A humble, touching tale of faith in the face of horror. Gilbert Tuhabonyemana (his original name, shortened because running announcers got tired of saying the whole thing) grew up in relative peace in Burundi, Africa. A member of the minority yet dominant Tutsi ethnic group, he tended his family’s livestock and dreamed of a career in running. His stories of his childhood in this turbulent country are enlightening. When most of us think of Africa, we think of war-torn, poverty-stricken, hungry, thirsty, backwards countries in which all the children are swollen and fly-blown. On the contrary, Tuhabonye and his family lived a modest but peaceful life only occasionally touched by ethnic violence; the children were happy and always had enough to eat. He does not sugarcoat the gender differences; he notes that his mother and sister were always the last to eat and always worked the hardest.

The story of how Tuhabonye came to be the only survivor of a brutal Hutu attack on his school when he was 19 years old is interspersed with the happy stories of his childhood, providing a stark contrast that breaks the reader’s heart.

He also provides insights into the “survivor’s guilt” phenomenon, discussing how over and over he wondered why he should be the sole survivor of the horrific attack, during which Hutus rounded up the students, herded them into a concrete building, and set the building alight. To survive, Tuhabonye had to hide beneath the burning bodies of his classmates, sustaining terrible burns himself.

Above all, this is a story of how someone who has seen such horror can not only retain but become stronger in his faith.

Tags: Africa, childhood, genocide, Gilbert Tuhabonye, injustice, poverty, war

I have never understood Communism. More to the point, I have never been interested in the history of any country after Communism took over–not Russia, and certainly not China. However, Chang’s account brings the successes of Communism and the subsequent horrors of Mao to life. Her writing is honest, sensitive, and heartbreaking. She begins with the story of her grandmother, who was a concubine to a warlord and later beloved wife to a Manchu doctor. Most of the rest of the book is the story of her mother, who became enthralled with Communist ideology and fought for its rise to power, and her father, a strict and morally upright Communist who was condemned when he finally spoke against Mao’s abuses and was driven mad by the subsequent persecution. The turbulence and the rapid changes, as well as the confusion and chaos they caused, are perfectly captured. I could sense Chang’s frustration every time she noted that even though she knew things were wrong, her indoctrination would not allow her to believe any wrong lay with Mao. Thanks to Wild Swans, I finally understand how 900 million people can come under the full control of one megalomaniacal madman and be unable to question him. It definitely isn’t a happy book, even though Chang and her siblings eventually are able to exercise their intellectual freedom by studying abroad, and her mother is once again accepted as a good Communist and a good person. It is, however, interesting and informative, and should be a must for any Asian scholar. Had I read this during my East Asia History class, I might actually have learned something!

Tags: China, injustice, Jung Chang, politics

rating: 5 of 5 stars
….Wow. Slammerkin is engaging, heartbreaking, bawdy, sometimes tender. It is based on the life of an actual young woman in Georgian England named Mary Saunders, and is peopled with a cast of real and fictional characters. Born to poor parents in Charing Cross in London, raised by her world-hardened mother and an uncaring stepfather, Mary lusts after the finer things in life. She often admires the finery of the whores who stroll the streets of St. Giles, especially the scarlet ribbing in the hair of one particular woman. One fateful night, Mary is raped by a peddler–the price of a single scarlet ribbon. He later writes to her family to tell them that she is a slut–and worse, pregnant. Her mother turns her out. Having nowhere else to go, Mary flees to St. Giles, where she is raped by a group of soldiers and infected with gonorrhea. The dazed girl is plucked from the streets by Doll, a streetwise “Miss” who answers to no one. Doll gives Mary a place to stay, treats her fever, provides for an abortion, and teaches her the tricks of the trade to which Mary is doomed. Before the girl is fifteen, she has become a full-fledged “Miss” herself, so much so that her period no longer comes.

Upon Doll’s anticlimactic death, Mary tries to make a new life in her mother’s hometown as a maidservant to her mother’s childhood friend, Jane Jones. She provides a fraudulent letter claiming that her mother is dead, and Jane takes her in. During her time in the Jones household, Mary learns to work fine embroidery, befriends a Barbadian slave, finds and rejects true love, and eventually returns to “the trade” on an occasional basis, in the hopes of eventually being able to afford fine clothes–and her liberty.

