Tangled Up In Blog

Book Review - It's Back

I stopped doing the book reviews a while back because I don't think anyone was really interested in them and frankly I don't really feel the need to talk about what I read but I think in the interest of preserving a record of my reading and recommending books I loved I will start talking about them again, even if it's just a sentence or two.

The book that I just finished was really the impetus for reviving the book reviews. We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families (Wish): Stories from Rwanda is a detailed look at the genocide in Rwanda. Every angle is covered, from the origins of the ethnic divisions that spurned the genocide to the international community's response. Instead of being purely chronological the book mixes individual's stories with the background and more technical information. This makes the flow much better. The book is not easy to read, after all it is about genocide, but it is fascinating and heartwrenching. While the book in itself was disturbing it also brought to light my very shallow knowledge of international affairs in general. The situation in Rwanda, and I'm sure most of the armed conflicts around the world are so nuanced that an article in the New York Times or a blurb on CNN really does nothing to better our understanding of what is actually happening in these places.

This morning I went back and reread the excerpts of My Life, Bill Clinton's outstanding autobiography that dealt with Rwanda and it was really amazing how I really didn't understand what I was reading the first time around. When he discusses refugees in Rwanda I realized that initially I had no idea who these refugees were. He also discussed peace accords which sound good but really didn't accomplish anything. Aside from knowledge about Rwanda I think this book really taught me that I need to look at things with a more critical eye.

Overall I give the book 3.5 out of 4 stars.

Labels: books

posted by carolyn @ 2:44 PM