Read The Girl Who Smiled Beads A Story of War and What Comes After Clemantine Wamariya Elizabeth Weil 9780451495334 Books
Download As PDF : The Girl Who Smiled Beads A Story of War and What Comes After Clemantine Wamariya Elizabeth Weil 9780451495334 Books
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“The plot provided by the universe was filled with starvation, war and rape. I would not—could not—live in that tale.”
Clemantine Wamariya was six years old when her mother and father began to speak in whispers, when neighbors began to disappear, and when she heard the loud, ugly sounds her brother said were thunder. In 1994, she and her fifteen-year-old sister, Claire, fled the Rwandan massacre and spent the next six years migrating through seven African countries, searching for safety—perpetually hungry, imprisoned and abused, enduring and escaping refugee camps, finding unexpected kindness, witnessing inhuman cruelty. They did not know whether their parents were dead or alive.
When Clemantine was twelve, she and her sister were granted refugee status in the United States; there, in Chicago, their lives diverged. Though their bond remained unbreakable, Claire, who had for so long protected and provided for Clemantine, was a single mother struggling to make ends meet, while Clemantine was taken in by a family who raised her as their own. She seemed to live the American dream attending private school, taking up cheerleading, and, ultimately, graduating from Yale. Yet the years of being treated as less than human, of going hungry and seeing death, could not be erased. She felt at the same time six years old and one hundred years old.
In The Girl Who Smiled Beads, Clemantine provokes us to look beyond the label of “victim” and recognize the power of the imagination to transcend even the most profound injuries and aftershocks. Devastating yet beautiful, and bracingly original, it is a powerful testament to her commitment to constructing a life on her own terms.
Read The Girl Who Smiled Beads A Story of War and What Comes After Clemantine Wamariya Elizabeth Weil 9780451495334 Books
"What a book about humanity and inhumanity. This book left me sad, but glad that maybe Clementine was able to understand that young child within herself that was not recognized by the world. The most profound line in the book to me was about the word “genocide†in Rwanda and how people and journalists tied up all those atrocities in one word, and went on their way. When are we going to learn from past mistakes, that no one, no one is better than another. I hope Clementine has made a little peace wth her past. Pass this book on so others read her story."
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The Girl Who Smiled Beads A Story of War and What Comes After Clemantine Wamariya Elizabeth Weil 9780451495334 Books Reviews :
The Girl Who Smiled Beads A Story of War and What Comes After Clemantine Wamariya Elizabeth Weil 9780451495334 Books Reviews
- The Girl who Smiled Beads opened up with the story about when the author was reunited with her family (who she had not seen in 12 years) on Oprah. Immediately, I watched the clip of her and her family reuniting and I bawled. It is so heartwarming. It is both happy and sad at the same time, and I was incredibly excited to read the rest of the Girl Who Smiled Beads and hear about Clemantine's Cinderella type story.
But the girl who smiled beads was so impactful and moving because it didn't tell a Cinderella story - it was real and raw and shared that even after Clemantine arrived in the US, it wasn't like her arrival undid the trauma she endured during her childhood escaping the Rwandan genocide. Oftentimes I feel like books carrying such an important, raw and poignant message can be overly dense and boring. But this was anything but that - it was the perfect length and a quick read. I finished it in a day and a half, and was only reading when I had time.
I would definitely recommend this book - it's so important in today's climate. - What a book about humanity and inhumanity. This book left me sad, but glad that maybe Clementine was able to understand that young child within herself that was not recognized by the world. The most profound line in the book to me was about the word “genocide†in Rwanda and how people and journalists tied up all those atrocities in one word, and went on their way. When are we going to learn from past mistakes, that no one, no one is better than another. I hope Clementine has made a little peace wth her past. Pass this book on so others read her story.
