“Page 112: “Emma realized that every thing, every person had an outside and an inside, and that the two were not necessarily the same.”
In this short fiction book about the experience of a young girl survivor of the Rwanda genocide, I got the feeling that the story was as much about survival as about growing up despite extreme hardships. Life goes on and its lessons must be learned. (The fact that some people might have a great facade yet be all rotten inside; or, on the contrary, look ugly or deformed but have a big heart... as the quote from the book tells in its own words.) A genocide is something I have not witnessed, and hopefully never will, and because of that, I almost feel that I have no right, having the comfortable life that I have, to make comments on something so far from my reality, knowing that even my imagination has its limit regarding such a hard experience. But then, who ever really understand an other human being's experiences? All we can ever hope for is to view, like in a very foggy window, a little of what an other has felt and had to endure to survive to this point in their lives. (Thanks to Lord M for the inspiration and push to further my thoughts on this book.)”
elisa wrote this review Wednesday, November 9, 2011.
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