Cuba - Biography of a Runaway Slave

 Book 40: Biography of a Runaway Slave - Miguel Barnet

"...a written history of the life of Esteban Montejo, who lived as a slave, as a fugitive in the wilderness, and as a soldier fighting against Spain in the Cuban War of Independence."

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Estaban Montejo was 103 years old when Barnet interviewed him in the late 1960s. All 3 stages of Esteban's life offer amazing insight into the Afro-Hispanic Cuban experience. There's a lot to pull out of the story - a young man's experience on a sugar plantation, living for years as a fugitive, rejoining society, war...the man's life is full of lessons. But there was one section I found particularly striking. After all of his experiences, many of which were far from pleasant, some of the most negative feelings he had were for the American soldiers (and the white Cubans who supported them) during the Cuban War of Independence. 

"When the war ended, the talk started about whether the blacks had fought or not. I know that 95% of the blacks fought in the war. Then the Americans began to say that it was only 75%. Well, no one criticized those statements. The blacks ended up out on the street as a result. Brave men thrown like savages onto the streets. That was wrong, but that's what happened. 

Not even 1% of the police force were blacks because, the Americans claimed, when a black gets power, when he's educated, it hurts the white race. So then they separated the blacks completely. White Cubans kept quiet, they didn't do a thing, and that's how it was until nowadays. 

...

Later everyone said the Americans were the most rotten of all. And I agree, they were the rottenest. But you have to remember that the white Cubans were just as much to blame as the Americans, because they let themselves be ordered around in their own country. All of them, from the colonels to the janitors. Why didn't the people rebel after the Maine incident? Don't believe any cock-and-bull stories, either. Even the littlest kid knew the Americans blew the Maine up themselves to get into the war. If the people had gotten riled up then, everything would have been different. A lot of things wouldn't have happened. But when the hour of truth came, no one said one word or did a single thing. Máximo Gómez, who I thought knew something, clammed up and died with the secret. I believe this with all my heart, and may I drop dead if I'm lying."

One of the reasons I wanted to do this challenge is to see the world from other perspectives - to see myself and my country from other perspectives. This book certainly offered that. Wow, did we ever fuck up. But then again, is it fucking up when the racism is a feature, not a bug?

Croatia - The Ministry of Pain

 Book 39: The Ministry of Pain - Dubravka Ugrešić

"Having fled the violent breakup of Yugoslavia, Tanja Lucić is now a professor of literature at the University of Amsterdam, where she teaches a class filled with other young Yugoslav exiles, most of whom earn meager wages assembling leather and rubber S&M clothing at a sweatshop they call the "Ministry." Abandoning literature, Tanja encourages her students to indulge their "Yugonostalgia" in essays about their personal experiences during their homeland's cultural and physical disintegration. But Tanja's act of academic rebellion incites the rage of one renegade member of her class—and pulls her dangerously close to another—which, in turn, exacerbates the tensions of a life in exile that has now begun to spiral seriously out of control."

____

The book takes place almost entirely in Amsterdam, but the former Yugoslavia, and the war that tore it apart, is always present. Tanja Lucić is a professor of Slavic literature...and a refugee. Most of her students are also refugees, and she struggles to figure out how to read the material of their home country without causing further harm. She takes on the role of psychiatrist - while battling her own demons. 

What results is an in-depth look at how people adapt to life in a new country (or how they don't). Each character brings their own experiences of the war and subsequent fight to rebuild their lives. 

Côte d'Ivoire - Love-across-a-Hundred-Lives

Book 38: Love-across-a-Hundred-Lives - Werewere Liking

"In 'Love-across-a-Hundred-Lives," the narrator tells the story of Lem, her brother, who is preparing to hang himself when his grandmother Madjo appears. He secretly expects her to dissuade him from suicide, but instead she encourages him, urging him to make his final action a success that will make up for all his earlier failures. As he continues to knot the rope that will be his noose, Madjo tells Lem stories of their ancestors, of legendary and historical African figures; interwoven are the voices of Lem himself, of the narrator, and of her sister Go. When Lem is finally ready to conclude his act, he no longer wants to die. Madjo has accomplished her mission to make Lem a man in the most complete and noble sense of the word, whole and strong enough not only to survive but to give of himself to others." 