- Hardly a day goes by without some "human interest" story in the news about those impacted by wars and possible genocide. Most moving in these stories are the pictures of children injured, outside ruined homes, on crowded boats fleeing to hoped for safety. But then, the news moves on, and we never really see what happens to these families after the cameras move on.
The Girl Who Smiled Beads is written by one of those children. Clemantine Wamariya was a pre-schooler when the genocide in Rwanda began. Separated early from her parents and some siblings, she and her teen-aged sister--and soon, that sister's own infants--began a years long trek up and down the African continent away from death and in search of safety. Ultimately, they reached the US. A loving family took Clementine under their wings, and she received an education at the best of suburban schools outside Chicago. While in high school, an essay she wrote comparing her experiences to some of the narrative in Elie Wiesel's Night won her a spot on the Oprah television show. So moved by the story, Oprah's company arranged to have Clementine's parents and siblings flown to New York for a surprise reunion.
This is the Cinderella part of her story, but The Girl Who Smiled Beads provides a far deeper and moving picture of her full experience. There are flashbacks to her life struggling just to find a little clean water for her infant nephew. There is the separate experience of her sister whose life turned out much differently and yet who had grit and persistence few of us would ever be able to generate going through domestic abuse in addition to the life on the run of a refugee. There are honest ruminations of trying to reconcile her life as a suburban teen ager with accepting the now somewhat foreign ways of her more traditional Rwandan parents.
Wamariya openly shares her emotional journey, as she struggles with something like survivor guilt in her years at an exclusive prep school and ultimately Yale, but she also continues to express deep and abiding love for her family, especially that older sister whose strength carried them through the very difficult refugee years.
This is a must-read story for anyone concerned with how the great upheavals of our time are impacting the lives of millions every day. There are times when the story becomes a bit hard to follow, as the author combines narrative of her life in the US with returns to the African journey. However, that may be an asset for us as readers, as it gives perhaps a clearer picture of how someone whose life has been so greatly bifurcated into "before" and "after" might live day to day.
I cannot recommend this enough for all to read and remember every time we see disparaging stories about "refugees" and "immigrants." One can hope that this story might stir more people to begin providing the "kindness of strangers" to others in situations similar to that of all the Wamariyas. - What a brave story to write. The telling of this tale was raw and honest, Clemantine’s frustration and anger exposing how little the public understands or can help those who have suffered genocide and were forced to flee their home countries.
The loss of country, family and even belongings (like the precious ceramic mug she is forced to leave behind) she and her sister face is the backdrop to the heroics and ingenuity of an older sister dragging her little sister all across Africa and finally to the US to escape the atrocities of war in Rwanda. The relationship between siblings, parents and foster parents evolves into a heart-wrenching story while we cheer for the twist of fate that changed Clemantine's life and allows her to bring her story to light.
The writing is clear and concise, swiftly moving the story along while building tension in the young protagonist as she tries to understand war and displacement through a child’s eyes. The characters are well-developed and relatable, both the relatives, loving as well as impartial, and the other refugees who helped bolster Clemantine’s spirit along the way.
Clementine’s anger and cynicism comes through strongly and often as she continually pushes others away, feeling they can’t understand her struggle to process the hunger, imprisonment, abuse and inhuman cruelty she has experienced. This hardness and stubbornness carries over into the later stages of her life when we, the readers, are rooting for her to heal and find peace and are not rewarded. While this theme may have been too redundant and off-putting in a fictional work, this is the reality for Clemantine and thus the reader must accept it, uncomfortable or not. And maybe that was her intention all along. - Well I was in Rwanda in 1975 and returned in 2017. I visited the genocide museum as well as the hotel milles collines. I had just seen Clementine at a book reading also.i found the book very well written & poignant for the experience she endured with her sister. She provides great insight into the refugee experience. A real first hand account thru the eyes of a 6 year old girl. I do believe she suffers from ptsd. I think her age was what made this so difficult, whereas her sister had more of a skill set to cope with the quickly changing events. Well worth reading..
