Month: November 2017

Alexis Okeowo interviews citizens of four African countries to showcase acts of rebellion, both big and small. These courageous people of faith have seen their communities terrorized by extremist groups, but they refused to let those extremists determine their life’s course.

Liberty, that precious, delicate right, is fleeting in so much of the world. Sometimes it is there for you to take and enjoy; other times it suddenly and violently disappears, as if it never existed in the first place. But there are always people who go looking for that freedom, even at personal risk. They are not only activists and vigilantes, but also ordinary people.

In A Moonless, Starless Sky, Okeowo brings faraway places into stark view. Through her objective eye, we are introduced to complex people who’ve survived extraordinary situations. Many people might not be familiar with the political situations of these countries, so she adds context by delving briefly into the histories of each nation and extremist group. This book’s one big flaw is the structure. The book is divided into two parts; half of each story is in part one and the other half is in part two. That’s easy enough to overcome though! I read the accounts by country rather than the order presented.

Uganda
This is the story of two people who were abducted by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army as teens. After fifteen-year-old Eunice was abducted, she was forced to marry nineteen-year-old Bosco. What happens to these forced unions if the abductees escape and why do so many of these couples choose to stay together? How are the children of these marriages affected? Okeowo also explores the difficult relationships between the former child soldiers and the communities they may have been forced to harm. Most community members recognize the former child soldiers as victims too, but it’s an understandably uncomfortable situation. What efforts are made to reintegrate them back into society and how do their neighbors handle their presence?

More information: Former Ugandan child soldiers rebuild lives after years of terror (ABC Austrailia, October) | The Bizarre and Horrifying Story of the Lord’s Resistance Army (The Atlantic, October 2011)

Mauritania

Mauritania became the last country to abolish slavery in 1981, but the government did little to actually eradicate the practice. Okeowo explains how slavery became such an accepted part of Mauritanian society and how demographic divisions contributed to its the practice’s endurance. This section focuses on abolitionist Biram Dah Abeid’s fight to end slavery in Mauritania, a crusade that has put him and his family in peril. What makes someone stand up for others, even at great risk to themselves? Okeowo also spends time with a woman Abeid helped rescue. Haby is one of the millions of people who were born into slavery. When she finally had the chance to escape in 2008 at the age of 34, she was insistent that she would never leave her owners. Captivity was all she had ever known. Through Haby’s story, we learn how slaveowners are able to enslave people without chains and about the obstacles that arise when adjusting to sudden freedom.

More information: Mauritania: Slavery’s last stronghold (CNN/YouTube, 2012)/ Article | The abolitionist fighting to free Mauritania’s slaves (2017) – Biram Dah Abeid’s story | The Global Slavery Index 2016 – estimations of the number of people living in slavery today.
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Nigeria

“Nobody rescued them,” a Chibok government official said of the girls who made it back. “I want you to stress this point. Nobody rescued them. They escaped on their own accord.”

In recent years, Boko Haram has terrorized northern Nigeria and kidnapped thousands of boys and girls. Rebecca Ishaku was one of the hundreds of girls abducted from a boarding school in Chibok, Nigeria. This is an account of one young woman’s risky escape and the enduring effects of terror. Okeowo also interviews a government clerk who refused to stand idle while his community was being relentlessly attacked by Boko Haram’s members. Elder became a unit commander for the Civilian Joint Task Force, a volunteer group that sought to reclaim their communities from the terrorists when the government failed. The story of ordinary citizens fighting Boko Haram is remarkable, but issues arise when the behavior of some of the vigilantes begins to mirror the group they’re fighting.

“God gave me the opportunity to think about my future, so I can’t let them stop me from going back to school.” – Rebecca

More information:  On Boko Haram front line, Nigerian vigilantes amass victories and power (Reuters, June 2017) | Boko Haram Fast Facts (CNN, September 2017) | Chibok girl ‘happy’ over schoolmates’ release – interview with Rebecca (BBC, October 2016)

Somalia

“I see it as something very powerful, to be young and a woman in a country that is not safe and has gone through a lot of war, and to have a dream and wear pants and a shirt and hold a basketball—there’s nothing more powerful and strong to me,” Ilhan said. “To think about what I want for myself and to do it.”

Aisha received her first death threat from terrorists when she was thirteen. Her supposed crime? Playing basketball. Somalia went from having one of the best women’s basketball teams in the region to a place where it’s unsafe for women to play sports at all. This is the story of young women who continue to play the game they love despite the risks. One thing I liked about this section was getting to see a different side of Somalia, like its vibrant nightlife.

More information:  The Fight Over Women’s Basketball in Somalia by the author Alexis Okeowo (New Yorker, September 2017) | Who are Somalia’s al-Shabab? (BBC, December 2016)

What are the ethics of resisting? When extreme circumstances are forced upon a person, what is she allowed to do to survive? Can she commit apostasy as a religious person,  or kill a relative? The answers are complex, possibly unknowable. The idea of survival becomes hazy: It can mean more than just staying alive; it can mean leading the life she feels entitled to have. And in order to do that, the morals she was taught, that she has long lived by, could shift and mutate into something she no longer recognizes. They could shift because she believed she was fighting for good, or at least for her right to have a good, sane life, and, along the way, she had to resort to actions she would have never committed in her past life. They could shift because, when extreme circumstances overtook her life, subverted what she knew and held dear, resorting to radical measures was the only way to resist, and to live.

