Rating: 
Summary: LOVE, RED TAPE, AND A CHILD'S SMILE
Review: "There are defining moments in your life, in which your measure is taken for good and you remember it always. So it was for me then." The reason for this quote is manyfold as it encompasses the whole experience of what this book is about..a reading experience that should please anyone that likes non fiction. The author, a news reporter...white, married to a black woman living in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) wanting to adopt an orphan. This is the premise of the whole book, but you would not believe what they had to go through to accomplish this mission. In fact, the story of how this child came to be is a story all by itself as covered in the Prologue. A fine read with a reminder of what it is like in countries other than the U.S.A.
Rating:
Summary: LOVE, RED TAPE, AND A CHILD'S SMILE
Review: "There are defining moments in your life, in which your measure is taken for good and you remember it always. So it was for me then." The reason for this quote is manyfold as it encompasses the whole experience of what this book is about..a reading experience that should please anyone that likes non fiction. The author, a news reporter...white, married to a black woman living in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) wanting to adopt an orphan. This is the premise of the whole book, but you would not believe what they had to go through to accomplish this mission. In fact, the story of how this child came to be is a story all by itself as covered in the Prologue. A fine read with a reminder of what it is like in countries other than the U.S.A.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping...from the first page to the very last!
Review: As adoptive parents of two African children, this book captured our hearts from the very beginning. Absolutely heartwrenching, it is about love that refuses to be suffocated under mounds of "red tape". It is about the suffering, wars, political uprisings, diseases, which created the orphan crisis across the vast African continent. Thank you Neely Tucker for sharing your story!
Rating:
Summary: A Wrenching, Ultimately Wonderful Story
Review: Despite being a wonderful book, LOVE IN THE DRIEST SEASON was difficult to read. Or maybe I should say, "Because it is a wonderful book."This is a wrenching, ultimately wonderful tale of an American couple who adopts a child. Most, if not all, adoption stories are unique and traumatic at times. This one surpasses a lot of assumptions. For one thing, Neely and Vita Tucker are anything but an average married couple. Both raised in rural Mississippi, they carry with them memories and experiences of American racism. Neely is white; his wife Vita, eleven years his senior, is black. Neely is an experienced war correspondent who has worked for years at the Detroit Free Press, covering the horrors of war, torture and ugliness all over the world. When he and Vita (who has a degree in liberation theology and a background as a paralegal and researcher) move to Zimbabwe so that Neely can serve as the Free Press's African correspondent, they search for something to do in their community. Ultimately, they end up at an orphanage that is overwhelmed with abandoned children. Many, indeed most of the children at Chinyaradzo Children's Home, have been orphaned by parents who died of AIDS. In past times, children were not abandoned, but taken in by extended families; now, there are few families that can take up the burden. A baby girl named Chipo, or "gift," catches Neely and Vita's eyes and they decide to try to adopt her. They cannot have children of their own, which is seen as a tragedy by the people they meet in Zimbabwe. Realizing the irony of trying to save one child in the face of the devastation of AIDS, an uncaring and massively overburdened government and the amazing disdain (even paranoia) of President Robert Mugabe, Neely, during this story, is still traveling all over Africa as a reporter. Unlike some reporters who are almost too good at being objective, Neely relates every spin, every defeat, every feeling that these people went through in order to save Chipo's life. They took Chipo in not knowing if she had AIDS, and fought month after month to keep her healthy. But they're not saints, and they don't pretend to be. This is the strength, and pain, of the book. These are somewhat ordinary people --- but with extraordinary patience, resolve and heart. Neely's job takes him away and often Vita spends weeks alone with a child who wakes up crying hour and hour. At one point, when Neely comes home, he describes his wife as having that thousand-yard stare because she is so sleep-deprived. But neither of them ever thinks of quitting. The determination of Neely and Vita astounded me. I cannot imagine doing what they did. Some Zimbabwe officials were extremely skeptical of Americans (especially white Americans) wanting to adopt a black baby from Zimbabwe --- it's not done, and sometimes it's seen as some form of kinky sexual gratification. Some assumed that the Tuckers must have bribed someone, which is ludicrous considering all of the work they put in, but apparently not uncommon with the horrid bureaucracy that people seem to deal with in the Mugabe government. It was so hard to read of the losses, the deaths and the failures at the orphanage --- Vita and Neely more than once decide that they must take in a second child, only to witness that child's death. They already have challenges in their own lives. Neely's parents would not attend their wedding; coming from a racist culture, his parents could not and would not accept that their son