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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
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This book is both beautiful and awful at the same time. The writing is gorgeous. Just crisp and evocative. But the subject matter is hard to get through sometimes.
The story of the author’s journey as a child through refugee camps and across nations is compelling. I’ve studied international relations for close to two decades now but I’ve never looked closely at the refugee experience. This is probably because it it uncomfortable and heart breaking. But I’m old enough now to know that just because I don’t look doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. I’m trying to look more. Understand more.
I found the author’s story after coming to the US just as interesting. The emotional trauma of refugee life and being torn from family as a young child is very raw in these pages. The infrastructure here for refugee “assimilation” is nascent at best and it was beyond frustrating, as a reader, to see Clemantine (and her older sister!) need help that was unavailable to her.
I also enjoyed Clemantine’s exploration of her dual lives: dutiful sister and refugee as well as preppy student. The dichotomy was stringing and her writing really brings you into her head.
I would definitely recommend this. And if you know of a book in a similar vein, I would love to hear about it.
The story of the author’s journey as a child through refugee camps and across nations is compelling. I’ve studied international relations for close to two decades now but I’ve never looked closely at the refugee experience. This is probably because it it uncomfortable and heart breaking. But I’m old enough now to know that just because I don’t look doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. I’m trying to look more. Understand more.
I found the author’s story after coming to the US just as interesting. The emotional trauma of refugee life and being torn from family as a young child is very raw in these pages. The infrastructure here for refugee “assimilation” is nascent at best and it was beyond frustrating, as a reader, to see Clemantine (and her older sister!) need help that was unavailable to her.
I also enjoyed Clemantine’s exploration of her dual lives: dutiful sister and refugee as well as preppy student. The dichotomy was stringing and her writing really brings you into her head.
I would definitely recommend this. And if you know of a book in a similar vein, I would love to hear about it.
“Each day she stared at her pictures—the flowers, her skin, the colors, her scars. She tried to hold in her head that it was all true: she was magic, beautiful, strong, brave, triumphant, and hurt. She tried to keep her memories in order, grounded in time. She wanted to tell a true story, a complete story. No ending ever felt right. History made it hard.”
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ great book that blew me away. I knew about the Rawandan Massacre & how terrible a tragedy for over 800,000 people. But to hear it from a little girls perspective blew my mind & how she grew into a woman with all the fears she struggled with daily. I highly recommend this memoir to anyone. Even if memoirs are not your thing.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ great book that blew me away. I knew about the Rawandan Massacre & how terrible a tragedy for over 800,000 people. But to hear it from a little girls perspective blew my mind & how she grew into a woman with all the fears she struggled with daily. I highly recommend this memoir to anyone. Even if memoirs are not your thing.
“The Girl Who Smiled Beads,” is a book unlike anything I’ve ever read. The author, Clementine Wamariya, took me into a world I could never imagine would exist in our modern lives. Her memoir is about how she narrowly escaped the genocide in Rwanda, an unbelievable and heartbreaking story.
When Clementine was only six years old, she and her sister, Claire, had to escape from their family home. Without the help of an adult, they traveled to seven different countries, stayed in refugee camps, and faced starvation for years. What these two young children endured goes beyond anything most people can ever imagine. Throughout the entire time, they had no idea whether their family back home was alive or dead.
Before reading this book I admit that the Rwandan war was something I didn’t know a whole lot about. Although it was an incredibly significant event in African history in which an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 people were killed, it fails to receive the kind of attention one would expect from such an atrocity.
The book alternates timelines from when Clementine was a refugee and her time in the US. This works well as it helps to illustrate her contradicting identities.
“I think back to this often in trying to make sense of the world—how there are people who have so much and people who have so little, and how I fit in with them both.”
One of the things that stuck out to me was that Clementine felt like she was losing her childhood and her personal identity the longer she was away from her home. At one point she talks about how she was upset that she was losing her baby teeth which were then replaced by permanent teeth. It was like a part of her was lost forever. This theme of changing identity continues throughout, as she moves from country to country and then ultimately to America.
