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A review by amanda_readingnwritinglife
What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance by Carolyn Forché
5.0
I listened to this book on audio from my library, and I love that it was read by the author. I know that she is a poet, and you can tell that in the words that she uses and just some of the phrasing in the book.
I knew nothing of El Salvador, and could only tell you that it's somewhere in Central America, and maybe near Guatemala (although, to be fair, I think all Central American countries are near Guatemala).
I picked this book to read because I love the NPR book concierge and I randomly chose a book from the 2019 Biography section of the book list. I have done this several times with multiple books and I've only been disappointed by one of them. That was not this book.
Carolyn does such a good job of making the reader feel the confusion and naivety that she must have felt and the beginning of her acquaintance with Leonel.
I loved how this book flowed from one scene to the next and how I never knew what was going to happen. I could put myself in her shoes for a lot of book, and it left me feeling sad and at points helpless. I didn't even finish the book before I was googling like crazy. "El Salvador War" "Priest Romero" "Leonel Gomez Vides" "Carolyn Forche". I spent over an hour reading everything I could find about these things, and it was such an education. I was born in 1977, when Carolyn was leaving to go to El Salvador, and I just had no idea about the war or anything else. Oscar Romero sounded familiar to me, but nothing else.
I love the way her eyes were open to the things around her that are easy to ignore. They are especially easy for me when I live in a comfortable house and can use my phone to listen to books or whatever else I want to do with it. I have had my eyes opened more and more over the last couple of years, and I'm glad there are books like this that can help me open them just a little bit more.
I knew nothing of El Salvador, and could only tell you that it's somewhere in Central America, and maybe near Guatemala (although, to be fair, I think all Central American countries are near Guatemala).
I picked this book to read because I love the NPR book concierge and I randomly chose a book from the 2019 Biography section of the book list. I have done this several times with multiple books and I've only been disappointed by one of them. That was not this book.
Carolyn does such a good job of making the reader feel the confusion and naivety that she must have felt and the beginning of her acquaintance with Leonel.
I loved how this book flowed from one scene to the next and how I never knew what was going to happen. I could put myself in her shoes for a lot of book, and it left me feeling sad and at points helpless. I didn't even finish the book before I was googling like crazy. "El Salvador War" "Priest Romero" "Leonel Gomez Vides" "Carolyn Forche". I spent over an hour reading everything I could find about these things, and it was such an education. I was born in 1977, when Carolyn was leaving to go to El Salvador, and I just had no idea about the war or anything else. Oscar Romero sounded familiar to me, but nothing else.
I love the way her eyes were open to the things around her that are easy to ignore. They are especially easy for me when I live in a comfortable house and can use my phone to listen to books or whatever else I want to do with it. I have had my eyes opened more and more over the last couple of years, and I'm glad there are books like this that can help me open them just a little bit more.