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The description pretty much says it all. I found the stories of legendary and historical African figures to be quite interesting and engaging, but wasn't drawn into the story of the narrator and Lem. In fact, I found that strand rather confusing. I ended up skipping over their parts and reading the sections where Madjo spoke to him. Overall, not really my favorite book, but certainly worth it for the African legends. 

Costa Rica - Unica Looking at the Sea

 Book 37: Única Looking at the Sea - Fernando Contreras Castro

"Inside the great landfill at Rio Azul, Única and her friends, her family, society's cast-offs, struggle to survive on what those in the city throw away."

There are surprisingly few books from Costa Rican authors translated into English, but this one was a great find. There's a lot in this really short book. Única is a "diver" - a woman who lives in a landfill and survives off of other people's trash. She used to be a teacher, but ended up on the streets after being laid off. She lives with Bacan, a troubled young man whom she raised after finding him years before, a child alone in the dump. Each inhabitant of the landfill has a story - both a life before and a life made at the landfill. And then, of course, there's politics. The townspeople decide they no longer want to live near the divers...or the landfill. But what happens when the landfill is someone's home?  

Republic of the Congo - Johnny Mad Dog

 Book 36: Johnny Mad Dog - Emmanuel Dongala

"Johnny Mad Dog, age 16, is a member of a rebel faction bent on seizing control of war-torn Congo. Laokolé, at the same age, simply wants to finish high school. Together, they narrate a crossing of paths that has explosive results. Set amid the chaos of West Africa's civil wars...Emmanuel Dongala's powerful, exuberant, and terrifying new work is a coming-of-age story like no other."

          

           This book took me a while to get into because I wasn't really in a great headspace for a war novel. And this is. But it's a well-written war novel. It's hard. It's disturbing. But hang in there for Laokolé. She'll make the read worth your time... 

 

Colombia - One Hundred Years of Solitude

 Book 35: One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez  

                   

China - The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

Book 34: The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices - Xinran

In the late 1980s, Xinran hosted the first call-in show on state run radio. Her program, called "Words on the Night Breeze," focused on the lives of Chinese women - a topic rarely spoken of publicly before. The program was hugely popular, and Xinran received thousands of letters and hours of answering machine messages from women across China. This book contains the stories of some of those women. The stories are heartbreaking. These women tell their stories - arranged marriages, lovers lost to "the Party," children lost to war and natural disaster, and of their fight to carry on. Xinran left China in the late 1990s so that she could tell their stories to the world. Very much worth the read. 

Chile - The House of the Spirits

Book 33: The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende

"In one of the most important and beloved Latin American works of the 20th century, Isabel Allende weaves a luminous tapestry of three generations of the Trueba family, revealing both triumphs and tragedies. 

Here is patriarch Esteban, whose wild desires and political machinations are tempered only by his love for his ethereal wife, Clara, a woman touched by an otherworldly hand. Their daughter, Blanca, whose forbidden love for a man Esteban has deemed unworthy infuriates her father, yet will produce his greatest joy: his granddaughter Alba, a beautiful, ambitious girl who will lead the family and their country into a revolutionary future." 

--

This book fits under many genres - fiction, magical realism, fantasy, classics, historical fiction...I grabbed onto the last one, particularly in the second half of the book. While the story itself is fiction, it's set against a very real backdrop. And I found myself pausing to Google the history of Chile so that I could understand the storyline more completely. The real characters are not named, nor is a definitive date given. But the book starts around WWII, which makes "the President" Eduardo Montalva, "the Socialist" is Salvador Allende, and "the General" is Augusto Pinoche. Salvador Allende, by the way, is Isabel's father's first cousin, which lends a whole new light to the story. 

