Chile: In the Midst of Winter

In the Midst of Winter

by Isabel Allende

     I read this book back in November, right around Thanksgiving when I was frantically busy with the holiday and also suffering from the worst head cold in the history of mankind, so I was not feeling up to writing.  And then we were full bore into holiday mode, which always seems to take over my life in a way that doesn't feel terribly productive or necessary but which happens year after year after year.  A New Year's resolution is always to simply, be more minimalist, seek tranquility.  Here's hoping that will happen in 2019.

     In the Midst of Winter brings together three people whose lives collide unexpectedly on a cold, snowy night in modern day New York.  Richard is a stodgy, bitter, American professor, who opened his home to Lucia, a vibrant, passionate professor from Chile who has come to New York to teach for a year.  Living in his comfortable but cold basement apartment, Lucia is surprised and disappointed that Richard has not truly welcomed her, does not wish to be her friend, and treats her like a tenant instead of a guest.  They come together one night when Evelyn, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala shows up at the door, frantic for help and refuge after finding a dead body in the trunk of her employer's car, which she had borrowed without permission.  As the three characters hatch a plan to address this shocking discovery, they begin to trust each other and share their personal histories.  Each chapter weaves the present to each person's past:  Richard's love and great loss in Argentina; Lucia's youthful, courageous fight for human rights in Chile; and Evelyn's strength and determination to survive the violence of her childhood in Guatemala.  

     The stories of the past are far more compelling than the scenes that take place in the present.  Through each, Allende provides a window into worlds we would not otherwise know ... and of course, this is the best part of reading, is it not?  

Chad: The Roots of Heaven

The Roots of Heaven

by Romain Gary

Published in 1958, The Roots of Heaven tells the story of Morel, a World War II POW, who has made it his life's mission to save the elephants.  Finding himself in French Equatorial Africa ... which we know now as the country of Chad ... Morel is desperately trying to persuade the colonialists there to sign his petition to ban hunting for ivory.  He confides to Minna, the novel's heroine, that while he was imprisoned during the war, he thought constantly about elephants to distract himself from his misery.  He felt that they had, in some sense, actually saved him ... and so he owes them something in return.  Despite initial defeat, Morel persists until one by one, his naysayers begin to join him until an eclectic but passionate cast of characters have rallied in support of saving the elephants.

This was interesting to read at this time in our history, when questions of the environment and ecology are swirling around in the muck and turmoil of our difficult political conversations.  Sixty years after this novel was published, the world's elephants are still in danger with thousands being killed every year for their ivory.  National Geographic tells us that in the 1800's, there were 26 million elephants roaming Mother Earth, but because of the ivory trade and exploitation of these majestic creatures, in 1989, there were only 600,000.  A short-lived, worldwide effort rallied the population briefly, but it did not last, and the numbers are plummeting again.  There's a documentary called Battle for the Elephants that's now on my viewing list so I can learn more.  And I plan to monitor the Great Elephant Census to understand more about this crisis.

Yet in 2017, the U.S. reversed a ban on imports of elephant trophies, including mounted heads and ivory. 

I'll just leave that sentence there.

Central African Republic: Daba's Travels

Daba's Travels from Ouadda to Bangui

by Pierre Makombo Bambote

This was literally the only work of fiction I could find that is set in Central African Republic (CAR.)  Other bloggers have reported the same challenge, so it seems many of us are reading the same book for this small, seemingly forgotten country in the middle of Africa.   Daba's Travels from Ouadda to Bangui is a children's novel that is the largely autobiographical story of the author's childhood.  Our young narrator, Daba begins with his early years in the remote village of his birth, but he doesn't linger there for very long.  The book follows Daba on a strange series of events that turns into one amazing opportunity after another.  Although he misses his parents as any child would, Daba seems quite stoic and curious about his each environment and surroundings as he journeys far from home, first living with his aunt and uncle, then a wealthy family friend, and finally at a boarding school where he works hard and excels in his education.  Daba becomes pen-pals with Guy,  a schoolboy in France.  Guy ... ironically ... wins a trip to CAR and shows up to spend the summer ... without parents or any other adult ... with Daba and his schoolmates, traipsing outside of the city and into the villages where they chase lions and crocodiles and forget to return to school.  This part of the story seemed as much of a daydream or a yearning for boyhood adventure than it did a memory of actual events, but I believe it can fairly be chalked up to the author's right to take poetic license.  It does serve as a lovely insight into Bambote's love for his homeland and sets the stage for the final chapter in which Daba wins a scholarship to study in France.

