This might sound high-falutin' coming from someone who spent the first half of the year bingeing on a trashy mystery series and even trashier vampire novels (which I devoured with the enthusiasm of a little girl savoring her first Halloween stash, by the way). But, I feel like we as Americans have a serious lack of interest--or possibly access?--to the perspectives of other peoples in other countries. And we remain ignorant at our peril. Globalization is here, folks. In this interdependent world, we can't afford not to know our neighbors, even the ones that are millions of miles away.
This is especially true of the Middle East. I, for one, knew next to nothing about Iran or Afghanistan until these proper nouns started making the daily headlines. But the news blurbs I was reading and watching never gave me a sense of the peoples, cultures, and personal challenges that make up these dots on a map. And so I was profoundly grateful when friends, family, and chance brought me books that help put a human face on some of the world's greatest challenges.
I'm also not convinced that we Americans know our own story that well. That's why if I ever take over the world (and the chances of that are slim, dear reader!), I would not only raise taxes to fund my palatial pool, but I would also require essays from every man, woman, and child on the following books:
- Three Cups of Tea. After a failed attempt to climb K2 in 1993, an American nurse named Greg Mortenson found himself being nursed back to health by the villagers of Korphe, Pakistan. In gratitude, he pledged to build the village's first school. Since then, the Central Asia Institute he founded has built more than 50 schools in some of the most needy villages in rural Afghanistan and Pakistan. Of course, it was no easy accomplishment--and Mortenson and co-author David Oliver Relin describe the fierce obstacles he overcame, including a chilling encounter with the Taliban. The book argues that the way to defeat Islamic extremism in this area is through building access to education--particularly for girls. Three Cups of Tea provides a rare glimpse into village life, and the overall message is surprisingly hopeful.
- Persepolis. The first half of Marjane Satrapi's memoir in comic book form tells the story of the fall of the Shah and the rise of the Islamic Republic from her perspective as a little girl growing up in Tehran in 1979. The fear, cruelty, and extremist restrictions of the time are all the more horrifying from a child's point of view--especially one so inquisitive, passionate, and funny. The second half of Satrapi's tale recounts her experiences as an expatriate in Europe, and how the experience of displacement nearly killed her. Satrapi is as candid about her own flaws as she is about her country's--which is why I prefer her story to Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, who fills too many pages celebrating her own intelligence. Both Satrapi's memoir and the 2008 film adaptation provide an enlightening look at how drastically Iran has changed since 1979--and how it has changed the people who live there.
- Brief Encounters with Che Guevara. In this short story collection, Ben Fountain describes such vivid characters, places, and situations that it is easy to forget these tales are fiction. Almost every story takes place in a third-world country--the descriptions of which are informed by Fountain's extensive research and travels to Haiti--and centers on the impossible choices the characters living there have to make every day. Will the American relief worker in Sierra Leone steal blood diamonds to keep her women's shelter going? Should the Haitian fisherman turn over the guns and drugs he finds on the beach to the police? Can the American golf pro in Myanmar turn a blind eye to the shady business dealings he sees on the course? Fountain's smooth, polished writing style is funny, poignant, and intelligent. His American characters are often at odds with their own privileged backgrounds and the destitution they see as expatriates, and how they deal with this displacement makes for intense reading. Fountain's collection is fiction at its best.
- Ake: The Years of Childhood. This 1989 memoir from Wole Soyinka recounts his early years--ages 4 through 11--growing up in his hometown of Ake, Nigeria. Soyinka, who became the first African to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, parallels his own coming of age with his country's search for identity, as both seek to reconcile the African, Western, tribal, and Christian influences that continually contradict one another. The book ends with an amazing account of the rebellion launched by the village women, including Soyinka's mother, against the dictator in power. It's an eye-popping account of a part of the world we so rarely hear about here. I first encountered Soyinka's writing in a college class--his novel The Interpreters is a haunting portrayal of intellectuals wasting away under the corrupt Nigerian government--and I had the pleasure of hearing him read from the sequel to this memoir (You Must Set Forth at Dawn) a couple of years ago at my alma mater. I highly recommend that one, too--although it is much more dense and even abstract at times. Still, it is a gripping read about the succession of corrupt and violent dictators in Nigeria, Soyinka's acts of rebellion and self-imposed exile, and his ever-present longing to return to his native soil.
- Dreams From My Father. Long before our Commander in Chief hit the national political scene, he wrote a memoir about his search for identity as a biracial American. The book, which was written in 1995 after Barack Obama headed the Harvard Law Review, focuses mainly on his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia, his years as a community organizer in Chicago, and his first encounter with his brothers, sister, and extended family in Kenya. Obama, well-known for his beautiful oratory, is also a gifted writer, with the literary sensibilities of a novelist. He writes with objective candor about his struggle to define himself as an African American man (especially because he had no African-American male role models as a child) and come to terms with the enigma of a father he met only once. The Kenyan section is especially moving--where Obama is at once at home and at sea in the bosom of the family he never knew. It's a fascinating glimpse into the events that shaped this president--and a much more intimate experience than his political expositions in The Audacity of Hope.
- Assassination Vacation. This treat from radio commentator (and voice of Violet in "The Incredibles") Sarah Vowell describes her obsession with presidential assassination trivia. This book is chock full of info about the assassinations of Lincoln, McKinley, and Garfield infused with Vowell's own funny anecdotes about her road trips to all of the locations, museums, and libraries involved in her research (often with her twin sister and young nephew in tow). Vowell's flare for weird details, her quirky personality, and her passion for American history and civics makes this an entertaining read from start to finish. It's so much fun that I promise you'll soon forget it's homework.
OK, class dismissed! Homework question: What books in this vein do you recommend?
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