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There are currently 26 member reviews
for The Girl Who Smiled Beads
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Betty T. (Warner Robins, GA)
Searches for her own value
I cannot even begin to imagine what life was like in Rwanda during the time of the massacre there. I remember watching the movie "Hotel Rwanda" and thinking what a horror story this was, yet it wasn't a story – it was real life. I remember hearing hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina speak of his experience. How could all this horror really happen! And now Clementine Wamariya tells us of her personal experience.
As I read this powerful story I couldn't help comparing it to the Holocaust. Imagine how it would be to grow up in a middle class family among others just like yourself. Then suddenly life changes. She was only four years old when her world started shrinking. She could no longer go to kindergarten. She was forbidden to play with her oldest friend. No one goes to the market anymore. There is no running water in the house; electricity is on and off.
Then came the time that Clementine (age 15) and Claire (now six years old) had to escape. Imagine a young child having to walk for hours. She sees people sleeping in water – sleeping and sleeping – bodies floating. The next six years they move from one country to another, from one refugee camp to another. Along with the atrocities they encounter, they also experience kindness in unlikely places. They eventually end up in the US, not knowing the fate of their parents.
Clementine writes of their emotional reaction to all this – how Claire shuts down and how they learn to not trust anyone. Clementine draws on her inner strength to determine who she is as an individual and explore who she wants to be. After being treated as something less than human, she now searches for her own value.
From this book we can learn the impact of war on humans. We can reach out to other refugees while recognizing that, for the children, their innocence is forever shattered. Clementine teaches us that some parts of the person can be repaired, some parts cannot be. While others saw her as "broken", that is not how she saw herself.
I used the word "horror" to describe how I felt when seeing the movie and hearing the speaker. Now there are other words to describe what I felt while reading this book – powerful, raw, devastating, hopeful, determined, and very, very brave.
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Cheryl P. (Lebanon, PA)
The Girl Who Smiled Beads
This was a very thought-provoking book that made you search for the good in this world. Opened my eyes to world events that I heard of, but didn't pay attention to. Because it wasn't here in my safe country. Horrors like this are hard to imagine. The story wove in and out of present time. This just added to the "traveling" and "searching" that the author was always needing to do to find peace, to remember, to feel secure.
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Kate S. (Arvada, CO)
Lost Childhood and Stolen Identity
This was a difficult book to read. Not the writing, that was direct, straight forward, and sometimes poetic. The subject matter was "hell on earth". To read about the horrors that people can inflict on one another for no reason is insanity!
It gives one hope that refugees can find a better life, but as we saw with Clementine, even with the comforts of the United States, and a good education obtained, she still seeks for her basic identity. This book would be a great starting point for so many discussions and would be a great Book Club selection.
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Patti P. (Phoenix, AZ)
How can one properly "rate" another's pain?
4.5...Wow!! What a magnificently, powerful and emotionally raw memoir. This greatly impacted my entire being--down to the most basic fiber. Additionally, I was surprised at how effectively it humbled me--making me aware of my ignorance and my sheltered experiences. I now realize that US refugee status does not necessarily aid in the healing of life's horror-filled transgressions--that perhaps, there is no correct formula for healing.
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Carol F. (Lake Linden, MI)
You Had to Stay Invisible
There are some powerful phrases in this book that make you envision what these girls endured. "You had to hang onto your name though nobody cared about your name". As the author says the word genocide cannot fully explain the experience of living through it. A well written account of how a 6 year old survived the horrors of refugee camps and having no where to call home. I rated it good as I thought towards the later part of the book it started to repeat itself and got a bit muddled.
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Vicki Hill
Loss and Endurance
Clemantine Wamariya’s memoir of loss and endurance is told across two time periods. Her period of living in the United States includes a 2006 Oprah appearance, Yale, and her success as an international spokesperson, where she is safe but profoundly alienated. Alternating chapters recount how her childhood was stolen and she survived as a refuge after the war in Rwanda started in 1994.
A captivating part of the book is her evocation of middle-class life in Kigali. She builds a complete picture of her family, food, raising babies, clothes, beatings from men who were “decimated inside”. These memories never leave her; at the end of the book, she is still trying to come to terms with her longing for the past. Her sister Claire almost steals the book – she is a hustler and survivor, always leading the way, sometimes into disaster. Claire does not try to ponder the meaning of it all as Clemantine does; she “existed in a never-ending present, not asking too many questions”.
An important part of the story are the books that Clemantine comes across, especially “Night” by Elie Wiesel. The writing of this book has started Clementine’s mission to find a cohesive life; it continues.
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Yolanda M. (Boise, ID)
A Hammer
Searing. Unforgiving. Difficult. This story was like a javelin being thrown over and over ... striking the target without pause page after page. There are so many stories about war and its affects on the women and children - each with their own voice. Clementine's is pure righteous anger born out of terror. There was little room for me to react - I could only watch as she unfolded harsh realities and responded with pragmatic resilience without the requisite joy and hope so many others' stories have shared. That is real life. I can only hope that at some point she begins to feel safe and finds peace in the moment through her work.
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