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Summary: Great summation of events surrounding the Rwandan genocide.
Review: I bought this book seeking a better understanding of the killings in Rwanda; which seemed very confusing to me by the time any substantial information was available in the American press. This book was exactly what I was looking for. It is an excellent account of the progression of events that led up to and beyond the sound bites I had received. It also served to help me understand some of the greater questions in my mind: how a group of people arrive at the conclusion that exterminating fellow human beings is the solution to their problems; the complex, politicized roles that other countries and world organizations play in these crises; how a country survives and heals after such an event. Events such as this will be hard to prevent until the countries (peoples) of the world treat each other with fairness and understanding, instilling those traits in each individual.
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Summary: Powerful reading
Review: Gourevitch's book is simply powerful reading. And must reading for anyone seeking answers to the tragedy of the Rwandan genocide. You will not be disappointed.
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Summary: Gourevitch's story of Rwanda's tradgic genocide a success
Review: Author, Philip Gourevitch, from The New Yorker, provides a wonderfully written novel examining the genocide in Rwanda. We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda, is a gripping tale of a country torn apart by civil mutiny. The conflict between the Hutus and the Tutsis is one of the ugliest forms of twentieth century genocide since the Jewish evacuation in the second world war. The book is told from the heart of Gourevitch himself as he traveled throughout Rwanda soon after the mass killings. His journalistic style captures the raw emotion of this country during its hardest times in its own history. The goal was simple for the plight of this book: Open the eyes of the United States public to the incidents in Rwanda. And that is just what he did. In the novel's opening page, Gourevitch quickly explains the scene of a post genocide country, "The dead looked like pictures of the dead. They did not smell. They did not buzz with flies. They had been killed thirteen months earlier, and they hadn't been moved." We Wish To Inform You..., is a tremendous book that allows the western world into the affairs of an African country. The events described are no less horrid than those from the Holocaust, and therefore, I would strongly suggest caution before reading this book. The violence is unfortunately a part of the book, but again, like the Holocaust, everyone should be well informed of this kind of thing so that is does not repeat itself another time. Gourevitch's reports from Rwanda make a great novel. In closing, he has this to say on hope of Rwanda's recovery, "But hope is a force more easy to name and declare one's allegiance to than to enact." This book must be read, and our eyes must be open.
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Summary: Genocide - gifts of Western democracy
Review: I have not closed my eyes since I finished this tale without seeing a crowd gathered around, jeering, taunting, waving machetes,watching a man crawling - hands and feet severed. They jeer - in anger - in scorn - in pleasure - as their companions slowly hack this man to death. As they cut him down to size...again and again And in Gourevitch's stories lie the keys to both the cause of such an unspeakable crime against all of humanity.. and the signs to look out for.. For the terrifying fact was that a modern government, in a televised world, convinced both Hutu and Tutsi of the inevitability of genocide while the "power" of the western world dared not even name the crime for fear of being forced to act to uphold its own published and proclaimed standards
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Summary: A gripping polemic, but misses the hearts of the people.
Review: Although the title of the book indicates the author will describe the stories of the people of Rwanda, we learn little about the lives of the victims or perpetrators in this historical and political account of the Rwandan genocide. The author supports his view that the world stood by, passively and sometimes actively supporting the Hutu Power murderers. However, his interviews and accounts are almost exclusively with well-to-do and politically powerful individuals. As such, I'm not sure that our understanding of the culture and other forces which lead to the blind obedience to murder and, at times, be murdered, is increased.
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Summary: Too biased to contribute anything to our understanding
Review: Gourevitch's book has a central flaw: it tries to draw a much closer analogy to the Jewish holocaust than the facts actually warrant: the author comes with a module, and appears determined to hammer reality into that module, inevitably casting the Tutsi in the role of the Jews. But the Tutsi are NOT the Jews: they were monarchs, land and cattle owners and pretty consistent abusers of the Hutu peasantry -- which does not explain the genocide, nothing ever could (Gourevitch sure as hell doesn't) The book might have contributed something to our understanding of the genocide had it taken a closer look at power relations between Hutu and Tutsi prior to the Hutu revolution of 1959 rather than limit itself to an outraged chronology of injuries inflicted on the Tutsi.
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Summary: Extraordinary
Review: This is a great book in describing the politics that allow atrocities to happen. I also think that it provides an excellent tidbit of history about Africa which isn't emphasized in our country's schools
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Summary: Gripping. Everyone should read this book
Review: Nobody can say this book is pleasant to read or that it prevent future genocides. It's not. It won't. But Gourevitch's chilling book does seperate the actuality of genocide from all the "Never Again" cant. It does show how people can be incited to violence by desparate governments. In beautiful, intelligent prose, Gourevitch looks deeply at the causes and aftermath of genocide, reminding us what is left when a story slips of the cover of the New York Times.
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Summary: stunning fusion of emotive erudition and postmodern doubt
Review: The text is an ruthless delineation of a culture turned askew; the question remains which becomes the incomprehensible: Hutu Power or a Western Civ. redefining itself through posturing. Its chief weakness, scholarship's sacrifice to emotion is perhaps, as well, its most vibrant hope.
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Summary: Fidelity to the Myriad Subtexts of Humanitarian Tragedy
Review: Having been an aid worker in '94 in the Gikongoro area PG frequently addresses, and having known Rwanda before the war with Peace Corps, I was very happy with the sensitivity of this work. His interview on NPR's 'fresh air' was also a treat, as is his work in the New Yorker. Too bad PG hasn't invested equal time/interest in other regional conflicts, ie Somalia, Sudan, Angola, all of which are crying out for intelligent interpretation, instead of the CNN sledgehammer.
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