by Cynthia Anderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 29, 2019
Close-ups of refugees who transformed a town but it's short on geopolitical context.
How an influx of refugees from Somalia and other African countries challenged an old mill town in Maine to redefine itself.
As a New Yorker article noted more than a decade ago, an improbable migration has turned Lewiston into “a large-scale social experiment.” That statement was “a blunt but not inaccurate assessment” of the once-thriving and overwhelmingly white town, writes Anderson (Writing/Boston Univ.; River Talk, 2014), who grew up nearby. The town was facing economic ruin after its industries vanished and its population declined. Then more than 6,000 refugees from Somalia and other African countries began to stream into town. Despite resistance from the mayor and private citizens, the newcomers reenergized the community by opening shops, forming cultural groups, and leading the high school to its first-ever state soccer championship. In this sympathetic account of their efforts, Anderson follows a group of Somali, Congolese, and other refugees from 2016 to early 2019, offering intimate glimpses of their homes and workplaces and their birthday, wedding, and other celebrations. In an especially memorable scene, the founder of a Somali women’s rights group testifies, at a legislative hearing, against a bill that would have criminalized female genital mutilation in Maine—and might have discouraged women harmed by the practice from seeking medical help—even as she describes herself as “a survivor of this horrendous procedure.” Elsewhere, a refugee who works at L.L. Bean praises his employer for giving Muslim workers a dedicated space for five-times-a-day prayer. Worthy as such stories are, Anderson’s self-conscious recounting of them often reveals more about her than her subjects. The author also skimps on or belatedly introduces vital context. Not until Chapter 7, for example, does she adequately supply the background on the civil war in Somalia that explains why so many people fled the country. A more helpful overview of Lewiston’s turnaround appears in Amy Bass’ One Goal. Anderson provides a more up-to-date yet imperfect portrait of the enduring challenges faced by Lewiston.
Close-ups of refugees who transformed a town but it's short on geopolitical context.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5417-6791-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
Share your opinion of this book
by David Grann ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2017
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Awards & Accolades
Likes
18
Our Verdict
GET IT
Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2017
New York Times Bestseller
IndieBound Bestseller
National Book Award Finalist
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
Share your opinion of this book
More by David Grann
BOOK REVIEW
by David Grann
BOOK REVIEW
by David Grann
BOOK REVIEW
by David Grann
More About This Book
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Share your opinion of this book
More by Elie Wiesel
BOOK REVIEW
by Elie Wiesel ; edited by Alan Rosen
BOOK REVIEW
by Elie Wiesel ; illustrated by Mark Podwal
BOOK REVIEW
by Elie Wiesel ; translated by Marion Wiesel
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.