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A review by nataliecoyne
Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma
adventurous
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
Giving memoirs less than 5 stars just feels wrong most of the time. Like who am I to dictate how someone tells their own life story? But the .5 reduction that I am giving this is because I was hoping to read more about Haben's experiences at Harvard Law, after all the title of the book is Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law. Seems like Harvard Law would be an important part of this, but it just wasn't. Her time at Harvard was only depicted through took one, 29-page chapter.
Additionally, I wish we got more of her climb to fame (is fame the right word? I'm not entirely sure, but I can't think of a better one right now). I wasn't super familiar with Haben's story before going into this book. Therefore, suddenly reading that she was gifted a scarf by the Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs and was also then invited to speak at the White House, was something that was just ... surprising? Just because it feels like it came out of nowhere. Her experiences with public speaking weren't even mentioned until the epilogue (after these details)!
Nonetheless, I think this is a great read. There's a reason it's still 4.5 stars and rounded up to 5 stars. Haben's writing is fantastic. While I wish she had written more, her writing was completely encapsulating and was easy to understand, it was not filled with any sort of legal jargon or anything. This was also a quick and easy read. Typically, I read a page per minute. So when I sat down to read for two hours, I thought I would make it to somewhere around page 120. Instead, I made it to page 197. Then, after about an hour of doing other things, I went to read for another hour and actually finished the remaining 91 pages in less than an hour. (Writing this, I do recognize that, if Haben had included more detail, it wouldn't have been as quick of a read.)
Her experiences themselves are also really fascinating. In particular, I enjoyed reading about Haben's time in Mali. Then, for more of an educational side of things, the chapters detailing her time in Louisiana, and the chapter about her time working on the Scribd case, were very educational.
I would still definitely recommend this to others.
Additionally, I wish we got more of her climb to fame (is fame the right word? I'm not entirely sure, but I can't think of a better one right now). I wasn't super familiar with Haben's story before going into this book. Therefore, suddenly reading that she was gifted a scarf by the Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs and was also then invited to speak at the White House, was something that was just ... surprising? Just because it feels like it came out of nowhere. Her experiences with public speaking weren't even mentioned until the epilogue (after these details)!
Nonetheless, I think this is a great read. There's a reason it's still 4.5 stars and rounded up to 5 stars. Haben's writing is fantastic. While I wish she had written more, her writing was completely encapsulating and was easy to understand, it was not filled with any sort of legal jargon or anything. This was also a quick and easy read. Typically, I read a page per minute. So when I sat down to read for two hours, I thought I would make it to somewhere around page 120. Instead, I made it to page 197. Then, after about an hour of doing other things, I went to read for another hour and actually finished the remaining 91 pages in less than an hour. (Writing this, I do recognize that, if Haben had included more detail, it wouldn't have been as quick of a read.)
Her experiences themselves are also really fascinating. In particular, I enjoyed reading about Haben's time in Mali. Then, for more of an educational side of things, the chapters detailing her time in Louisiana, and the chapter about her time working on the Scribd case, were very educational.
I would still definitely recommend this to others.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, and Bullying
Moderate: Racism, Sexism, and Alcohol
Minor: Cancer, Excrement, and War