing was happening.
This would be a five-star book except that events were often told out of order for no apparent reason, which made it difficult to follow at times, and there were parts of the book that were not as carefully edited as they should have been. Despite that, it's worth a read, for Rusesabagin's own story but also for the history lesson and the food for thought on human behavior.
This would be a five-star book except that events were often told out of order for no apparent reason, which made it difficult to follow at times, and there were parts of the book that were not as carefully edited as they should have been. Despite that, it's worth a read, for Rusesabagin's own story but also for the history lesson and the food for thought on human behavior.
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