RECLAIMING MY NAME, NIWAHEREZA

Colangelo recounts her immigration journey from Uganda to Canada in this engaging memoir.

The author writes that, as a child, she was constantly on the receiving end of her father’s ire. Recognizing her uniqueness, she retreated from her father’s torment into her imagination, building a colorful and accepting world inside her mind. When she came of age, Colangelo sought refuge in marriage to a man who turned out to be, in the author’s estimation, just as bad as her father. Her husband’s only positive contribution, Colangelo asserts, was aiding in the conception of two beautiful daughters. A plan to get out of Uganda included temporarily leaving her daughters behind, but the sacrifice was essential to creating a better life. Colangelo writes with a dramatic flourish, leaning heavily on uplifting affirmations of faith and perseverance: “I chose to stay optimistic, placing faith in the newfound skills and resilience I had unearthed during these tribulations.” Significant events, such as a school Christmas concert she organized, reveal the author’s analytical rather than emotional approach to problem-solving, an engaging element throughout the story. Though the introduction describes the memoir as a “tale of a young girl chosen and cradled by art,” the role of art in the story is disappointingly inconsistent; when Colangelo does discuss creativity—daydreaming as a child or putting paint to canvas as an adult—her vivid descriptions and emotionally charged musings are lush and moving. (“My mind would wander to a fantastical world of my own creation, where the usual laws of colour and matter were irrelevant. In this magical haven, trees grew upside down, raindrops sparkled in a kaleidoscope of colours, majestic creatures of all shapes and sizes roamed freely, and the sun bathed the land in a spectrum of hues.”) Images of her paintings accompany epistolatory chapters dedicated to her daughters, her parents, and Toronto, the city she deems the birthplace of her artistic endeavors and the metaphorical lover who transformed her life.

A roller coaster of a journey sure to have readers rooting for the author.