Strength In What Remains by Tracy Kidder (2010-05-04)

This is a wonderful combination of inspirational story and immensely talented writer. The second half of the book takes it to the next level, by proiving a reflection on the events and how they fit into the complex story of humanity.

Well written and great story but I felt the writer had a bias against the Catholic Church. Would you condemn the entire U.S. if, let's say, the Libyan Ambassador from the U.S. was arranging arms shipments to the Muslim brotherhood in Syria. Maybe the present administration.
Let us not use a broad brush and try and cast dispersions on a 2000 year old institution that provides great charity throughout the world!

I thought the story was good as far as overcoming huge odds but it was hard to stay focused & interested in this book. I enjoyed listening to the author on Dr. Phil's show but the book isn't one I'd recommend.

Yes, this is a well written, compelling story but where are the photographs? What is the future? Does Deo plan on finishing medical school? How can someone donate to his clinic? A map would be nice but most of all where are the photographs?

Well written. It grabed my attention because I visited Burundi last June and drove up through the mountains there, listening to the nightmare stories. Real life stories always beat fiction in my book! What courage this young man had in spite of his battle with all he had witnessed in his beautiful home country.

Take a little time off from your comfortable life…

This is a magnificent story of the courage and good fortune of Deogratias, a survivor of the Burundi/Rwanda genocidal violence in the 1990s.

It feels like Kidder held back on allowing his own emotions to be reflected in the prose, which is simply too matter of fact in some chapters for my taste. I guess it’s difficult to talk about hundreds of thousands of people being brutally killed by their neighbors and countrymen.

Deo was lucky—he survived numerous very close brushes with death—and in that context his story seems unavoidably anecdotal, which saps some of the power of this narrative.

Semi-spoiler alert: only parts of Strength in What Remains will make you feel good.
Read more of my book reviews here:
richardsubber.com

Tracy Kidder has a gift. Most of us plunge through life intent on our own mini-dramas, glancing at headlines and maybe thinking “There’s more to that, if I had time,” before moving on. Kidder can look at the complicated fabric of life and tease out the thread of a dramatic and coherent story, keeping enough detail to keep the story grounded firmly in reality, but crafting it into a drama full of tension and human conflict and empathy. His first success, “Soul of a New Machine” turned the development of an early microcomputer into high drama. “House” followed a family and their contractors through the agony and ecstasy of designing and building a new home. “Mountains beyond Mountains” showed us a modern-day saint, and made him human.

When I first picked up “Strength in What Remains” it was solely because Tracy Kidder’s name was on the cover, and he had never failed me. When I opened it my first thought was “Oh, no, another dystopian African story. Another story of how hard life is for immigrants in America. ” But Kidder dragged me past the headlines and out of my apathy into the personal experience of one survivor of an often overlooked genocide – the slaughter of “Tutsis” in Burundi - which foreshadowed the much better known catastrophe of Ruanda only months later. I got involved.

I was content to think of Ruanda as an ethnic rivalry that got way out of hand; Kidder took pains to help me understand that the ethnic distinction between “Tutsi” and “Hutu” is non-existent, a figment created by Belgian colonialism for political reasons, and inflated out of all real meaning by post-colonial economic issues. He introduced me to the concept of “structural violence” rife in a society infected by inequality, institutionalized prejudice, and the rule of force. I look at my own society with fresh eyes, now that he has given me a new lens to focus with.

The story raises even bigger issues - good vs. evil, the existence of God - which Tracy does not shirk from addressing. Like the others I have mentioned, this is a mind-expanding book.

Starting with a background of a pauper's education in Burundi as he learned background of Tutsi/Hutu struggle, this follows Deo's personal saga as he attains medical degrees in Africa and America, then returning to found a clinic for his people. After attaining a medical degree and a first job there's an exciting, but disturbing, account of escape from Burundi to Rwanda and back again followed by his voyage and sojourn in the U.S. His poignant naiveté in Burundi and USA is not always credible.
We must admire his intelligent perseverance in overcoming poverty, learning a new language, and attaining medical degree in two disparate venues. The motivations of those who helped him is not always clear. The book ends with Dr. Niyzonkiza involvement with Partners in Health (PIH) to aid health efforts in Rwanda and his native Burundi.
At one point he works with Dr. Paul Farmer, the protagonist of Kidder's 'Mountains Beyond Mountains.' Unlike that book, this one is contemptuous of foreign aid efforts, pointing out the graft and resulting dependency. Kidder follows African expert writer Peter Uvin in pointing out that mindless foreign aid has always gotten into the wrong hands, besides creating a dependency by flooding markets with cheap goods.
Like 'Mountains,' this is a well written account of an admirable individual as well as being moderately informative on the history of the Rwanda-Burundi genocides. It's the African version of 'The Killing Fields.'

