The book review:
Beyond the Gates is a film about the Rwandan genocide. It adds fictional characters to a real incident to create a story line that accurately portrays the horror of the genocide itself, but with emphasis on the stark moral dilemmas faced by Westerners in the face of that evil.

The book review:
This novel, set in Kenya and Sudan, revolves around humanitarian efforts to aid stricken people in war-torn southern Sudan. That is a large topic and author Caputo strives to include something for everyone. For example, the cast of characters include a jaundiced Kenyan soccer player searching for meaning; a vivacious white settler, who, out of guilt, engages in good works; cynical mercenary pilots; a dew-eyed young missionary overwhelmed with Africa; a driven evangelist who is also a sharp businessman; a romantic SPLA commander; and an Africa-seasoned, wise priest. There are many others, but those are central to the various plots that swirl around.

The book review:
The title The Ostrich Wakes is drawn from Kikuyu lore regarding Mt. Kenya, whose local name Kirinyaga means mountain of the ostrich. The title conveys the thrust of the book that confirms social, economic, and political change in Kikuyuland.

The book review:
This is a very readable, fairly short novel that dwells on family relationships, on what is remembered and why. Truth is elusive, what counts is belief—whether that be fabrication or fact.

The story unfolds in Kenya and Uganda, but begins in New Mexico when twenty-something Ellie, a private, contained woman receives notification that her long-estranged father John Cameron has died in Kenya. Ellie returns to Kenya determined to sort out her knowledge and conflicting emotions about the man that she poorly remembered, but about whom she believed the worse.

The book review:
This is a rather short, but intriguing novel set in Nairobi. Although Kenya provides the backdrop, the characters and the essence of the plot, the novel is not really about Kenya. Rather, it is about people grappling with their lives and with each other; ultimately in search of some basic truths and meanings. Whether or not they—the characters—really get there remains the fundamental enigma of the story that is not ever fully resolved, even at the end.

The two central protagonists—neither of whom I liked very much—are Anna, a jaded, drunk, international journalist regularly high on the amphetamine of Africa’s suffering: war, death, rebellion, famine, disease. She is a never-explained shallow person who uses alcohol and work to avoid human relationships. Fortunately, (for the novel) Mercy, a large, impressive, loud Kikuyu woman given to outlandish disco clothes and fancy hairdos imposes herself on Anna, first as a servant; later as a friend. Theirs is an unlikely partnership and their clashes of culture and values provide gist for the story. Their relationship grows slowly over time as each begins to gain perspective and an ability to see the other in a less judgmental light.

The horror of journalistic Africa comes home as Anna discovers, via Mercy, the tragedy that AIDS is wreaking in Nairobi’s awful slums. Enter a cynical Italian priest who ministers selflessly to the dying. He, various boyfriends and other journalists, both by their actions and inactions, help Anna plunge the depths of her own misery. Slowly some long-buried ethics emerge. Mercy is a constant fixture goading the narrative along. The plot takes a not unexpected tragic turn, and then gives hope before resolving into more measured reality.

For Kenyaphiles, the Nairobi setting was good. Kenyan English was realistically rendered. Geography only went askew once when Kitale was described as a Kikuyu town about two hours from Nyeri. Swahili was dropped into the dialogue from time to time with only two misspellings minghi and Mzei. The length of the novel required that bit players in the plot be more caricature than real, but this did not significantly detract from the impact of the story.

In summary, this is a fairly terse novel. It is well written and contains some wonderful observations. For example, following the horrors of Nigerian violence, “We took off that night under a full moon, Africa spread like a giant below us. Why this land should be so full of God, I do not know.”

The book review:
If you yearn to relive the angst, frustrations, self-doubt and self discovery of your Peace Corps experience, this may be the book for you. Josh Swiller, who served in northern Zambia in the early 1990s, was an unusual volunteer who apparently had an unusually conflict-ridden tour. Perhaps, as he himself would admit, it was his combative personality, but also—as he repeatedly refers to in the book—it was because the town where he was assigned was just mean and devoid of effective leadership. In any case, common cultural misunderstandings often flared up into major confrontations, especially when our idealistic hero put his foot down and stood firm on his scruples.