The story is beautiful, violent, triumphant and tragic. I loved it. 

Chad - Told by Starlight in Chad

Book 32: Told by Starlight in Chad - Joseph Brahim Seid 

This book is a small collection of folklore that has been written down, passed on from the oral tradition. Each story is recognizable as the Chadian version of stories found in basically every culture. An interesting, though short read. 
 

 

Central African Republic - Batouala

Book 31: Batouala - Rene Maran

The Central African Republic is a land-locked country in, well, the center of Africa. It was colonized by the French in the 1890s, and gained independence in 1960. It has been engaged in an ongoing civil war since 2012. As of 2019, it ranked 188th out of 189 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI). 

Batouala was originally published in 1921, and it won the prestigious Prix Goncourt. It is thought to be one of the first works in the Negritude movement, a literary movement of the 1930s-50s that began among French-speaking African and Caribbean writers living in Paris as a protest against French colonial rule. 

The novel centers on the the lives of the chieftain, Batouala, and his nine wives. While there is certainly commentary about colonization - Batouala has much to say about the strange and lazy white people - most of the story focuses on his rivalry with Bissibingui, a young man in the village. Bissibingui is quite the ladies' man, and has gotten attention from all of Batouala's wives, but particularly favors Yassiguindja - who is also Batouala's favorite. Basically, this book is a soap opera, which isn't exactly what I was expecting. 

Canada - One Native Life

Book 30: One Native Life - Richard Wagamese

"In 2005, award-winning writer Richard Wagamese moved with his partner to a cabin outside Kamloops, B.C. In the crisp mountain air Wagamese felt a peace he'd seldom known before. Abused and abandoned as a kid, he'd grown up feeling there was nowhere he belonged. For years, only alcohol and moves from town to town seemed to ease the pain. In 'One Native Life,' Wagamese looks back down the road he has traveled in reclaiming his identity and talks about the things he has learned as a human being, a man, and an Ojibway in his 52 years. Whether he's writing about playing baseball, running away with the circus, attending a sacred bundle ceremony, or meeting Pierre Trudeau, he tells these stories in a healing spirit. Through them, Wagamese celebrates the learning journey his life has been."

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I loved this book. Simply loved it. It is equal parts heartbreaking and heart-healing. The essay that appears on page 30, "Upside Down and Backwards," is a good example. In this essay, Wagamese writes of his struggles as a young child. His teachers thought he was "slow, a difficult learner" and held him back for a year...and then put him in the back of the classroom and ignored him. As he entered Grade Three, he moved to a different school and the teacher wanted to introduce him to the class, so she had him write his name on the blackboard:

"I went to the board, leaned close to it, squinted and began to write. I heard snickers at the first letter and open laughter when I'd finished. 

I'd written my name upside down and backwards. To the rest of my classmates it was strange and hilarious, but it was how I'd learned, and I felt the weight of their laughter like stones. Walking back to my seat that day I felt ashamed, stupid and terribly alone.

But I had a teacher who cared. She walked me down to the nurse's station herself and waited while I got my eyes tested. Astigmatism, the nurse told her. Terrible astigmatism. Then the teacher listened closely as I explained why my writing was wrongly shaped. 

I had taught myself to write by squinting back over my shoulder. When we were taught to write in script, I wasn't given any attention, wasn't offered any help in forming the letters. So I watched the kid behind me and I mimicked what I saw. What I saw was upside down and backwards, and that was how I had taught myself to write." 

The teacher spent hours working with him to undue his self-taught method. To this day, he writes Gs and Ds back to front. But, he says, "Sometimes life turns us upside down and backwards. It's caring that gets us back on our feet again and pointed in the right direction."

Not all of Wagamese's essays have endings quite this nice or lessons quite this Hallmark-esque. But I learned something from nearly all of them. 

Yes on this one. Great book. 