These accounts of ordinary people trying to live their lives freely are both distressing and inspiring. Rebellion doesn’t come without sacrifices and many of these people endured death threats, survived harrowing escapes, and/or remained steadfast against relentless outside pressure. In the face of adversity, these people stand firm in their beliefs and manage to preserve their autonomy. What I liked most about this book were the complete portraits of the interview subjects. Okeowo explores their flaws, hopes, and fears without judgment. They may not make the choices one would expect or that are easy for outsiders to understand, but they’re all doing the best they can to live their lives of their own free will and/or cultivate a society where everyone can live freely. If you’re possibly interested in this book, I recommend reading the author’s article The Fight Over Women’s Basketball in Somalia to get a sense of her style.

Attack of the Moon Woman Who Made Bad Life Decisions.

Jazz has lived on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, for two decades. To make ends meet, she smuggles contraband to those willing to pay. One day, a rich client has an intriguing request. He needs her help to sabotage Artemis’s sole aluminum company so that he can enter the aluminum business. This is far beyond any criminal act that she’s performed before, but he makes her an offer she can’t refuse: one million slugs (Artemisian money). Four days later, Jazz’s life is in danger and she’s on the run. Her initial suspicions were correct. This goes much deeper than gaining a controlling stake in the lucrative aluminum industry.

Jazz and her father moved from Saudia Arabia to the Moon when she was six-years-old. Now she’s twenty-six-years-old and in a bit of a rut. She and her father have a contentious relationship because of a mishap that happened when she was sixteen. He wanted her to be a welder like him, but she has no interest in following in his footsteps. She’s a quick learner and an intuitive problem solver but has no ambition. Everyone is constantly telling her how much untapped potential she has and she’s sick of hearing it. She doesn’t want to spend her life working herself to death only to live paycheck to paycheck. She wants to make money quickly and painlessly. Her goal is to earn 416,922 slugs and purchase a living space in a wealthier area. She’d at least like a private bathroom!

•  I LOVED listening to Weir’s The Martian. Artemis didn’t wow me as much. I think it’s the difference between a person who has to work their way out of an unexpected life-and-death situation (Mark) and a person who repeatedly has to get themselves out of life-and-death situations of their own creation (Jazz). I also couldn’t identify with Jazz as much as Mark. Her initial assignment is mundane and I wasn’t invested in her money-making schemes or survival. Greed actually isn’t her driving motivation, but we don’t learn about that until much later.

• Setting: The Moon city was awesome! It was interesting to learn about the methods they used to overcome the hostile environment. I also liked the parts about the society and how Earth problems transferred to the Moon.

• Humor: Jazz has a snarky rapport with her neighbors and a self-deprecating sense of humor. She may be approaching thirty, but she’s really a teenage boy at heart. Here’s Jazz describing the multi-dome city of Artemis: “The city shined in the sunlight like a bunch of metallic boobs. What? I’m not a poet. They look like boobs.”  There are constant jokes about identity, breasts, sex, excrement, and prostitutes. By the end, I was so over the constant jabs at Jazz’s sex life. At one point, even her dad made a sex joke at her expense! (And what was the purpose of the reusable condom prototype, besides giving a Svoboda a reason to constantly inquire about her sex life? He asked about it so much that I was surprised it didn’t play a part in the end.) I know there were similar critiques of the humor in The Martian, so maybe my love of stories about people trying to get back home overrode any potential annoyances. But with Watney the humor felt like a pressure-relief valve—Jazz just felt like she was trying way too hard to be edgy: “I looked like a leper. Or a hooker who gave handjobs exclusively to lepers.” and “I’d have to blow the remaining two at the same time. Please don’t quote that last sentence out of context.” She did tell one total dad-joke that made me smile though:

“Don’t joke around. Not with airlock procedures.” 
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• Science: The technical explanations were so boring to me this time around. The intricacies of welding just aren’t as thrilling as potato farming! Who knew? Jazz constantly stops to explain concepts to the reader, so sometimes I felt like I was on a museum tour or reading a textbook.

• The expression super-duper was used three too many times. It’s a really juvenile term, so it really jolted me out of the story.

• My favorite part was the relationship between Jazz and her father: “Very few people get a chance to quantify how much their father loves them. But I did. The job should have taken forty-five minutes, but Dad spent three and a half hours on it. My father loves me three 366 percent more than he loves anything else.” Aww!! I loved how much pride he had in her!

This story was a slow-starter for me, but it became more of a page-turner once the stakes were raised about 1/3 of the way through.  I loved the setting and the plot reeled me in by the second half, but Jazz didn’t ring authentic to me. I think I may have enjoyed the audiobook more, especially since Rosario Dawson is the narrator. Artemis had its entertaining points, but I don’t think it will necessarily be a winner for all fans of The Martian.

