Amazon.co.uk Review
"Hutus kill Tutsis, then Tutsis kill Hutus--if that's really all there is to it, then no wonder we can't be bothered with it," Philip Gourevitch writes, imagining the response of somebody in a country far from the ethnic strife and mass killings of Rwanda. But the situation is not so simple, and in this complex and wrenching book, he explains why the Rwandan genocide should not be written off as just another tribal dispute.
The "stories" in this book's subtitle are both the author's, as he repeatedly visits this tiny country in an attempt to make sense of what has happened, and those of the people he interviews. These include a Tutsi doctor who has seen much of her family killed over decades of Tutsi oppression, a Schindleresque hotel manager who hid hundreds of refugees from certain death, and a Rwandan bishop who has been accused of supporting the slaughter of Tutsi schoolchildren, and can only answer these charges by saying, "What could I do?" Gourevitch, a staff writer for the New Yorker, describes Rwanda's history with remarkable clarity and documents the experience of tragedy with a sober grace. The reader will ask along with the author: Why does this happen? And why don't we bother to stop it? --Maria Dolan, Amazon.com
Review
In April 1995, a year after the genocide began, Bill Buford of The New Yorker despatched his most talented young staff reporter to Rwanda. Gourevitch arrived carrying most of the necessary equipment: compassion, imagination, humour, emotional resilience, fair-mindedness, political shrewdness and an unwavering moral compass. During the next three years he spent long periods there, probing ever more deeply into its tragedy. This situation and its consequences were not - as many like to imagine - a peculiarly 'African' aberration and Gourevitch deftly unravels the tangled skein of outside influences. Let no-one be deterred by his blood-soaked subject. He is a superb storyteller and this is a narrative of extraordinary interest leading to unexpected conclusions. Gourevitch skilfully avoids sensationalism while never allowing his readers to dodge the uniquely dreadful and evil realities of genocide. On one level this book is a meticulously researched study of Rwanda's crimes against humanity - its historical origins, its political organization, its social and psychological aftermath. On another level, it records Gourevitch's personal struggle to understand the diseased postcolonial culture in which the genocide is embedded. No-one else has written so perceptively about the agonizing dilemmas and conflicts that continue to torment this severely traumatized society. It is not now (perhaps never was?) a welcoming society; outsiders are distrusted. Yet one senses that during Gourevitch's involvement he came to be accepted by many Rwandans - of all sorts - as someone who truly cared about their tragedy, for whom it was not merely 'raw material' to be profitably processed. Unusually this author combines a scholarly approach to his subject and a warm relationship with his readers. In his congenial company, what might have been a depressing and harrowing narrative is 'a good read'. Given the grim context it may seem crass to use the adjective 'enjoyable' - yet any book, whatever its theme, has to be enjoyable when it is so well written. Review by DERVLA MURPHY Editor's note: Dervla Murphy is the author of several travel and non-fiction titles including Eight Feet in the Andes, South from the Limpopo and Visiting Rwanda. (Kirkus UK)
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