(no subject)
So. Random book recommendations. Or not so random.
If you talk to me online or in person, I've probably said something about Machete Season before. For those of you who I haven't flailed at before, I'm saying it now.
Everyone should read this book.
Machete Season isn't a nice book. It's downright brutal at times. It is definitely not a pleasent read. But. I seriously can't express who much I feel it's a necessary one.
Machete Season is about the Rwandan genocide. Jean Hatzfeld, a war correspondant, went to Rwanda after the genocide to report and then wrote a book about the survivors of a particular district. Because of the interest express after that book was published, he went back to Rwanda and did a book about their killers, interviewing 12 men who had been the neighbours of the survivors he had interviewed before.
The book is harrowing. It's unbelievable. I had to put the book down after reading some of it. The killers talk about hunting down their neighbours, about looting their houses and about how, for some of them, their regret is that they didn't finish the "job". It's very disturbing but...it's also really fucking important, I think.
I'm now reading the book about the survivors Into the Quick of Life or Life Laid Bare depending on which edition you buy. It is also, I think, a necessary read. It was published in english after Machete Season but written first. Where Machete Season arranges the killers testimonies in clumps according to the chapter's subject, Into the Quick of Life lets the survivor's testimonies stand alone. These testimonies are prefaced with Hatzfeld's words, in Machete Season this involves quite a bit of analysis, in Into the Quick of Life it is mostly description of how the survivors are now living.
Both of these books together are the best, most harrowing, most affecting books I've ever read and they need to be read. They need to be read.
If you talk to me online or in person, I've probably said something about Machete Season before. For those of you who I haven't flailed at before, I'm saying it now.
Everyone should read this book.
Machete Season isn't a nice book. It's downright brutal at times. It is definitely not a pleasent read. But. I seriously can't express who much I feel it's a necessary one.
Machete Season is about the Rwandan genocide. Jean Hatzfeld, a war correspondant, went to Rwanda after the genocide to report and then wrote a book about the survivors of a particular district. Because of the interest express after that book was published, he went back to Rwanda and did a book about their killers, interviewing 12 men who had been the neighbours of the survivors he had interviewed before.
The book is harrowing. It's unbelievable. I had to put the book down after reading some of it. The killers talk about hunting down their neighbours, about looting their houses and about how, for some of them, their regret is that they didn't finish the "job". It's very disturbing but...it's also really fucking important, I think.
I'm now reading the book about the survivors Into the Quick of Life or Life Laid Bare depending on which edition you buy. It is also, I think, a necessary read. It was published in english after Machete Season but written first. Where Machete Season arranges the killers testimonies in clumps according to the chapter's subject, Into the Quick of Life lets the survivor's testimonies stand alone. These testimonies are prefaced with Hatzfeld's words, in Machete Season this involves quite a bit of analysis, in Into the Quick of Life it is mostly description of how the survivors are now living.
Both of these books together are the best, most harrowing, most affecting books I've ever read and they need to be read. They need to be read.