This was a quick read with some entertaining glimpses into life in CAR through the eyes of a child.  Clearly written for children, perhaps in the 3rd to 5th grade range, this story was written in 1962 and translated into English in 1970.

Cape Verde: Other American Dreams

Other American Dreams

by Sergio F. Monteiro

Set in the archipelago country of Cape Verde off the western coast of Africa, Other American Dreams shows the sordid side of immigration.  Through the dark tale of how Cape Verdean authorities respond to a ship full of dead migrants washing onto its shores, Monteiro highlights the vulnerabilities of the world's citizens who are either without a home or in desperate need of a better, safer home.  This novel juxtaposes the stories of two young Cape Verdeans who have returned home after attempting to immigrate to America and, of course, of the dead migrants whose efforts were less successful.  Most Americans have never heard of Cape Verde, or if they have, are unaware of where it's located on the globe, who its people are, or what it may have to offer.  It is so interesting that this tiny little nation of islands has big problems with "illegal" immigration, just like the United States and other developed countries.  

Monteiro wraps up these important and compelling themes in a somewhat mediocre plot involving drugs, corruption, and human trafficking.  I did not particularly enjoy this book, to be honest.  

However, I like the heck out of Monteiro as a person, based on the little bit I've read about him.

Apparently, as a child growing up in Cape Verde, he witnessed migrants arriving by sea.  In a September 2015 review of the book, Monteiro is quoted saying, "I saw them come in shocked, malnourished, sometimes bruised.  And I saw the aftermath of how their lives evolved after they made it to Cape Verde.  Some did well and others didn't."  Monteiro found their plight so compelling that he donates 20% of his book sale proceeds to Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS,) a non-profit organization that conducts search and rescue missions to save refugees who are dangerously trying to cross the Mediterranean in overcrowded boats.  Take a look at MOAS's website.  Pretty inspiring stuff.  Anyone who uses his own success to contribute to the well-being of others, as Monteiro has, gets an A+ in my book.  Pun intended.  

Reminds me of my fellow blogger, the Book Trekker, who includes a charitable donation towards something important in every country that she reads for her blog.  Kinda makes you feel a little better about the world, doesn't it?

Canada: The Ever After of Ashwin Rao

The Ever After of Ashwin Rao

by Padma Viswanathan

I forgot that I already read and wrote about a book set in Canada, back when I broke from reading alphabetically for a short time.  Good to a Fault, by Marina Endicott, was a great story, but it did not have anything to do with my favorite themes of immigration, travel, and being outside of one's own culture.  The Ever After of Ashwin Rao, by Padma Viswanathan, did, with a very interesting spin on these concepts.  

A long, long time ago ... (seems like a hundred years or more) ... I got my master's degree in English literature with visions of going on for a Ph.D. so that I could teach, write, and research.  My plan was to specialize in American literature, focusing on the question of how long must a writer actually "be" American in order to have his or her writing be viewed as American.  Where exactly is that fuzzy line between being American and other-than-American; what makes a work of literature American or not; how does our concept of American literature take into account that Americans come from all corners of the world and that, of course, their writing encompasses concepts, values, ideas, and experiences that originate and germinate in other places and cultures?  I still love that concept and am sometimes wistful about that road not taken.  My friend and JMU professor has focused her career on border literature, mainly the U.S.-Mexico border and, I believe, similar examination of how the themes that show up in literature represent the disparate yet overlapping cultural concepts that define who we are when we say we are "American," "Mexican," or in the case of this novel, "Canadian" or "Indian."  So fascinating.

The Ever After of Ashwin Rao tells the story of a Canadian airplane that explodes over the ocean while carrying a plane full of people to India.  All of the passengers are of Indian descent, but most are long-time residents or citizens of Canada.  Many, especially the young ones, identify only with Canada, with India as just a hazy sense of heritage and family but not tangibly of their own lives.  The explosion is eventually traced back to an extremist group in India, an act of terrorism that had to do political problems in India, and not with Canada or its politics.  