Cameroon - The Poor Christ of Bomba

Book 29: The Poor Christ of Bomba - Mongo Beti

"In Bomba the girls who are being prepared for Christian marriage live together in the women's camp. Gradually it becomes apparent that the local church men have been using the local girls for their own purposes."

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Sure, the book is about that. But first, you have to suffer through over 100 pages of the narrator talking about following the priest while he travels from village to village, judging everyone for not being pious enough (read: not giving the church/him enough money) and damning them all to hell. And throughout this journey, the narrator is fully supportive of the priest. So supportive, in fact, that nearly every sentence is an exclamation. But I digress. Eventually, the narrator tires of the priest. It happens sometime after a village woman gives the narrator a handjob and he falls in love with her. By the time they return to the main village, everyone has figured out that the priest is a sleaze who has been forcing women into slave labor in exchange for agreeing to perform Catholic marriages. 

This was not one of my favorites. To say the least. 

Cambodia - First They Killed My Father

Book 28: First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers - Loung Ung

"One of seven children of a high-ranking government official, Loung Ung lived a privileged life in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh until the age of 5. Then, in April 1975, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into the city, forcing Ung's family to flee and, eventually, to disperse. Loung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, her siblings were sent to labor camps, and those who survived the horrors would not be reunited until the Khmer Rouge was destroyed."

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This is an extremely well-written book about a part of the world and a time in history that is glanced over in most American history books. We've all heard of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge and we all have a vague sense that they were terrible. We also seem to leave out the part about the Vietnamese being the good guys in this story. Go figure. 

It's not an easy read. War and genocide never are. But Loung's story is powerful and important. You should read this one even if you're not doing an around-the-world challenge. 

Cabo Verde - The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araujo

Book 27: The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo - Germano Almeida

"Everyone in Cape Verde knows Señor da Silva. Successful entrepreneur, owner of the island's first automobile, a most serious, upright, and self-made businessman, Señor da Silva is the local success story. Born an orphan, he never married, he never splurged; one good suit was good enough for him; and he never wandered from the straight and narrow. Or so everyone thought. But when Señor da Silva's 387-page Last Will and Testament is read aloud; a marathon task on a hot afternoon which exhausts reader after reader; there's eye-opening news, and not just for the smug nephew so certain of inheriting all Señor da Silva's property. With his will, Señor da Silva leaves a memoir that is a touching web of elaborate self-deceptions."

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I wouldn't call it a "touching" web of elaborate self-deceptions. Señor da Silva is supposed to be a sympathetic character. I think. I didn't find him to be. He was pretentious, self-absorbed, and, frankly, a rapist. That little bit is entirely glossed over. But anyway. He also died utterly alone. So that's something, I guess. Thankfully, most of this short book is more about other people and their relationships with and lives after Señor da Silva, because that guy was terrible. 

Not my favorite book. Obviously.

Burundi - Small Country

Book 26: Small Country - Gaël Faye

"In 1992, Gabriel, ten years old, lives in Burundi in a comfortable expatriate neighborhood with his French father, his Rwandan mother, and his little sister, Ana. In this joyful idyll, Gabriel spends the better part of his time with his mischievous band of friends, in a tiny cul-de-sac they have turned into their kingdom. But their peaceful existence will suddenly shatter when this small African country is brutally battered by history."

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Burundi lies at the southern border of Rwanda. 85% of its population is Hutu, 15% are Tutsi, and less than 1% are indigenous Twa. So when the Rwandan genocide broke out in 1994, it didn't take long for the violence to spill over the border into Burundi. 

The novel begins in 1992, in a peaceful Burundi. Young Gabriel has a fairly normal life, though not one entirely without difficulty. His father is French, an upper middle class businessman. His mother is a Rwandan refugee, with many relatives still living in Kigali. They own land, have a cook, a maid, and a driver. But soon his mother's family in Rwanda warns them of coming atrocities and Gabriel's world starts to change. He resists the changes - he doesn't believe that anything bad can or will touch him in the safe confines of his town, his street. He escapes first into his friendships and then into books. But the war finds his town, his friends, and then his family. 

