Beneath the Lion's Gaze
A Novel
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
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نقد و بررسی
Starred review from October 12, 2009
Ethiopia's 1974 revolution tears a family in half in this striking debut. Drought, famine and mutiny in the military are stretching Emperor Haile Selassie's regime to the breaking point, and when it finally tears, Hailu, a skilled and respected doctor in Addis Ababa, must find a way to shepherd his extended family through the ensuing violence. His task is made no easier by the fact that his son Dawit's fiery youthful convictions place him at odds with his more circumspect older brother, Yonas, a university professor with a wife and child. But when soldiers request Hailu to treat a gruesomely tortured political prisoner, he makes a fateful choice that puts his family in the military junta's crosshairs. Mengiste is as adept at crafting emotionally delicate moments as she is deft at portraying the tense and grim historical material, while her judicious sprinkling of lyricism imbues this novel with a vivid atmosphere that is distinct without becoming overpowering. That the novel subjects the reader to the same feelings of hopelessness and despair that its characters grapple with is a grand testament to Mengiste's talent.
November 15, 2009
Ethiopian-born Mengiste debuts with a tale depicting the social chaos surrounding the 1974 overthrow of Haile Selassie, revealing the rebels to be at least as brutal as the deposed emperor.
Striving to preserve moral integrity in the midst of this turmoil is Hailu, a doctor trained in England who maintains his hours at the clinic in Addis Ababa, dispensing medicine and going about his business of quiet healing. While Dawit has no love for Selassie, calling him"a rich man who's lost touch with his people," he also finds himself first alienated and then endangered by the excesses of the Marxist regime that replaces the emperor. This new regime is embodied in the reptilian coldness of Major Guddu, whose henchmen kill where they please and leave the bodies rotting in the streets. Hailu's elder son Yonas wants to make the best of the political situation; he finds refuge in prayer but starts to grow apart from his wife Sara. Hailu treats patients without regard to political affiliations, but his neutrality is challenged when a torture victim is brought in by several soldiers from the military junta now in charge of Ethiopia. She has been tortured by the aptly named Girma the Butcher, but despite her numerous wounds and obvious suffering, the nervous soldiers are desperate to keep her alive. Knowing that the young woman is permanently damaged and will never survive another round of interrogations, Hailu compassionately gives her cyanide; when the powers-that-be discover his"perfidy," he is thrown in jail and becomes a torture victim himself. So does the innocent paperboy Berhane, who has witnessed a political assassination. This twisted chain of events serves to further radicalize Dawit and even pushes Yonas out of his na™ve complacency.
An arresting, powerful novel that works on both personal and political levels.
(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
December 15, 2009
Mengiste's debut novel follows the lives of a family of four in the violent environment of prewar Ethiopia in 1974. A recent New York University graduate, Mengiste was voted a "new literary idol" by "New York" magazine and garnered a Pushcart Prize nomination. Her honors do not belie her skill, for this book is stunning. In graphic descriptions and masterly prose, Mengiste sculpts her characters to reflect different aspects of the revolution, from Dawit, who spouts Marxism, to Hailu, a doctor who must deal with the brutal realities of revolution. VERDICT Although the depictions of brutality are extensive, they are also realistic and captivating, helping place "Lion's Gaze" into a small cadre of Ethiopian fiction, including Abraham Verghese's "Cutting the Stone" and Camilla Gibb's "Sweetness in the Belly". Fans of historical adult fiction will approve. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 9/1/09.]Shalini Miskelly, Highline Community Coll., Des Moines, WA
Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
December 15, 2009
The brutal 1970s civil war in Ethiopia is the dramatic setting in this first novel, told from searing personal viewpoints that humanize the politics from many sides and without slick messages. The author, born in Addis Ababa and now living in New York, tells the story in unforgettable detail: between Emperor Haile Selassi in his lush palace set against the famine outside, captured in the image of a child gnawing on a stone. The focus is on the family of physician Hailu, first before the revolution and then after the brutal regime takes over. His older son tries to lead a quiet life and look the other way, until Hailu is taken and tortured. The younger son joins the mass demonstrations, exhilarated that change has come, then deflated when he confronts the new tyranny. The clear narrative voices also include the women in the family and others on all sides, who experience the graphic violence, both in the old feudal system, where a rich kid regularly rapes a servant, and in the new dictatorship with torture in the name of freedom.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)
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