Twenty years later, the event remains unresolved, and the loved ones left behind are doubly victimized: first by terrorists in their native land, and second by the Canadian government's inaction, a collective washing of their hands of a matter they perceived had  had nothing to do with them as a nation or as a people.  Ashwin Rao is a psychologist who, after losing his sister and her children on the plane, sets out to research the experiences of the survivors.  Although named in the title and featured prominently in the plot, Ashwin is not truly the main character.  The story belongs instead to Seth, a professor in Vancouver who has become the de facto caretaker of a friend who lost his wife and son.  Having to step into this role, taking responsibility for someone who has been destroyed by loss and trauma, has impacted every facet of his own life, including his career, his marriage, and his two daughters.  Through Seth's life, just peripherally connected to the terrorist act, Ashwin ... and we along with him ... comes to understand the tragedy's aftermath and what it says about belonging, loyalty, and patriotism.  

Cameroon: Behold the Dreamers

Behold the Dreamers

by Imbolo Mbue

Behold the Dreamers is primarily set in the United States, but tells the tale of two young immigrants who come to New York full of hope for their future and who ultimately learn to love and respect their home country of Cameroon.  This is the reverse of the main focus of my blog; instead of the American experience abroad, it tells of the foreigners' experience of America, a country they alternately idealize and disparage.  As the story progresses, they shift from fully denigrating their homeland of Cameroon to slowly coming to appreciate their families, their history, their culture, and their way of life.  It is a classic tale of "all that glitters is not gold" and a deconstructing of the notion that "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence."  Throughout, the characters ... Jende and Neni from Cameroon, Clark and Cindy who employ them in the United States, and a cast of immigrant characters from many places around the world ... are thoroughly delightful, earnest, and funny.  

Having the unexpected luck of receiving a visitor's visa to the United States, Jende comes first to seek his fortune, moves into a group home with other immigrants, and immediately overstays so he can earn and save enough to bring his family.  Two years later, his wife Neni and their little boy arrive.  Enamored with New York City and all of its promises, they dream of beating the immigration authorities at their own game and finding a way to stay permanently.  When Jende lands a job as a chauffeur for a Clark Edwards, a Wall Street executive, it seems their dreams will come true.  The Edwards family seems to have it all ... money, education, prestige, glamour, a beautiful home, an active social life, and two children.  In stark contrast, Jende and Neni have so little ... a tiny, one bedroom, cockroach infested apartment in a dangerous neighborhood; long hours in their workdays; constant financial worries: and no sense of security or permanent.  But as Jende and Neni become involved and entangled with the Edwards's personal lives, they realize that beneath the glittering facade lies much pain, disappointment, and sadness. 

This serves as a clear metaphor for perceptions of the United States and its proverbial streets paved with gold that are really substandard housing, low pay, heartbreaking sacrifice, and oftentimes, little reward for those who come in search of a better life.  Yet, the dream still exists, and those who are willing to work hard are often lucky enough to find a leg up to opportunity.  Jende and Neni are very willing, but their luck runs out when the recession hits and Jende is faced with a decision for which there no good outcome.  Throughout the story, Mbue weaves a critique of how we treat immigrants in this country and of how much we, as Americans, take for granted about our lives of good fortune.  Jende and Neni learn that there is more to life than what they ultimately find in the United States.  

Cameroon looms large in the story, almost functioning as a character by informing who Jende and Neni are, what they seek, and where they eventually land both physically and morally.  Although very little of the plot takes place in Cameroon, I finished the book feeling that I had at least a little sense of who Cameroon may be.  Just as in the United States ... and any other country in the world ... there is positive and negative, something to be despised and much to be cherished. 

Cambodia: The Disappeared

The Disappeared

by Kim Echlin

I'm writing this from my hotel room in Sardinia, an incredibly lush and beautiful island off the western coast of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea.  Apparently, this is where many European elite take their holidays.  The beauty is all around ... the sea is alternately deep royal blue and turquoise, majestic hills of rock stretch against a cerulean sky, bright purple flowers crawl up the sides of every building.  You cannot help but feel pampered and special here, whether or not you've actually done something to deserve it.  We are here for a business trip with my husband's employer, and I feel lucky to be riding on the coat tails of good fortune as I soak up this lovely space and the opportunity to relax, laugh, play. 

