artspolitics

This is my book of the year so far. This memoir by New York Times correspondent Helene Cooper about her native Liberia in West Africa affected me on so many levels. My parents are from Liberia, so everything resonated with me, from the colorful Liberian English ( ” Let me hear my ears” means ” ”Leave me alone!”) to the heart-wrenching recount of the decades-long war in Liberia, it all hit too close to home.  I could practically smell the cassava leaf rice as Helene wrote about the Firestone rubber plantations and market women I heard so much about with my family. Helene writes about her privileged upbringing as part of the ” Congo People”, the ancestors of freed Americans slaves who went back to Liberia. She’s lonely for another sister, so her parents adopt a girl from the Bassa tribe, one of the so-called ” Country People”, the indigineous people of Liberia. Helene’s new sister, Eunice, is gradually taken into the family and both their lives are changed forever.

After growing up together as sisters for many years, their world is upended by the violent coup led by Samuel Doe that killed their longtime president.  Doe is from an indigenous tribe and wants to take revenge against the ” Congo People” like Helene and her family. Rebel soldiers break into the Cooper family estate and assault Helene’s mother. After the harrowing ordeal, Helene’s mother decides to flee to America with Helene, her other sister, Marlene- but returns Eunice to her birth mother.

Leaving Eunice behind haunts Helene as the war worsens and her own life in America improves as she climbs up the journalism ladder, eventually covering the Iraq War for the New York Times. After a near-death experience, she becomes determined to find Eunice.  I don’t want to ruin the ending , because you have to read this, but Helene’s journey to find Eunice and make peace with herself and her country will show you the pointlessness of war and the power of love and forgiveness.