Mary is faced with a difficult choice at a much-too-tender age: life in servitude, or liberty through prostitution. Her ambitions to become “somebody” drive her to the latter choice. Although she cannot abide the touch of the male body–who could, after such a rough introduction to it–there is no other feminine occupation that will allow her to make such money while enjoying the freedom of being nobody’s servant. It is money that eventually brings about her downfall, and it is only at the very last moment, which comes far too soon, that she realizes that she has been chasing the wrong luxury. But she does achieve some degree of fame–as a whore and murderer sentenced to the gallows.

Donoghue does a spectacular job in this work of historical fiction. Mary is completely believable as a young girl compromised, but determined not to simply fade away in shame; she embraces and masters the act that ruined her life, occupying her time on the mattresses (or, more often than not, against stone walls in dark alleys) with thoughts of the next pretty dress the sex act could purchase. Yet we hurt for her, to hear such a young girl speaking of cunnies and cullies and the price of a fuck. All in all, it is a painful book, but completely enthralling–I finished over half of it last night, and the rest today. I’ll definitely seek out more of Donoghue’s work; she’s brilliant!

Tags: dark, Emma Donoghue, historical fiction, prostitution

Now here’s a lady who has led an interesting life–or, I should say, an interesting life has led her. Born to a more-or-less white trash family; mom a missile scientist, dad a hopeless alcoholic; moved all around the country and, eventually, the world; hangs out with eccentric gay guys who are usually either remodeling houses with piles of human feces in the front room or living it up in Cancun with nineteen-year-old Mexican sailor boys; and the list goes on. Except for the fact that Gillespie uses the word “turd” way more often, her writing reminds me of the work of a friend of mine. It was a quick read (I finished it in a day), but altogether enjoyable, with heartbreaking moments of remembered loss and missed opportunities.

Tags: Hollis Gillespie, nonfiction

I started this series on the third book by mistake, and before I was ten pages in I knew I had to read the first two. Daughter of the Forest is book 1, and it is magnificent. Marillier writes strong young heroines. Their stories are never as simple as the ones in fairy tales; they are put through heartbreaking trials, they can turn to no one, and often they must keep deep secrets. This book describes beautifully the love of a sister for her brothers, and how terrible it can be to have to choose between these, her first male contacts, and another who turns out to be the love of her life. Rape survivors take note, and I don’t mind the spoiler here: the main character is raped in fairly graphic detail, so if you’re avoiding triggers I’d skip this book and indeed the whole series.

Tags: fantasy, Juliet Marillier

rating: 5 of 5 stars
The First Peoples series is apparently a group of picture books discussing how we have dumped on a variety of native peoples. However, they address the problem in a sensitive way, preferring to educate young readers about the customs and lifeways of peoples rather than focusing on how we dumped on them (although they do bring that up at some points). The text is maybe not the easiest for a youngster to read, but should be easily understood if a parent reads it to them. The pictures are beautiful, full-color photos. It is fascinating how robes made of birchbark can have such rich color! Best of all, you get to see the Ainu women’s facial tattoos. A very good book to get kids started learning about cultural diversity.

Tags: Ainu, Barbara Aoki Poisson, children's, injustice, Japan, native peoples

“‘It’s our own fault,’ he wept….The oldest stories ever made, and look at them now. We let them rot, we abandoned them, long before this poisoning. We lost touch with our beginnings, with our roots, our Wellspring, our Source. Boring, we said, not in demand, surplus to requirements. And now, look, just look! No colour, no life, no nothing. Spoilt!”

How on earth could it be possible that the man who wrote these words has been condemned to death?! Granted, I haven’t read The Satanic Verses (although having had this first taste of Rushdie I definitely will). But Haroun is quite a nice little book, very suitable for young children, and with only a veiled taste of social commentary. Khomeini = dumbass. I’m gonna grab me some more Rushdie when I can, partly for meanness’ sake and partly because I genuinely enjoyed Haroun. It’s great for book and story lovers, especially if you love storytelling (I won’t even date a guy unless he’s a good storyteller).

