Book Review: Slave; My True Story, by Mende Nazer and Damien Lewis

OMG.

That's what I thought and felt as I read much of this account of Mende Nazer's life. Until she was twelve, she lived happily with her family (although there is a positively gut-wrenching account of her female circumcision, so much so that I actually had to put the book down and cover my face for a minute before I was composed enough to continue - even writing this I am squirming internally) in her village in the Nuba Mountains in Sudan. She played, attended school, participated in tribal celebrations, and aspired to be a doctor when she grew up. Unlike many accounts of personal tragedy and struggle, this portion of her story is in-depth, and told with such obvious love and longing that I found myself becoming attached not only to Mende, but to her family as well. That made it all the harder to read of the raid on her village by Arabian raiders, in which many were raped, cut open and burned in the streets. Mende is abducted along with many other children, physically and sexually assaulted, and sold into slavery.

I don't want to give any more of her tale away, but suffice it to say that the entire story, right up to the dramatic and sudden climax, was positively gripping. Her ability to recall names and other details, especially while she was so young and traumatized, is remarkable. I can't even remember what I went to the store for, and here she can tell who was with her and where she has been during the most terrifying and confusing experiences imaginable! She even has managed to inject some humor into the story, detailing her and other children's reactions to seeing a large city and card for the first time (they thought the large cars gave birth to the smaller cars, and streetlights were some kind of light plant!).

I have heard that slavery still exists as a dirty, secretive entity, but like I assume most people, it seems such an outlandish concept that I have kept the information in perhaps a separate part of my brain where I store all other new bites that don't seem quite real. For this practice to continue, and to worm its way into what we arrogantly call first-world countries, is absolutely horrifying. Mende only escaped her captors and published this novel in 2003, with the help of journalist Damien Lewis. For those who are interested, there is a wealth of information about her on the internet, including YouTube videos of her discussing her experience. I hope to read more of her in the future, especially updates as to whether she is ever able to see any of her family again. She is definitely an awe-inspiring young woman.

Book Review: The Best of Friends: Two Women, Two Continents, and One Enduring Friendship, by Sara James and Ginger Mauney

This dual memoir was a pleasantly engaging surprise. I wasn't sure what to expect when I checked it out of the library, because I sometimes find relationship-writing to be melodramatic and, frankly, entirely self-serving, but this book was much more than that. Sara, who has risen to become a prominent figure at NBC News, and Ginger, who went from being a professional Girlfriend Sidekick to a National Geographic documentarian, have chronicled their lives and friendship from their childhood in Richmond (this part is more filled-in than given in blow-by-blow detail) to the present day, when one now lives in NYC and the other in Africa.

Since both have enjoyed incredible success, that in itself would be interesting enough to make reading a book by either individual interesting, but by combining their professional stories and intertwining their relationship throughout, the story is really more than the sum of its parts. One of the things I liked best about the book was the alternating method of storytelling used by the authors; each tells their part of the story for a chapter, relating their own lives as well as their reactions to and conversations with each other, and then the other takes over for the next chapter. It gave me just enough information about each of them in that particular time of their life to keep me interested before moving on to the other side. The transitions between the two sides were surprisingly seamless. Also, they skip over periods where life was more stable rather than feeling that they need to detail every iota of their lives, backfilling pertinent information where necessary.

There were a few times when I felt like skimming over points that seemed to be slightly repetitive, but it was very interesting to read about these two fascinating women and their evolution from regular smallish-town girlhood friends to vastly different but equally exciting lives. In the end, the book was indeed more about the value and necessity of friendship than was about the two of them individually. I think it's so important that we stop and remember the incredible gift that our friends are to us, and it always saddens me to see that so many people use our newfound technology to distance themselves rather than bring them together. We're all so wrapped up in doing so much that it's easy to leave other behind. I love that this book showed that even for the busiest, and sometimes most unreachable people in the world (Ginger spent many years living in the bush in Africa), this kind of intimacy is still possible.

Book Review: Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill

Let me start out by saying, this is one of the most beautiful, haunting books I have ever read. The writing is so vivid and intimate that it is difficult for me to remember that Aminata Diallo is not a real person, and that while several of the events and characters are based on reality, she herself is a mere construct of the author's imagination. Aminata's story begins with the eleven year-old girl assisting her mother in midwifery, and learning the ability to guide women through the birth not only of their children, but of themselves into motherhood. Soon, when her African village is invaded by slave traders, she is shackled with other survivors and marched to the coast to meet the slave ship that will take her to the American south. The remainder of her story, which is reminiscent of Roots both in topic and its ability to live under your very skin, follows her from her sale at auction through years of love, loss, births and deaths. Always at the surface is the ultimate longing for freedom and the journey to the land of her birth that burns within her. Her eventual triumph, and the price she pays for her persistent striving to lift up not just herself but everyone around her, while simultaneously being surrounded by the very worst of humanity, results in a gorgeous and vivid tale. While some of the fortuitous events seem mildly contrived, and the ending is a little too neatly pleasing after the repetitive tragedy of the preceding three hundred pages, I was so thrilled that anything positive at all happened to this character I had come to love that I didn't mind. The ending of Aminata's story both satisfies and brings the theme of birth and rebirth full circle.