After reading the first paragraph of janniethestrange’s review of Our Endless Numbered Days, I went right on over to Amazon and bought it. I didn’t even finish the review, since I wanted to go in with only the roughest idea of the plot. And I’m glad I did! The plot is well-told, but more than the plot, I loved the mood of the book. We get a creepy sense of foreboding from the narration, which is told in a sort of fog of youth, that her survivalist […]
Not as Illuminating as the Title Would Suggest
Marie-Laure is a blind Parisian girl whose father works at the Museum of Natural History. When she goes blind at age 6, her father builds a to-scale model of their neighborhood so she can learn her way around gradually. Then the Nazis occupy Paris. They flee to Saint-Malo, where they find refuge with extended relatives, Madame Manec and shell-shocked Etienne. Oh, and Marie-Laure’s father carries a jewel with him that may or may not be magical but is most certainly valuable, which is sought tirelessly by a German jeweler, von Rumpel. Meanwhile, […]
Enchanting/Frustrating African Fantasy
I have a lot of thoughts about this book because I found it both enchanting and frustrating. Let’s start with the plot: We’re somewhere in Africa. The Nuru, a lighter skinned people, and the Okeke, a darker skinned people, are enemies. The Nuru are on course to exterminate the Okeke, following (what they think is) the guidance written in The Great Book. One Okeke woman is raped by a really terrible Nuru during a raping/pillaging raid. She escapes, giving birth in the desert to a baby girl whom she […]
Leopold’s Ghost Haunts Us All
This book will tear your heart out. It’s extremely well-written and extremely difficult to read. The bad guy basically gets away with it. The human rights activists/heroes are indeed noble, but most suffer greatly for their cause. It’s a terrible story, and it’s made more terrible by the fact that most people don’t know it even happened. In addition to, I think, the general lack of knowledge about Africa in the West, the efforts to forget Belgium’s atrocious history have been remarkable, effective, and ongoing. You can’t help but wonder how […]