Strength in What Remains: Summary and book reviews of Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder, plus links to an excerpt from Strength in What Remains and a biography of Tracy Kidder.
Strength in What Remains A journey of remembrance and forgiveness
by Tracy Kidder
Hardcover: Aug 2009,
304 pages.
Paperback: May 2010,
304 pages.
Tracy Kidder, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of the bestsellers The Soul of a New Machine, House, and the enduring classic Mountains Beyond Mountains, has been described by the Baltimore Sun as the “master of the non-fiction narrative.” In this new book, Kidder gives us the superb story of a hero for our time. Strength in What Remains is a wonderfully written, inspiring account of one man’s remarkable American journey and of the ordinary people who helped him – a brilliant testament to the power of will and of second chances.
Deo arrives in America from Burundi in search of a new life. Having survived a civil war and genocide, plagued by horrific dreams, he lands at JFK airport with two hundred dollars, no English, and no contacts. He ekes out a precarious existence delivering groceries, living in Central Park, and learning English by reading dictionaries in bookstores. Then Deo begins to meet the strangers who will change his life, pointing him eventually in the direction of Columbia University, medical school, and a life devoted to healing. Kidder breaks new ground in telling this unforgettable story as he travels with Deo back over a turbulent life in search of meaning and forgiveness.
An extraordinary writer, Tracy Kidder once again shows us what it means to be fully human by telling a story about the heroism inherent in ordinary people, a story about a life based on hope.
BOOK REVIEWS
BookBrowse
This is a smart book for what it does not do. It does not attempt to get inside Deo’s head to guess what he might have been thinking. It does not try to psychoanalyze him once he starts talking about his trauma. It does not overly dramatize this story of extreme suffering and redemption, simply allowing the events to unfold on the page. And it does not attempt to puff out Deo’s story and make it represent more than it does. Kidder takes on the role of a reporter on Deo’s life, but his unusual narrative structure lends the story the grace and depth of a novel. (Reviewed by Amy Reading). Full Review (1129 words).
Media Reviews
Booklist
Kidder uses Deo's experiences to deliver a very personal and harrowing account of the ethnic genocide in East Central Africa.
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This profoundly gripping, hopeful and crucial testament is a work of the utmost skill, sympathy and moral clarity."
Kirkus Reviews
Terrifying at turns, but tremendously inspiring...a key document in the growing literature devoted to post-genocidal justice.
The Washington Post
Kidder by no means tells a seamless story. He lurches recklessly between Africa and New York and from past to present, fragmenting the natural suspense... tells us too little and then too much, glossing over material he knows better than we do and then over-explaining things we know perfectly well. He inserts himself into the narrative and indulges in inane asides. But for all these flaws, the sheer power of Deo's story shines through.
The Washington Post
I wish Mr. Kidder had explored more [of] the demands on Deo—and the complicated relationships with his benefactors—once he became the remarkable genocide survivor. What pressures did Deo feel to go back and help save Burundi after he had already achieved and overcome so much? ...quibbles aside, though, a reader cannot help feeling, by the book's end, a deep admiration for Deo and for those who helped him help himself.
The New York Times
That 63-year-old Tracy Kidder may have just written his finest work — indeed, one of the truly stunning books I’ve read this year — is proof that the secret to memorable nonfiction is so often the writer’s readiness to be surprised.
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(1129 words).
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