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A review by thisotherbookaccount
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After by Clemantine Wamariya
3.0
Writers broadly fall into two categories, I think: there are writers who are concerned with external conflicts, as well as writers who are concerned with internal conflicts. A good writer, on the other hand, has a splash of both, and the difference is how much or how little of each he/she employs.
The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya falls squarely into the internal camp. You do get a very brief introduction and description of the Rwandan Genocide, as well as her journey across different countries as a refugee. However, majority of the book is about how she felt based on what she saw, where she stayed, whom she talked to, etc. The result is a book that's less about the event itself, but rather a commentary about the self. It is about how she wrestled with her life as a refugee, how to rediscover her identity and to put her life together all over again.
All of this sounds good, but Wamariya isn't exactly the most accessible person — and it does seem like she admits to this, too. Much of the memoir is concerned with her inner conflicts, and you are there as she tries to parse things apart and figure shit out. You see her reject care and concern from people who are genuinely trying to help, and she spent large parts of her young adulthood feeling disconnected from everything and everyone around her. And while these are experiences that perhaps only a refugee will understand, it also makes her a very difficult person to connect with. And since this is ultimately a memoir about her experiences, I felt like there was always a distance between her and me as a reader.
The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya falls squarely into the internal camp. You do get a very brief introduction and description of the Rwandan Genocide, as well as her journey across different countries as a refugee. However, majority of the book is about how she felt based on what she saw, where she stayed, whom she talked to, etc. The result is a book that's less about the event itself, but rather a commentary about the self. It is about how she wrestled with her life as a refugee, how to rediscover her identity and to put her life together all over again.
All of this sounds good, but Wamariya isn't exactly the most accessible person — and it does seem like she admits to this, too. Much of the memoir is concerned with her inner conflicts, and you are there as she tries to parse things apart and figure shit out. You see her reject care and concern from people who are genuinely trying to help, and she spent large parts of her young adulthood feeling disconnected from everything and everyone around her. And while these are experiences that perhaps only a refugee will understand, it also makes her a very difficult person to connect with. And since this is ultimately a memoir about her experiences, I felt like there was always a distance between her and me as a reader.