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A review by lren1983
Cockroaches by Scholastique Mukasonga
dark
reflective
fast-paced
3.0
I have read a few things about the Rwandan genocide and it was interesting to hear about the history of the country and its people from the pov of a Rwandan instead of an outsider/journalist.
There was so much love for the landscape, towns and villages, customs and family dynamics.
You just don’t get that warmth and sense of (be)longing from anything else than a memoir.
The other difference of this book to others is the focus. The majority of the book doesn’t focus on 1994, it’s all prior. It informs us of all the previous attempts of the Hutus to carry out ethnic cleansing (1961/1982) and how her family is displaced continuously as a result of those campaigns. Often over borders.
Another chilling detail was how the family decided who should be prioritised. Her brother (as a man who’d fathered many boys) was chosen as the most important member of the family who should have the opportunity to survive. It’s a terrible revelation that all of her family are eventually murdered; she is the only survivor.
There was so much love for the landscape, towns and villages, customs and family dynamics.
You just don’t get that warmth and sense of (be)longing from anything else than a memoir.
The other difference of this book to others is the focus. The majority of the book doesn’t focus on 1994, it’s all prior. It informs us of all the previous attempts of the Hutus to carry out ethnic cleansing (1961/1982) and how her family is displaced continuously as a result of those campaigns. Often over borders.
Another chilling detail was how the family decided who should be prioritised. Her brother (as a man who’d fathered many boys) was chosen as the most important member of the family who should have the opportunity to survive. It’s a terrible revelation that all of her family are eventually murdered; she is the only survivor.