More than once, I have wondered ... what did I do to deserve this experience, and more broadly, this life that allows me to have good things, see the world, enjoy my days, and think about what I want as often as about what I need ... when so many others do not have even a carefree moment unencumbered by worry and fear?  I know the answer.  Nothing.  I have done nothing to earn this other than to be born in a certain country at a certain time to certain parents who had hopes and dreams for me that they were lucky enough to be able to pursue on my behalf.  But I am no more deserving than any other human being from any other place in the world ... the refugees fleeing war-torn countries, the migrants risking everything to cross the border, the mothers and fathers who selflessly do whatever they must to protect their children so they may have a chance to earn enough money to feed, clothe, and educate them.  Or those who don't leave their countries but remain there and struggle each day to survive.  Any one of us could easily be walking in their shoes if not for events that have nothing to do with how good or deserving we are.  I am humbled and grateful and perplexed.

Kim Echlin's mesmerizing novel, The Disappeared, depicts the stark contrast between a life lived comfortably and a life lived with nothing but uncertainty.  The story  begins in Montreal, Canada with hazy scenes in smoky bars, where 17-year old Anne falls in love with Serey, an older college student from mysterious, far away Cambodia.  Despite her father's quiet but persistent objections, Anne and Serey spend all of their time together, mostly alone, trying to plan a future together.  But Serey is not free to fully contemplate the future.  His mind and heart are in Cambodia, which, under the dictatorship of Pol Pot, had closed its borders and shut out all communication with the outside world just months after Serey arrived in Canada on a student visa.  Serey has heard nothing from or about his family in several years.  His suffering and guilt are tangible.  Anne knows this but cannot fathom the power these feelings hold over Serey until suddenly the border reopens, and he disappears into Cambodia, determined to find his family.

Twenty years later, Anne has failed to truly move on, and when she thinks she sees Serey on televised coverage of protests in Cambodia, she gives up her easy, comfortable life and goes in search of him.  With little to go on, she arrives in Phnom Penh and miraculously, finds him in yet another smoky bar, much like the one in Canada where their love story began.  Their passion rekindled, Anne settles into a life in Cambodia, one that is in sharp contrast to the comforts and ease she had known at home.  Not deterred in the slightest, however, Anne is simply happy that they are together and accepts without question the little mysteries surrounding Serey's work, where he spends his time, and what his life was like before their reunion.  Eventually, through her friendship with an American journalist, she begins to understand what happened in Cambodia, both during Serey's time in Canada and since his return.  As she gains insight about Cambodia's political strife and its people's suffering, she also becomes aware that the life she has built with Serey may not be as simple as she imagined. 

This is a love story about a man and a woman, a man and his family, a man and his country, and ultimately, humankind and the dream of a good, safe life that does not cost more than one actually has to offer.  It is a long and beautiful elegy for what has been lost and can never be regained.  And it will remind you to be grateful for everything.

Burundi: The True Sources of the Nile

The True Sources of the Nile

by Sarah Stone

I don't often read books more than once, but this one I have now read three times.  Most recently to include it as my selection for Burundi.  I first read it not long after returning from my first overseas assignment with the Foreign Service.  I recall greedily devouring the aspects of the story that resonated with my own experiences ... especially the feeling of being energized and alive by the challenges of living in a developing nation, then overwhelmed and dismayed by the ease and abundance of life back home in the United States.  This is something not easily understood by anyone without a similar life experience.  That first foray into a U.S. grocery store is complete sensory overload ... row after row of bright, colorful produce; dozens of freezer cases with frozen, fully-cooked convenience meals; anything you want whether it's in season or out of season; 25 different kinds of toothpaste instead of the two or maybe three that were available where you'd just come from.  The excess, not previously even noticed, was shocking and unappealing for a long time after re-entry.

The second time I read it, I had been back home for a while, and the reading was poignant and bittersweet.  It made me wish to be overseas again, to be among those with sharply different lifestyles and to be keenly aware of things we often take easily for granted in the United States.  This recent time, the third reading, my Foreign Service years are pretty far back in the rearview mirror, and perhaps it is only now that I have actually absorbed the plot of this remarkable story. 

Anne, our protagonist, is an American who goes to Burundi during a peaceful time, first to work on public health and later, on human rights.  She is aware of the great divide between the rich and poor, the long history of violence and resentment between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes, and the significance of that particular moment in Burundi's politics, when democracy was bubbling up with fair elections that resulted in a Tutsi coming to power for the first time.  There is much she does not know, however, about the real implications of these things.  She naively falls deeply in love with Jean-Pierre, a Burundian government employee who does something with the Ministry of the Interior, ... something he never defines and about which she never inquires.  Their romance is intense and passionate, and Anne is prepared to fully embrace Burundian society and culture in order to marry and stay with Jean-Pierre.  Just as Jean-Pierre overcomes his hesitation about announcing their plans to his very traditional family, the unimaginable happens and nothing can be the same again.  Anne is returning from a work trip to a remote area in Burundi's countryside, and finds herself in the aftermath of the Hutus' brutal massacre of Tutsis through the country.  Fearing for their own lives, she and her co-workers race through village after village, witnessing the horrors of what is later characterized as a genocide, not understanding and not able to help anyone.  A brief few days later, Anne is whisked to safety by the U.S. Embassy, returning home to her family in California to process the trauma and the guilt of surviving such horror. 

