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923 reviews for:
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After
Clemantine Wamariya, Elizabeth Weil
4.25 AVERAGE
923 reviews for:
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After
Clemantine Wamariya, Elizabeth Weil
4.25 AVERAGE
Hard to find the words to say: what a book. What a life and what miles of misery live upon this earth.
But at the same time, I'm so glad I read it & I'm so glad she wrote it. She's still assembling her life's narrative and it's such a gift that she shared a piece of the journey in this way...
But at the same time, I'm so glad I read it & I'm so glad she wrote it. She's still assembling her life's narrative and it's such a gift that she shared a piece of the journey in this way...
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This book was originally for a class and I never got around to reading it. I'm glad I finally got to it because it was such a great read. It was really powerful, and the way Wamariya talked about her anger and her experiences was really insightful. I liked the format of going past and future. I think Wamariya's exploration of her relationships with her family and other people who tried to provide support whether sincerely or insincerely is where this really excelled.
Read the audiobook. All the bouncing around, time-wise, was a little disconcerting (to me, at least). I thought the very best part of the book was Clementine herself - her speech at the end.
"There is an expression in Swahili, vita ni mwizi -- war is a thief."
In the midst of the genocide in Rwanda in the mid-1990s, Clemantine and sister, Claire, were sent away by their parents in hopes of their survival and future. For 7 years and through 7 countries, Clemantine & Claire, who were children, sought out safety, family and a new life -- all the while hoping to find their parents once again. Eventually, they were granted entry into the U.S. as refugees.
The beginning of this non-fiction book is in 2006 when Claire & Clemantine are on the Oprah Winfrey show and, after only having found out that their parents survived the war just years before, are shocked with a reunion with their parents (and siblings they had yet to meet) right on the Oprah stage for million viewers to see. Clemantine starts her book with the shock and happiness of that encounter and continues on with the next day when they awkwardly realize that no one is the same as they had remembered.
This book speaks into the trauma suffered by this refugee family: from the act of fleeing, the uncertainty of a future, near death experiences, acclimating to new cultures, to the reunion with family who have become strangers and trying to figure out where to go from there. It's a good book.
In the midst of the genocide in Rwanda in the mid-1990s, Clemantine and sister, Claire, were sent away by their parents in hopes of their survival and future. For 7 years and through 7 countries, Clemantine & Claire, who were children, sought out safety, family and a new life -- all the while hoping to find their parents once again. Eventually, they were granted entry into the U.S. as refugees.
The beginning of this non-fiction book is in 2006 when Claire & Clemantine are on the Oprah Winfrey show and, after only having found out that their parents survived the war just years before, are shocked with a reunion with their parents (and siblings they had yet to meet) right on the Oprah stage for million viewers to see. Clemantine starts her book with the shock and happiness of that encounter and continues on with the next day when they awkwardly realize that no one is the same as they had remembered.
This book speaks into the trauma suffered by this refugee family: from the act of fleeing, the uncertainty of a future, near death experiences, acclimating to new cultures, to the reunion with family who have become strangers and trying to figure out where to go from there. It's a good book.
I feel really bad giving this book 2 stars. It was a beautiful story and really made me rethink about my life but i did not enjoy it. I didn’t hate it, but it was not one of my favorites.
It is difficult for me to do this book any sort of justice or proper analysis. It's one of those stories which humbles the reader greatly, a feat that Wamariya herself warns against. Her aim isn't to share political insight, shock readers, or warm hearts. As she states in the book's opening, her main desire is to try and work through the events that have defined her life, regardless of the reader's ability to understand.
Wamariya is a child when the Rwandan genocide began and struggles to put her experiences into words, sometimes relying on saying things like "the day was orange" to explain an atrocity. This tactic overlays the book with abstract thought that serves to emphasize the complexities of war. Often discussed are the difficulties in rebuilding identity and sense of self following childhood trauma. Wamariya grapples with her seemingly opposing desires: she wants to be seen, she wants to be invisible. She feels she is ancient, she feels she is very young. The soul of these dichotomies is distinctly human, and inevitably strengthen the connections that Wamariya seeks.
I enjoyed it some part that were glazed over I thought would have been very interesting if she went further.
One of the best trauma memoirs I’ve ever read. I so appreciated how Wamaria insisted on telling her story on her terms: telling us what she wanted to share, keeping back what’s hers, and not worrying about pissing off anyone to tell her truth.