Book Club

For humanities class, every student is reading a book and discussing it in a book club with other students who read the same book. The book I chose to read was called "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families", by Peter Gourevitch.

When I first picked this book up, i thought it was mostly going to be a collection of anecdotes from people who experienced the genocide in Rwanda. But I was wrong. It's much more than that. This book not only provides personal insight into the experience, but is also a good lesson in the history of the country before, during, and after this period of its existence.

One thing I found interesting in the way that Gourevitch wrote this book was how he described people he interviewed. He didn't only describe the persons actions and the surroundings, but how he imagined the people were thinking. One thing that struck me was how he understood that the interviewees never actually gave away the memories and feelings that were most important to them. He seemed to know that most of the interviewees felt resigned to answer his questions, but nothing more. And he accepted that, not because he did want what he was missing in their experiences, but because he gained more from their silence.

So far, this book is extremely interesting, if a bit technical at times.