You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
922 reviews for:
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After
Clemantine Wamariya, Elizabeth Weil
4.25 AVERAGE
922 reviews for:
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After
Clemantine Wamariya, Elizabeth Weil
4.25 AVERAGE
I've asked this before, but how do you put stars on another person's suffering? So my five star rating is indicative of the necessity of this story and the quality of the writing. To say I enjoyed this would be... not true. It's a story that punches you in the heart, but then sticks to your ribs. It makes you a little sick, a little impressed, and I'd be surprised if you don't question your own narrative and self while reading it. It was difficult to put down.
Clemantine Wamariya describes her own book pretty well right in the very beginning: "Often, still, my own life story feels fragmented, like beads unstrung. Each time I scoop up my memories, the assortment is slightly different." And this is how she tells her story: in fragments, like beads of different colors from different times in her life that she puts onto one string. So at times it was hard to follow her story in a linear fashion, but for me it didn't matter. The story was conversational: I can imagine listening to her over tea and telling me these story fragments, one at a time, as she remembers them.
At first, I didn't necessarily connect this story to the Holocaust. And then Wamariya made the connection herself, while at the same time tearing it apart: the Rwandan genocide is exactly like the Holocaust, and she identified strongly with Elie Wiesel's narrative. And at the same time it's nothing like the Holocaust, because it has its own unique horror. Not all human tragedy is the same. Her ability to do this over and over again: draw parallels and connections while simultaneously pulling things apart is hugely impressive.
She begins her story with normality, slowly leading into the experience of fleeing Rwanda and the deprivation and degradation she encountered. But before she sinks too far into that horror, she pulls the reader ahead to her time in the United States. And from there we go back and forth, following her wild spectrum of hope and terror, anger and admiration. And much like in The Warmth of Other Suns, fleeing one evil into a safer place doesn't mean that all the bad times are over. It's all too easy to think that the Holocaust is in the past, that the evil in Rwanda is over, that Wamariya escaped, so now everything is fine. But I remember learning about the Hutus and the Tutsis in school. I would have been in middle school I think. This episode of history isn't so far away, and similar tragedies continue to happen.
Towards the end, Wamariya says "I know it is a privilege to have the safety, time, comfort, and education to try to shape my experience into something coherent, to think critically and creatively about my life." It may be a privilege, but she makes the most of the opportunity.
Reviewed from an ARC.
Clemantine Wamariya describes her own book pretty well right in the very beginning: "Often, still, my own life story feels fragmented, like beads unstrung. Each time I scoop up my memories, the assortment is slightly different." And this is how she tells her story: in fragments, like beads of different colors from different times in her life that she puts onto one string. So at times it was hard to follow her story in a linear fashion, but for me it didn't matter. The story was conversational: I can imagine listening to her over tea and telling me these story fragments, one at a time, as she remembers them.
At first, I didn't necessarily connect this story to the Holocaust. And then Wamariya made the connection herself, while at the same time tearing it apart: the Rwandan genocide is exactly like the Holocaust, and she identified strongly with Elie Wiesel's narrative. And at the same time it's nothing like the Holocaust, because it has its own unique horror. Not all human tragedy is the same. Her ability to do this over and over again: draw parallels and connections while simultaneously pulling things apart is hugely impressive.
She begins her story with normality, slowly leading into the experience of fleeing Rwanda and the deprivation and degradation she encountered. But before she sinks too far into that horror, she pulls the reader ahead to her time in the United States. And from there we go back and forth, following her wild spectrum of hope and terror, anger and admiration. And much like in The Warmth of Other Suns, fleeing one evil into a safer place doesn't mean that all the bad times are over. It's all too easy to think that the Holocaust is in the past, that the evil in Rwanda is over, that Wamariya escaped, so now everything is fine. But I remember learning about the Hutus and the Tutsis in school. I would have been in middle school I think. This episode of history isn't so far away, and similar tragedies continue to happen.
Towards the end, Wamariya says "I know it is a privilege to have the safety, time, comfort, and education to try to shape my experience into something coherent, to think critically and creatively about my life." It may be a privilege, but she makes the most of the opportunity.
Reviewed from an ARC.
informative
fast-paced
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
[b:The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After|36076501|The Girl Who Smiled Beads A Story of War and What Comes After|Clemantine Wamariya|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1513785011s/36076501.jpg|57663457]
I got my hands on an ARC and was compelled to read this even though I had about 4 other things in my TBR pile. This wasn't an easy read, but it's not meant to be. I found the writing style and transitions between chapters to be a bit abrupt, but the more I read, the more I thought this may have been done to keep the reader from getting too comfortable. And it worked. I was never at ease while reading the story of Clemantine and her family. I was never comfortable or relieved about anything. Even though I knew the entire time that most of her family survived the atrocities of the Rwandan genocide, I couldn't relax because her story was so disjointed, like her soul. She might hate me saying this (if she ever read it), but the story of her inner struggle following her survival, is brave. It was an honor to read it.
I got my hands on an ARC and was compelled to read this even though I had about 4 other things in my TBR pile. This wasn't an easy read, but it's not meant to be. I found the writing style and transitions between chapters to be a bit abrupt, but the more I read, the more I thought this may have been done to keep the reader from getting too comfortable. And it worked. I was never at ease while reading the story of Clemantine and her family. I was never comfortable or relieved about anything. Even though I knew the entire time that most of her family survived the atrocities of the Rwandan genocide, I couldn't relax because her story was so disjointed, like her soul. She might hate me saying this (if she ever read it), but the story of her inner struggle following her survival, is brave. It was an honor to read it.
challenging
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
An incredible book. Essential reading. Powerful, lyrical, speaks about the power of storytelling in claiming your individual story, somehow ordering, remembering and giving words to trauma and pain. The story of the two women in this book (Clementine and her sister Claire) is incredible and horrific, and the two show the meaning of resilience, strength and the creative ability to reinvent life over and over again.
(I do not rate memoirs.)
Unfortunately, since I'm still trying to catch up on reviews, only ARCs and SCASL books will get full written reviews.
Unfortunately, since I'm still trying to catch up on reviews, only ARCs and SCASL books will get full written reviews.