Jean-Pierre comes later, but he is deeply changed.  He has lost many family members and is despondent, grieving, and unfocused.  Anne, too, is deeply changed.  Struggling to settle back into ordinary life near her family and with the comforts and safety that the American suburbs provide, she nonetheless cannot fathom returning to Burundi and wants him to stay with her in California.  But Jean-Pierre feels more responsible and committed to his country than ever before.  As they work to resolve this question of geography, Anne learns that Jean-Pierre has many secrets ... about his work, his past, and most importantly, his ideological beliefs about his country and the great divide between the Burundian people.  The True Sources of the Nile is about our human inability to truly escape where we come from and our equally human tendencies to seek the safety and comfort of home, no matter how good or less good we may assess home to be in other moment of our lives.  

Bulgaria: The Shadow Land

The Shadow Land
by Elizabeth Kostova

Bulgaria is the only former Soviet Republic country that I've visited.  I can't honestly say that I truly experienced the country since I was traveling for work, mostly saw the inside of government buildings, and did not venture outside of the capital of Sofia.  I did, however, meet some wonderful people, dine in some excellent restaurants, and enjoy drinking rakiya, which is Bulgaria's signature alcoholic beverage ... a very potent one, so be cautious if you decide to partake! 

What I loved about this novel was it's theme of the motherland and the characters' passion for their beloved country, which had been terribly abused by the Germans during World War II and subsequently the Russians.  The author, Elizabeth Kostova is American but very immersed in Bulgaria, primarily through her marriage to a Bulgarian but also through her work as co-founder of the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation.  According to her website, the Foundation "provides competitive opportunities for Bulgarian writers and translators, as well as opportunities for native-English writers to travel to Bulgaria."  How cool is that??? 

The Shadow Land is exactly the kind of story I wanted to explore, country by country, when I set out to write this blog ... stories about Americans who find themselves in a new place, a new culture, surrounded by new people, and about how they are ultimately shaped and changed by those experiences. In Kostova's novel, we explore Bulgaria through the eyes of Alexandra, a young American woman who has just arrived in Sofia, and before she even checks into a hotel, finds herself accidentally in possession of the cremated remains of a stranger.  Determined to return the ashes to the grieving family, she befriends a local taxi driver, Bobby, and together they set out to solve the mystery of the ashes, which are only identified by the name Stoyan Lazarov inscribed on the urn.  As Alexandra and Bobby string together bits of information, they travel across Bulgaria and learn not only about Lazarov's family and personal life, but also about the dark secrets of Bulgaria's history while under Russian rule.  As they uncover more details about Lazarov's traumatic past, the novel's historical intrigue merges with the present when a powerful political figure tries to stop them from discovering the truth.

In the backdrop are multiple poignant themes of loss and regret.  Alexandra has come to Bulgaria as a way to honor her brother, who disappeared years before after a family argument, never to be heard from again or found.  His unexplained, somewhat random fascination with Bulgaria drew Alexandra there ... externally, to teach English, but internally, to try to feel a connection to her brother and to reconcile his painful absence from her life.  In parallel, Bobby stoically grieves his own losses ... of family, of his career, and most importantly, of his idealistic hopes for what his country might become as it emerges from Communism.  And of course, there is the more obvious loss of Lazarov's life, which we learn had happened not in one final moment, but rather slowly, for decades, as a result of the ugly power struggle and violence within Bulgaria during and after the war.

Having lived overseas and traveled extensively outside of the United States, I have always felt inspired and moved by the shared human trait of passion for a geographical place.  For some, like Lazarov and Bobby, it is where you were born.  For others, like Kostova and ultimately Alexandra, it is a place to which you are inexplicably drawn and where you may find a sense of belonging that you'd never experienced before.  This concept resonates throughout this novel, which I thoroughly enjoyed and heartily recommend.