would marry a black woman, not to mention an older black woman. And yet one of the finest moments in this story is when Neely's father states (in front of his 50th high school reunion class) that he is proud to have a granddaughter from Zimbabwe named Chipo. The Tuckers lived in the midst of chaos in Zimbabwe; as Robert Mugabe's regime collapsed, they got out just before the worst chaos. But over and over, they encountered apathy, suspicion, hate and bias; as a journalist Neely was often targeted as someone who reported lies. He was in Nairobi within hours of the embassy bombing, and his descriptions are pure hell to read. He and Vita both dealt with anger and despair, the most amazing stress and depression. Fortunately, their story ends well. I have nothing but admiration for Neely and Vita, who went all out to save one life. And they are aware of the irony --- that that was all they could do in the face of poverty, indifference and the most astonishing bureaucratic meltdown I've ever seen (it makes some of the bureaucracies I've dealt with seem like models of efficiency). This is a story that must be read and understood, so that these people's lives can be seen and admired. --- Reviewed by Andi Shechter
Rating:
Summary: Love in the Driest Season
Review: I read this book in one day and it gripped me from the 1st page. I ran the gammot of emotions from pity to outrage, to happiness, and excitement. Neely and Vita are strong and very determined people who allowed nothing to stop them in their quest to make Chipo their daughter. If I thought I COULD I would be adopting a child so desperately in need but the government needs to make SWEEPING changes in order to give these poor sick deglected babies even the smallest chance at life and love. You will come away deeply affected by this book,
Rating: 
Summary: Many fascinating stories in one..... too rushed...
Review: I recommend this book but be warned....
Neely Tucker's life as a foriegn correspondent required he write quick short summaries and that habit left this book choppy and somewhat confusing. There is so much more that could be said about his historic childhood, his rise from poverty, his heroic life as a foreign correspondent, his brave marriage and then his life with his daughter. Neely lived 'large'. This was a big life and needed a bigger book.
Glad I read it ...would like to read more.
Rating: 
Summary: The Lengths To Save A Child
Review: Neely Tucker's story of how he and his wife came to adopt an ailing African child proves the adage that the heart knows no boundries.
The book works so sucessfully on three distinct levels:
-Race and prejudice both in the United States and in Africa.
-The mounting tension and political termoil gripping the AIDS ravaged country.
-And most prominantly as a simple love story between a girl and her caretakers, and what they will undertake to save her.
A moving, exhausting, yet exhilarating book.
Rating:
Summary: Many fascinating stories in one..... too rushed...
Review: Neely Tucker, a white journalist posted in Zimbabwe, and his wife Vita, a black woman, fall in love with a female infant in an orphanage in that country. The baby's name is Chipo, which means "gift" in the local language. The story, a family memoir, details the couple's attempts to adopt this baby with whom they have fallen in love. The story also explains the political situation in Zimbabwe, which is unstable and volatile, especially toward foreign journalists. There is also a great deal of information about the AIDS crisis in Africa, and how this dread disease has impacted so many families and created millions of orphans. These three topics were interwoven in the book to make a fascinating and extremely interesting story. I could feel the Tuckers' frustration with the bureaucratic red tape they had to wade through in order to someday adopt Chipo. I admired their tenacity--all because of their intense love for this beautiful baby. It would be interesting to follow this little girl into adulthood, and I hope Neely Tucker has such a possibility in mind.
Rating:
Summary: For the love of a child.
Review: Neely Tucker, a white journalist posted in Zimbabwe, and his wife Vita, a black woman, fall in love with a female infant in an orphanage in that country. The baby's name is Chipo, which means "gift" in the local language. The story, a family memoir, details the couple's attempts to adopt this baby with whom they have fallen in love. The story also explains the political situation in Zimbabwe, which is unstable and volatile, especially toward foreign journalists. There is also a great deal of information about the AIDS crisis in Africa, and how this dread disease has impacted so many families and created millions of orphans. These three topics were interwoven in the book to make a fascinating and extremely interesting story. I could feel the Tuckers' frustration with the bureaucratic red tape they had to wade through in order to someday adopt Chipo. I admired their tenacity--all because of their intense love for this beautiful baby. It would be interesting to follow this little girl into adulthood, and I hope Neely Tucker has such a possibility in mind.
Rating:
Summary: Great story of love across color lines
Review: Neely Tucker, a writer for the Washington Post , details his travels in Africa as a correspondent for the Detroit Times with his African American wife and their struggle to adopt a baby from Zimbabwe. This is a truly heartwarming story that wraps you up in their family struggles and at the end you hope the author writes a sequel so you can hear more about their life together.
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