Tags: children's, fantasy, Salman Rushdie

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Can words express how much I love Haruki Murakami NO THEY CAN NOT thank you. ^_^ As in his other books, the language is evocative and the ending is always a sharp surprise. The story is that of a young man, who is in love with a young female novelist, who is in love with an older woman, who doesn’t love anybody. Through the course of the story we are taken from Japan to an obscure Aegean island and back. The people in it are fairly ordinary, but the story takes them to extraordinary extremes. Crud, I can’t explain it. It’s just lovely. ^_^

Tags: Haruki Murakami, Japan

I loved Carey’s Kushiel series (I can’t wait for Imriel!), so I was really looking forward to reading The Sundering books. Banewreaker is the first book in that series. Once again Carey creates a rich pantheon of gods and demigods to populate a fictional version of an actual place–from the map at the beginning, it looks to be Australia this time. The “boss god,” if you will, gives birth to the Seven Shapers, each of which has a special Gift to bestow upon their creations: for example, Haomane, creator of the Ellylon (think Tolkienish Elves), bestows reason, Oronin brings death, and Satoris brings “the quickening of the flesh”–in other words, lust (did you expect anything else from the divine Ms. Carey? ^_^). Each Shaper offers his or her Gift to the other’s creation. Satoris’ Gift is necessary, because it brings the impetus to mate and therefore an incentive to continue each species. However, Haomane disdained this gift. There was a fight, Satoris was wounded with Godslayer (a dagger made from a shard of the Souma, a magical gem), he fled, and the world was Sundered.

This is where the story begins. Haomane has made a Prophecy that when, among other things, an Ellyl woman weds a mortal Man, Satoris will be defeated. An Ellyl/human couple attempts to wed, but Satoris’ commander Tanaros disrupts the wedding and captures Cerelinde, the Lady of the Ellylon. (Tanaros also has a deep and sad backstory that influences much of the plot.) The forces of “good,” or so they call themselves, dispatch a small force to retrieve Cerelinde. The catch is that it is Haomane who has sinned in his pride, so throughout the book, the reader sees the world through Satoris’ eyes and the eyes of his followers who seek to prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled.

As I said, I love Carey’s writing. The story is very interesting, and her crafting of the Shapers is masterful. However, through much of the book I couldn’t help but feel that it was simply an upside-down Lord of the Rings. Satoris lives in the West, instead of the East. The fellowship sent to dispatch him includes a pair of people thought only to exist in legend, one of whom is a naive boy who carries a Burden and one of whom is a bit chubby (Frodo and Sam?), an Ellyl who is usually the voice of cold reason (Legolas?), a Man who is bitter about his heritage as distant kin of Tanaros (Boromir?), the wronged suitor who is a King-in-exile (Aragorn?), some supporting characters, and of course, a powerful wizard who falls into the depths of the earth, seemingly dead, and rises again as a White Rider (Gandalf!) The wizard is portrayed as a manipulative meddler who knows more than he lets on. Aracus Altorus, the “Aragorn” of our story, is a bit of a ruthless battlemonger who kills any “lesser” being that happens to be working for Satoris. There isn’t much attachment to the pair of innocents (although it is interesting how like Aborigines they are).

Even so, there is no way I wouldn’t recommend this to fantasy readers. If nothing else, you can see how a pantheon should look. Hooray for sibling rivalry!

Tags: fantasy, Jacqueline Carey

Remember that SNL skit featuring Jon Lovitz as a dandy gentleman peeping through a hole in the wall in “Tales of Ribaldry”? When you read this book, you feel like Jon’s character. It’s naughty, it’s dirty, it’s gritty, and it’s impossible to put down. And it’s long! I like that. It’s all about a prostitute in Victorian England who rises in the world through clever manipulation of a businessman experiencing a mid-life crisis. She desperately wishes to publish her novel, which consists of her fantasies of torturing and killing all the men who’ve had sex with her through the years, as well as her mother, who forced her to become a prostitute in the first place. The Crimson Petal ends with the crushing of everyone’s dreams. It is awesome. Read it!! (That is, if you’re of an age to understand what sex entails and not afraid to confront it in a realistic, ugly, and constant manner. Otherwise, you might want to steer clear…)

Tags: dark, historical fiction, Michel Faber, prostitution, sex