Strength in What Remains - Book 39

I'm on a little African kick, after The White Nile. This book, Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder, (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Mountains Beyond Mountains), is about a young medical student named Deogratias from the country of Burundi. I'd read Tracy Kidder's books Among Schoolchildren and House, so about a year ago when I was picking up books for my teens at B&N, the store had one of those tables with the buy two get one free. And Strength in What Remains was my choice for that third free book. I kept meaning to read it. So now, interested in all things African, I remembered it and got it down from the bookshelf.

Strength in What Remains is the harrowing and almost miraculous true story of how Deogratias (Deo) escapes the brutal ethnic violence in his country and somehow eventually manages to flee to New York City where he is homeless and can not speak the language. However, a few generous people choose to help him and two years after arriving, he enters Columbia University!

Burundi is a tiny country next to Rwanda and it shares the ethnic groups of Tutsi and Hutu. The same genocidal movement that was so horrendous in Rwanda also occurred in Burundi. Rwanda's genocide actually lasted 4 months, but Burundi's trouble took the form of a civil war and lasted for years and years. And it rendered Burundi, already poor to begin with, one of the poorest countries on earth.

The book details Deo's journey and it is told exceptionally well. Kidder is actually a friend of Deo's. He met him while researching his book Mountains Beyond Mountains and they knew each other several years before he accompanied Deo on one of his trips back to Burundi. Deo has a dream of opening a clinic in his native land. Deo had entered Dartmouth medical school, but his dream of getting healthcare to his poor, beleaguered countrymen is greater than his desire to become a doctor and at the end of the book he has stopped his medical education to devote himself full time to making his clinic happen. If you want to find out how he did, go to the Village Health Works site and see!

This book is chilling, deeply moving and surprisingly joyful. Deogratias is a wounded, wounded soul who, in spite of himself, is indomitable. I found this book to be a real education, in modern African history, in international public health issues, in how one man copes with the unimaginable, and through sheer perseverance and will, honesty and intelligence, can turn his own personal horror into a little glimmer of hope. In the face of terrific cruelty, one man's sense of decency triumphs.

Two thumbs up. For more book reviews go to 52 Books in 52 Weeks.