A review by dlberglund
Unbowed by Wangari Maathai

3.0

While Wangari Maathai’s life has been rich with struggle, strife, and success, those things did not always translate into compelling storytelling in this autobiography. She begins with her birth (literally, explaining the traditions around birth and celebration, with several pages about the landscape and how it was changing in the decades before she was born), and brings us up through her political career and the Nobel Peace Prize received at age 64. There's so much to take in, so much to understand about the immense changes that took place in Kenya over the decades of her life. Her environmental activism certainly had its roots in the land of her childhood, and she was an impressive woman who accomplished so much in one lifetime. For me, though, this book wasn't the most engaging autobiography I’ve read.