Reading is a dangerous passion. It encourages sitting on a couch, wrapped in a blanket with a mug of something warm on a nearby table. No matter how horrible what goes on in the book you're reading, it's just a book. You can put it down to answer a phone call or meet a friend for dinner or even just clip your toenails. It makes being complacement easy. So the Voice of Witness series is both incredibly valuable and incredibly difficult to take. These books confront you with things going on right now that you can do something about. Closing Out of Exile, putting it on a shelf and forgetting about it until the next time someone asks me to recommend them a nonfiction book is impossible. This book is a compilation of various Sudanese refugees' stories. Many of them live in Cairo, some are in other African countries, a few are in the United States. Nobody's story has a happy ending, there are just happier and less sad endings. And they aren't even really endings, because who knows what happens next? One chapter ended with a post-script, describing the narrator's death. If you're willing to open yourself up to this, read this or any book from Voice of Witness, but know what you're in for.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Ignorance is Bliss?
Reading is a dangerous passion. It encourages sitting on a couch, wrapped in a blanket with a mug of something warm on a nearby table. No matter how horrible what goes on in the book you're reading, it's just a book. You can put it down to answer a phone call or meet a friend for dinner or even just clip your toenails. It makes being complacement easy. So the Voice of Witness series is both incredibly valuable and incredibly difficult to take. These books confront you with things going on right now that you can do something about. Closing Out of Exile, putting it on a shelf and forgetting about it until the next time someone asks me to recommend them a nonfiction book is impossible. This book is a compilation of various Sudanese refugees' stories. Many of them live in Cairo, some are in other African countries, a few are in the United States. Nobody's story has a happy ending, there are just happier and less sad endings. And they aren't even really endings, because who knows what happens next? One chapter ended with a post-script, describing the narrator's death. If you're willing to open yourself up to this, read this or any book from Voice of Witness, but know what you're in for.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Okay, then. Let's plan an event in New York to raise awareness for the ongoing crisis in Sudan (including the genocide in Darfur). And let's also plan a fundraiser to help those most in need to keep them alive, safe and healthy!
ReplyDelete