I received this book for free from Netgalley and Crown Publishing. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. It’s available now!

Fifty-four-year-old Marion and her older brother John have lived together for the last twenty years. Marion is jealous of the time John spends in the cellar with his “visitors.” She never sees the mysterious inhabitants, but she doesn’t dare go down the dark stairwell to investigate. It’s best not to ask too many questions!

Like a white bird, the scream flew up from the depths of the cellar, then became trapped inside Marion’s head. As it flapped its wings against the inside of her skull, she wondered how it had got through three floors of the big strong house to her dusty little room in the attic?

The eccentric siblings live in the six-bedroom home they grew up in. The house and its inhabitants are perpetually stuck in time. Their neighbor’s home is exactly the same style, but “[seems] to exist about a thousand years in the future.” Their mother meticulously maintained the estate when she was alive, but its condition has rapidly deteriorated in the two decades since her death. Every surface is covered in dust and cobwebs and the hallways are littered with broken appliances and old newspapers. The home is filled with so much junk that Marion feels “like a little mouse trying to burrow through it all.” Mother would not approve!

The specter of the visitors is always hanging over the story, but most of the book is about Marion and John’s unhappy childhood and the disturbing episodes that shaped Marion. After years of mistreatment, Marion is frumpy, unassertive, and emotionally stunted. She’s been largely ignored her entire life, but the people who do notice her repeatedly tell her that she’s unattractive and unintelligent. Her brother once said that if the human race was more like Marion, “it was unlikely they would have evolved much beyond the level of jellyfish.” Her parents had little ambition for her; her temperamental father once said that Marion was “just too sensitive for the big wide world, and more suited to staying at home.” Their mother clearly favored John and seemed to resent Marion’s existence. There were many finicky rules in their home and Mother was always fussing at them do things in the proper manner. Even decades after Mother’s death, Marion continues to hear Mother’s passive-aggressive voice berating her from the great beyond. Their mother constantly told them stories of all the horrific things that lurked in the outside world, while willfully ignoring what was going on inside her own house.

Marion is offended when people see her as old because she still feels like a child inside. She’s never experienced life outside of her family home. Life has passed her by, but she feels powerless to change her circumstances. She’s internalized every rude thing that’s been said about her and doesn’t think she’s capable or deserving of obtaining anything better. She feels trapped, but part of that is self-inflicted. She feels like she needs a physical barrier between her and the outside world. As meek as Marion is, she also has a nasty streak. She has a tendency to blame the victim in the television shows she watches. The harsh judgments give her an intoxicating sense of power that she doesn’t usually get to feel in her day-to-day life.
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John is arrogant and cruel, but Marion has always idolized him. She always defers to his “superior” judgment and he knows exactly how to manipulate her. Sometimes she stands up to him, but she quickly backs down because she can’t withstand the crushing weight of his silent rage. There’s no way she can betray her beloved brother. What would happen to her if he left? Plus, Marion has a vivid imagination and isn’t confident in her perceptions. She often escapes to a rich fantasy life in her head, where she has a dramatic and meaningful existence that mirrors the Lifetime-esque movies she enjoys watching. Sometimes her daydreams become a little too real, causing her to wonder if she’s going mad like her Great Aunt Phyllis. Did she conjure up the cellar dwellers to make her life more exciting? 

“You are the kind of evil that comes from nothing, from neglect and loneliness. You are like mould that grows in damp dark places, black dirt gathered in corners, a fatal infection that begins with a speck of dirt in an unwashed wound.”

If you like character-driven stories that embrace their unrelenting darkness, this book might be for you. It was my ideal type of creepy slow burner: bizarre family dynamics, damaged characters, and a large, decaying house. It’s the type of twisted book that makes me think there is something wrong with me for liking it! 😀 (Perhaps an attraction to dark tales is a side effect of being born near Halloween!) While reading, I felt discomfort, dread, uneasiness, horror, and a little bit of nausea. I hope I’m not being too misleading in saying this, but the general mood and atmosphere reminded me of Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily (but really, it’s no worse comparison than Room!) I recommend not reading the publisher’s description, because it reveals something that happens in the last quarter of the book. I don’t think I would’ve been a fan of this one if I was anticipating anything specific, especially something so deep in the story! Warning for animal lovers: Animals tend to meet terrible fates around this family.

Sometimes Marion imagines what awful things must be happening in the cellar, but she quickly dismisses those unpleasant thoughts. It’s much easier not to think about it! Throughout the story we see how easy it can be to turn a blind eye to the obvious, even things inside of ourselves. The characters in this book have no trouble living with their sins. It makes you wonder what secrets the most unassuming people could be hiding and what unseen dangers could be lurking close-by. The Visitors is a chilling tale that’s sometimes a little too terrifyingly real.

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“Frequently, people who go along a treasonous path do not know they are on a treasonous path until it is too late.” – John Brennan, the former director of the C.I.A, testifying in front of the House Intelligence Committee (May 23 2017)

“Sometimes we think that shielding the truth will protect those we love the most.”