Sunday, September 30, 2012

Unicorns and Butterflies

I did not know where it was either!

Yesterday we went to the EVL to check out memoirs of all different types of scenarios. I found one that immediately caught my eye called When a Crocodile Eats the Sun. I went on and did a little close reading on the title and figured well crocodiles= Africa and eating the sun probably means tragedy struck so that might be interesting. Ok well I didn’t really get the whole Africa thing until I read the subtitle that said Memoir on Africa, but still I managed to guess there was going to be a lot of blood. I came back home to download it from my iPad and found an even cooler memoir about Africa as well. It was called Rainbow’s End by Lauren St. John and the title is really similar if you analyze it correctly (finally learned how to spell analyze yey me). The way both Authors decided to use rainbows and crocodiles that can be seen as creations of the natural world, and suddenly turn them around drastically is pretty original. The crocodile representing Africa swallows hope and desire while the end of the rainbow where one might expect to find a pot of gold becomes a puddle of blood. The reason I chose this memoir wasn’t based 100% on its title, but rather the gruesome gory details of a country shredded to pieces by violence in the first three pages. It was exactly what I was looking for, something harsh on the readers heart not some boring self-centered autobiography. This book had spice right from the beginning and I was not disappointed.

The Rhodesian conflict between the Zimbabwean African National Liberation Army and the People’s Revolutionary Army came to a point where every night ambushes and land mines were to be expected. I can’t believe I enjoy reading such massacres while Camille and Lisa have to watch their family being shot one by one so close that their blood splattered on their faces. The narrator (which has not yet fully introduced herself and is beginning to get on my last nerve) doesn’t open up as much as Brent Runyon. I know the comparison is not the best I mean he went over the top and really let us in if you know what I mean. This narrator seems like she’s just too busy taking care of everyone else to let us in to her deepest thoughts. I hope she will eventually because this memoir is full of childhood memories meaning their will be plenty of flashbacks and scar wounds left untreated.

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