This book is so good. It's terrible in its reality, but I'll be honest - I didn't know the Rwandan genocide extended beyond the borders of Rwanda. This small book about a small country should go on everyone's to-read list. 

Burkina Faso - The Parachute Drop: Norbert Zongo

Book 25: The Parachute Drop - Norbert Zongo

"...the story of a corrupt African dictator toppled in a coup d'état, who seeks to restore his presidency." 

This novel is about a fictional country and a fictional dictator. However, Norbert Zongo was an outspoken critic of Burkina Faso's president, Blaise Compaoré, and Compaoré had Zongo arrested, beaten, and ultimately, assassinated following the publication of this novel. 

So what did Compaorê find so objectionable? I suppose no dictator is a fan of books about overthrowing dictators. In "Parachute Drop," the army of fictional Watinbow overthrows the tyrannical President Gouama, who had taken over following the decolonization of the country. President Gouama survives the coup, but then struggles to get to safety...only to find that his friends have all turned against him. 

This is a short, interesting read about oppressive regimes that took over many African countries following decolonization. 

Bulgaria - Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe

Book 24: Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe - Kapka Kassabova

"...Kapka Kassabova returns to Bulgaria, from where she emigrated as a girl twenty-five years previously, to explore the border it shares with Turkey and Greece. When she was a child, the border zone was rumored to be an easier crossing point into the West than the Berlin Wall, and it swarmed with soldiers and spies. On holidays in the 'Red Riviera' on the Black Sea, she remembers playing on the beach only miles from a bristling electric fence whose barbs pointed inwards toward the enemy: the citizens of a totalitarian regime.

Kassabova discovers a place that has been shaped by successive forces of history: the Soviet and Ottoman empires, and, older still, myth and legend. Her exquisite portraits of fire walkers, smugglers, treasure hunters, botanists, and border guards populate the book. There are also the ragged men and women who have walked across Turkey from Syria and Iraq. But there seem to be nonhuman forces at work here too: This densely forested landscape is rich with curative springs and Thracian tombs, and the tug of the ancient world, of circular time and animism, is never far off."

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I struggled to get into this book. Parts of it were, indeed, enthralling. But it's written almost as a bunch of short stories, as Kapka travels across Bulgaria and meets different people, so just as one group comes into focus, she moves on to the next village. It just seems really uneven - some of the stories were horrifying, some magical, some just plain boring, and some were in between. I never knew what I was going to get from one chapter to the next, which made it hard to return to. 

That said, I came to this book knowing nothing of Bulgaria's history, or its present. It's one of those little European countries that kind of gets lost in the shuffle. But it has an important story to tell. The stories of the immigrants and refugees were particularly catching. And I admit that I wasn't aware of the stories of East German refugees and the horrors that they experienced, trying to escape to the West. The Berlin Wall fell when I was 11. And up until the day it fell, there were people trying to escape via the forests of Bulgaria - and there were Bulgarian citizens who had to choose between turning them in or being imprisoned or killed if they let them go. I had no idea. That knowledge alone makes this book a worthwhile read. But it does much more than that. Bulgaria. 

Brazil - The Seamstress

Book #23: The Seamstress - Frances de Pontes Peebles

"As seamstresses, the young sisters Emilia and Luzia dos Santos know how to cut, how to mend, and how to conceal. These are useful skills in the lawless backcountry of Brazil, where ruthless land barons called 'colonels' feud with bands of outlaw cangaceiros, trapping innocent residents in the cross fire. 

Emilia, whose knowledge of the world comes from fashion magazines and romance novels, dreams of falling in love with a gentleman and escaping to the big city. Luzia also longs to escape their little town, where residents view her with suspicion and pity. Scarred by a childhood accident that left her with a deformed arm, the quick-tempered Luzia finds her escape in sewing and in secret prayers to the saints she believes once saved her life.

