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ol1ygat0r 's review for:
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A truly harrowing read but absolutely necessary. Philip Gourevitch tells the complex story of the Rwandan Genocide. Far from the western school of thought that such horrific violence was the result of ancient tribal hatred, he takes care to explain that the ethnic divide within the country came about as the result of German, then Belgian colonial governance.
From this context he traces events leading up to the months of genocide in 1994 before describing the violence itself in heartbreaking detail. Written in 1997, the book has the great advantage of being constructed by eyewitness accounts from the author’s expeditions to the area. Here he pieces together a bloody story from the perspective of both the perpetrators and the persecuted.
For me, the book becomes truly magnificent in its treatment of the complex moral and political realities that obscured the genocide, from the West’s failure to stop the killing and unbelievable support of the killers after they fled the country, to the attempts by the victors to build something new, peaceful and lasting in the aftermath, a tragedy given the ongoing strife and conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda’s slide into authoritarianism. Perhaps most brilliant is Gourevitch’s examination of the question of forgiveness and reconciliation on the parts of the Rwandan government, but also by those who witnessed their family and friends slaughtered by people they knew intimately.
Overall this book is brilliant, the culmination of years of journalism and study into something authoritative upon one of the worst evens of recent history and piercing in its interrogation of the moral and social questions surrounding it.
From this context he traces events leading up to the months of genocide in 1994 before describing the violence itself in heartbreaking detail. Written in 1997, the book has the great advantage of being constructed by eyewitness accounts from the author’s expeditions to the area. Here he pieces together a bloody story from the perspective of both the perpetrators and the persecuted.
For me, the book becomes truly magnificent in its treatment of the complex moral and political realities that obscured the genocide, from the West’s failure to stop the killing and unbelievable support of the killers after they fled the country, to the attempts by the victors to build something new, peaceful and lasting in the aftermath, a tragedy given the ongoing strife and conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda’s slide into authoritarianism. Perhaps most brilliant is Gourevitch’s examination of the question of forgiveness and reconciliation on the parts of the Rwandan government, but also by those who witnessed their family and friends slaughtered by people they knew intimately.
Overall this book is brilliant, the culmination of years of journalism and study into something authoritative upon one of the worst evens of recent history and piercing in its interrogation of the moral and social questions surrounding it.