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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
Powerful true story about survival, ethnic genocide, and trying to excavate one’s life story from the ruins of inhumanity and others’ expectations.
This book is a memoir about Clemantine, a refugee from Rwanda who ultimately ended up living in the United States. Written in the first person and moving between her refugee experience and her experience in the United States, The Girl Who Smiled Beads gave me a close up look at her journey.
Refugee narratives are often presented as closed episodes. Here’s a person, there was war or violence or an environmental catastrophe and they were homeless for a while. Now, they have a new home and things will be fine. The truth is infinitely more complicated.
Clementine describes what it feels like to take a boat trip by moonlight across a lake that separates countries. During the night, she watches or hears her fellow passengers drop their belongings overboard because the boat is leaking and they don’t know if they’ll survive the night. She describes the endless waiting, the loneliness, and the missed opportunities.
I recommend this book for a firsthand account of a story that’s often recounted only in the abstract.
Refugee narratives are often presented as closed episodes. Here’s a person, there was war or violence or an environmental catastrophe and they were homeless for a while. Now, they have a new home and things will be fine. The truth is infinitely more complicated.
Clementine describes what it feels like to take a boat trip by moonlight across a lake that separates countries. During the night, she watches or hears her fellow passengers drop their belongings overboard because the boat is leaking and they don’t know if they’ll survive the night. She describes the endless waiting, the loneliness, and the missed opportunities.
I recommend this book for a firsthand account of a story that’s often recounted only in the abstract.
informative
reflective
So many beautifully written moments in this book. The timeline got a little confusing and sometimes I wanted more from her, but she had a lot of really great things to share.
I was really touched by the story but the ending seemed kind of shallow. I appreciate her sharing her story & I'm glad I read it. I know everyone's perspective & story is unique. I think I had higher expectations of hopen since I just read Blondy Baruti's book.
Woah. Clemantine is a wonderful narrator of such a jarring story. It's truly amazing what she and her sister endured - as well as hundreds of thousands of other people. I went into this book without a whole lot of background on the genocide in Rwanda (I'd seen Hotel Rwanda - who hasn't, but that was years ago). This follows Clemantine's journey from the age of 5 (the same age as my oldest) until her late twenties. It's heartbreaking mostly, knowing what they and so many others had to (and still) go through. It's also a testament to the will of people to survive, even in the most outrageous circumstances. What I think I loved most was their unwillingness to give up. They would not be beat.
A powerful and painful read. I'm glad that my path crossed with Clemantine's several years ago or else I might have missed this book and this inspiring human.
challenging
dark
emotional
I appreciate the author's story, i just struggle with the events and when they happened. I would have preferred the events in the story to be told in chronological order instead of jumping back and forth between periods of time.