But when Luzia is abducted by a group of cangaceiros led by the infamous Hawk, the sisters' quiet lives diverge in ways they never imagined."


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Hey blog! It's been a while! I started reading this book in June. And then I spent the rest of the summer moving from Colorado to Los Angeles. I'm now settled and back to reading. 

I loved this book. Absolutely loved it. The storyline reads as a little bit tired. Another book about two sisters, one who likes traditional things, the other who loves adventure. One who's submissive, one who takes no shit. Been there, done that. And superficially, yes, that's the storyline here. And I admit that it took me a while to care all that much about Emilia, the traditional/submissive sister. But my love for Luzia kept me coming back to the book. And, in the end, Emilia won me over too. 

It's also a great piece of historical fiction. Cangacieros did rule the backcountry of Brazil in the 1920s-30s. There really was a revolution. And a drought. And, of course, The Great Depression. There was also something happening in Germany around that time, and it makes a somewhat surprise appearance in the trajectory of Brazil. I want to know more about this era in Brazil, and I really want to know what happened next... 

Botswana - Maru

Book #22: Maru - Bessie Head

"Margaret Cadmore, an orphaned Masarwa girl, comes to Dilepe to teach, only to discover that in this remote Botswana village her own people are treated as outcasts. In the love story and intrigue that follows, Bessie Head brilliantly combines a portrait of loneliness with a rich affirmation of the mystery and spirituality of life."

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Margaret Cadmore is an orphan who was raised by a the wife of a missionary (also named Margaret Cadmore). Margaret is a Marsawa, an untouchable. When she arrives in the village of Dilepe, ready to teach at the school, the villagers at first assume that she is "a coloured" - which seems to translate into a biracial person. This would be bad, but not nearly as horrible as being an untouchable. When she tells Pete, the principal of the school, that she is a Marsawa, he assumes that the village elders, specifically Maru and Moleka, will demand that she be fired, as they would not allow someone of her low status to teach in their school. But Pete's plans to fire Margaret hit a snag when he realizes that the most respected teacher at the school, Dikeledi, has befriended Margaret. I'm going to stop describing the plot at this point, because I don't want to give it away. But add politics, spirituality, superstition, love, sex, and betrayal (not necessarily in that order), and you've got "Maru." 

I thoroughly enjoyed this short but expansive book! 

Bosnia and Herzegovina - How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone

Book #21: How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone - Saša Stanišić

"For young Aleksandar - the best magician in the non-aligned states and painter of unfinished things - life is endowed with a mythic quality in the Bosnian town of Višegrad, a rich playground for his imagination. When his grandfather dies, Aleks channels his storytelling talent to help with his grief. 

It is a gift he calls on again when the shadow of war spreads to Višegrad, and the world as he knows it stops. Though Aleks and his family flee to Germany, he is haunted by his past - and by Asija, the mysterious girl he tried to save. Desperate to learn of her fate, Aleks returns to his hometown on the anniversary of his grandfather's death to discover what became of her and the life he left behind."

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I both loved and struggled to get through this book. I struggled, because much of the book is told from Aleksandar's childish POV. And it's often really hard to follow. Characters don't always have names, they have descriptions (ex: The Three-Dot-Ellipsis-Man, who speaks...like...this...). And trying to figure out how some of the characters relate to the main character and/or the overall storyline is frustrating at times. 

Eventually, I started skimming over those parts of the story and focused on the main themes: A young Bosnian boy, whose mother is Muslim, has to flee his small hometown during the 1992 Bosnian war. Along the way, he meets a young girl named Asija, a fellow refugee, who is hiding in the same cellar. Their families get separated, but Aleks never forgets her. Over the next 10 years, he sends her letters - though he doesn't know her last name. And then he tries calling random numbers, hoping to find her. Does he succeed? Guess you'll have to read the book to find out.