Monday 5 January 2015

Recommendations #1: Human Disasters

 

I can't remember exactly how, but as a teenager I stumbled across Romeo Dallaire's memoir, Shake Hands with the Devil.  It's about his time as the force commander of the UN troops in Rwanda during the genocide of 1994. Initially deployed to keep peace and observe, the UN forces were soon caught up in the violence and mass murder.  But they were stunted by their orders, unable to act in any decisive way to prevent more killing.  Dallaire spent his time requesting more troops (instead some were withdrawn), sending urgent memos and basically doing anything he could to give his force the power to stop the genocide, but through a mixture of bureaucracy and lack of political will, he was forced to simply observe and attempt to negotiate.  And it would have been easy to stop - the perpetrators of the genocide were largely unorganised and armed only with machetes.  Shake Hands with the Devil is both an indictment of the world political community for turning their backs on Rwanda, and a surprisingly personal account of how it felt to be in the middle of something you are powerless to prevent, and the long term effects of being a witness.  As a side note, the documentary with the same name is really worth watching if you can get your hands on it too.

Rather naively, I was shocked at the way the world ignored the genocide in Rwanda, and this led me to Samantha Power's Pulitzer Prize winning book, A Problem from Hell.  Power takes as her starting point the dreams of the UN after the Holocaust, and then shows how systematically it has failed to act in a timely or effective manner in every single genocide since then.  No matter the country, the story is the same - too much bureaucracy, countries unwilling to risk their troops, leaders reluctant as they know they will not be pressurised by their constituents.  Power's research is impeccable, and even though this book makes for grim reading, it is important, as the only way we can make organisations take more action is by exerting political pressure on them.

 

It's hard to discuss modern genocides without thinking of the Holocaust.  I first read Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl when I was twelve or thirteen, and I instantly related to the way Anne wrote about growing up and life in her family.  Her diary is so vivid; her personality just comes off the page, and I felt as if I knew her, almost as if she was a friend.  I still remember the way the diary ends abruptly and how I felt as I read the afterword explaining what had happened to her.  It was one of the first times I came face to face with the cruelty of the world, and the unfairness of it all.  I've since read the diary many times, and it's still got that power to upset me.  Anne's experiences of growing up are so relatable, and this is what makes it such an emotional read.

Although I'm sure there are many histories of the Holocaust out there, Lyn Smith's Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust is probably one of the most powerful.  Smith visited the oral archive of interviews with survivors in London's imperial war museum, and the book consists of simply their own stories in their own words.  There's no editing and not much context, and this makes it all the more impacting.

 

One of the consequences of human disasters is the creation of refugees. In Human Cargo, Caroline Moorehead visits refugees around the world and asks them to share their experiences.  In doing so, she relates the inhumane ways they are sometimes treated, imprisoned in detention centres and subject to interrogations.  Moorehead offers no solution to the problem of states handling more refugees than they can deal with, but she does give the refugees themselves a voice.  Often in news reports and editorials, they are treated simply as numbers, but in this account they are humans, with often horrific pasts and simple hopes for the future.

I'm conscious of the fact that I've been recommending non-fiction books up until now.  Of course fiction can deal with human disasters beautifully, and one of the best examples of this is Stephen Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo.  Narrated by four different people living through the siege, it's a novel that captures the resilience of humans, and how hope can sometimes be found even in the worst circumstances.  You can read my full review of it here.

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This is my first time writing this kind of post, full of recommendations and not reviews, so please do let me know if you enjoyed it, and if you would like to see more like this in the future.

20 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed The Cellist so on the strength of that alone, I'll definitely be picking up some of the others you recommend. Love this post :)

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    1. Glad you enjoyed the post, Ellie. Cellist was so good wasn't it? I've been meaning to pick up his newer book for ages.

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  2. I enjoyed your post very much and hope you will do more. I want to read more non-fiction this year so have made a note of your recommendations.

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it. I'm trying to read more non-fiction too - at the moment I'm reading one fiction, one non-fiction, then one classic, and then starting the cycle again. Don't know how long I will be able to stick to that though!

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  3. I really love this type of post, especially that you went with a theme and approached it in various ways with different books. Looking forward to more in the future :)

    And I remember reading The Diary of Anne Frank for highschool, but have been meaning to re-read it for a long time. I picked it up a few weeks ago, but there were too many distractions -- I will definitely give it the time it deserves soon though.

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    1. Glad you enjoyed the post, I'll have to get thinking of more themes!
      Anne Frank's diary is a really special book, hope you get lots out of it when you get a chance to reread it.

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  4. I loved Shake Hands With the Devil, although it was a difficult read. The bureaucracy that led to such inhumanity was shocking. Honestly, I've never liked the UN since then and their track record hasn't made me change my mind. In any case, Dallaire's actions made me proud to be a Canadian.

    I read Moorehead Train in Winter, but I didn't know about this one, so thanks for the introduction.

    Great post!

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    1. I agree - Dallaire came across well, I felt so sorry for him as I read the book. I feel like the UN has so much potential, but it's up to member states to co-operate and demand things, which I don't have much hope for.

      Thanks for introducing me to another Moorehead book, I didn't know she had more than one!

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  5. Very well done. I appreciate the information and the recommendations.

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  6. It's hard to say "I like books about human disasters," but I love this post because I am particularly interested in eras and times in history like these. It really shows how our world is shaped today, and like you said, shows the true definition of hope and resilience. It's important to read about it I think. You should definitely continue this series.

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    1. There is something about events like these that is really captivating, even if it's horrific at the same time too. Mostly I'm just grateful I was born where I was, when I was.
      Glad you enjoyed the post, I'm looking forward to think of more themes to continue the series with :)

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  7. Yes! I love this kind of themed recommendation post. Mixing fiction and non-fiction too -- such interesting connections to be made!

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    1. I used to read a lot more non-fiction before blogging, I'm trying to get back into it again as I read some great books.

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  8. I really liked The Cellist of Sarajevo, and have always intended to read Shake Hands With the Devil.

    The only disaster books I tend to read are about mountaineering disasters on Mt. Everest or similar high peaks. I've never climbed a mountain in my life (and don't plan to) but I'm drawn to reading about those who do, and the disasters that can befall them.

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    1. Shake Hands with the Devil is well worth your time, and the documentary too.
      Reading about mountaineering does sound interesting, do you have any recommendations?

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    2. Without doubt, the one I recommend above all others is Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, which details a 1996 expedition to Everest.

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  9. Thanks for these recommendations! I don't think I have heard of any of them, save the Anne Frank and Cellist of Sarajevo books. I am going to go and add the rest to my TBR. Looking forward to more such recommendations!

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  10. Awesome post, Sam. I read Anne Frank's Diary when I was *very* young and have been thinking about re-reading for a while now. I've been reading more non-fiction lately and I'll add some of these to my list :)

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  11. I absolutely love reading about the Holocaust (fiction and non-fiction). I also enjoy any wartime story. You've highlighted some nice choices. Thank you.

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