I felt like this book was so powerful and honest. Clementine doesn’t hold back when she talks about her anger and she describes herself as a difficult person to love. I imagine it’s much the same for many people who have had to endure traumatic events in their lives.
I would absolutely recommend this book because it is an amazing memoir that shows the strength and endurance of the human spirit. Clementine’s firsthand experience as a child who escaped the only home she knew and then lived for so long as a refugee was a story I will likely never forget.
When Clementine was only six years old, she and her sister, Claire, had to escape from their family home. Without the help of an adult, they traveled to seven different countries, stayed in refugee camps, and faced starvation for years. What these two young children endured goes beyond anything most people can ever imagine. Throughout the entire time, they had no idea whether their family back home was alive or dead.
Before reading this book I admit that the Rwandan war was something I didn’t know a whole lot about. Although it was an incredibly significant event in African history in which an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 people were killed, it fails to receive the kind of attention one would expect from such an atrocity.
The book alternates timelines from when Clementine was a refugee and her time in the US. This works well as it helps to illustrate her contradicting identities.
“I think back to this often in trying to make sense of the world—how there are people who have so much and people who have so little, and how I fit in with them both.”
One of the things that stuck out to me was that Clementine felt like she was losing her childhood and her personal identity the longer she was away from her home. At one point she talks about how she was upset that she was losing her baby teeth which were then replaced by permanent teeth. It was like a part of her was lost forever. This theme of changing identity continues throughout, as she moves from country to country and then ultimately to America.
I felt like this book was so powerful and honest. Clementine doesn’t hold back when she talks about her anger and she describes herself as a difficult person to love. I imagine it’s much the same for many people who have had to endure traumatic events in their lives.
I would absolutely recommend this book because it is an amazing memoir that shows the strength and endurance of the human spirit. Clementine’s firsthand experience as a child who escaped the only home she knew and then lived for so long as a refugee was a story I will likely never forget.
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Violence, Colonisation, War
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
My friend told me this was a boring book, so my expectations were quite low, but it was better than I thought. My teacher told me it was sad, but I don't think it was particularly sad.
This book brought me an insight into how war, presumptions, and the people you meet can change you. I never thought of the refugee world as this large population. I understand how angered and emotional she could get when these topics of war are discussed, because for me, as an outsider, it's completely unfathomable. I can't picture it; all the wars I've studied at school just feel like a distant past. I don't think there can be a more realistic (well, it was nonfiction) depiction of relationships after war.
I love the title. It touches and summarizes the book in a beautiful way. It links her carefree childhood, something she's constantly searching for, her experiences, the people she's met, the possibilities she could have with her beads, the hopefulness, the hurt, the anger, and strength all together.
Overall, it's poignant, it's a different perspective, it's the other side of the story, but it wasn't great. I don't love it but I don't hate it.
This book brought me an insight into how war, presumptions, and the people you meet can change you. I never thought of the refugee world as this large population. I understand how angered and emotional she could get when these topics of war are discussed, because for me, as an outsider, it's completely unfathomable. I can't picture it; all the wars I've studied at school just feel like a distant past. I don't think there can be a more realistic (well, it was nonfiction) depiction of relationships after war.
I love the title. It touches and summarizes the book in a beautiful way. It links her carefree childhood, something she's constantly searching for, her experiences, the people she's met, the possibilities she could have with her beads, the hopefulness, the hurt, the anger, and strength all together.
Overall, it's poignant, it's a different perspective, it's the other side of the story, but it wasn't great. I don't love it but I don't hate it.
So hard to understand how children and people can suffer such terrible conditions when so many of us have everything we could need and then more. I did feel like I was missing the emotional connection with this story. I got the anger and longing but did not feel the sadness and suffering that the author was hinting at.
Overall, a very well written and thought provoking memoir. The way the narrative switches between the refugee camps and life in suburban Chicago illuminates the astounding divide in circumstances. The author’s story is raw and personal, and I admire her strength in sharing her experiences.