The first half of this book is truly outstanding. It's the inspiring story of a man who survived the horrors of genocide in Burundi, and then makes a new life for himself in the hard streets of New York City. This section is beautifully written: moving, informative, filled with tension.

But then Kidder makes the questionable decision to write the second half of the book from his own perspective, as he tells the story of meeting Deo (the hero) and accompanying him on a return to Burundi. The immediacy of the first half is lost, as the emphasis is on Kidder's reactions (usually fear) rather than the complex emotions Deo experiences as he retraces his steps along a journey of sheer terror.

I would also like to have seen a Where Are They Now section, that tells us whether Deo's rural clinic was successful, whether he finally became a doctor, what happened to the amazing woman who picked him up off the streets of NYC and found him a home, etc.

On balance, this is definitely worth reading, though it's unfortunate the brilliance of the first half wasn't sustained until the end.

This is a heartbreaking story of Deo's escape from his country plagued with genocide, war and devastation. It is amazing to me what Deo endured, what he saw in his days before he left Burundi and came to America. Deo describes how while he flew over his homeland and escaped, he was painfully aware that on the ground below his counrtymen were suffering and dying. It's an emotional, gripping and horrifying recollection of a senseless genocide of a people, when even Deo seems uncertain why there is hatred for his kind. Is it his race or his class that he's being persecuted for?

Upon arriving in America, Deo's life was far from the American dream. He fled a life where he was oppressed because of his race or class and landed in a life of homelessness and severe poverty living in New York. What transpires is another test of his perseverance and his powerful love to learn and make a better life for himself and those around him. It's an inspiring and haunting story that gave me a new appreciation for those civil rights leaders who helped secure our racial equality.

I think this would make a very interesting book for a book club. If you enjoy nonfiction or novels like Sarah's Key by Tatiana deRosnay, this is an eye-opening and worthwhile read. I would like to read Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World.

I listened to the CD version of this incredible and unique book that takes readers (listeners) on a painful journey through the Burundi genocide. Though not a fun read, the writing is powerful and compelling. Much as I dreaded to hear any more descriptions of torture and mass murder, I could not stop without reaching the end. The main character, Deo, is an amazing person, and I thank Kidder for bringing his story to the world; for bringing the reality of those horror-filled years in Burundi and Rwanda into the open. Hopefully this revelation will have some influence in preventing future genocides. Kidder's descriptions are powerful, and he has a gift for inspiring readers with confidence that he is a reliable narrator. Congratulations to Kidder and to Partners in Health for their courageous efforts to deal with horrific tragedy and work to build a better future for the people of Burundi and Rwanda.

I started this book not knowing much about what it was about. I was immediately pulled into Deo's story. His story reminded me a lot of A Long Way Gone - which is another book about war-torn Africa. A Long Way Gone is more about surviving the fighting in Africa, and escaping to safety. This book almost picks up where that one left off - it tells about what happens when one manages to escape Africa, and what happens when they finally get to New York.

Maybe this book affected me so deeply because I am a New Yorker, and interact with people hailing from all over the world on a daily basis. Reading how Deo worked and slept and tried desperately to find his way in a big city made me really think about the people that I see everyday. I began questioning their stories. I wonder - the busboy at my favorite restaurant, the deli owner, the baggers at the supermarket - what was their journey to NY like? What was their life like? I never really thought about these questions until I read how horrible Deo's experience was. I was inspired to learn more about the people who I see day in and day out. Is there someone I could help in some way? Someone who is going through something similar? Deo's story was told so powerfully that I could not seperate myself from it.

I felt so inspired and truly touched by his experience and the wonderful people who Deo met and helped in New York. Then, the format of the book changed. Once the author takes over the narration, everything changes. We start to learn more facts and figures about Burundi, and less and less about Deo and his journey and his plight. I understand what the author was trying to do - or at least, I imagine, he wanted his readers to understand how massive the problem in Africa was, the sheer volume of numbers of people being affected. But in doing that, the story began to read more like a journal article or fact sheet, and we lost the intimate story of Deo's life.

By the end, we are just shown snapshots of Deo's life - specific timepoints that the author felt important to tell. What happened to Deo's voice as the narrator? Actually, what happened to Deo? We never learn if he finishes medical school. We never learn what becomes of him and his family.

This book is inspiring, powerful and thought provoking. I wish that the last third of the book was written and told from Deo's perspective. Outside of that, I loved the book and would be interested to learn more about what became of Deo, his family and his clinic.

Wow. I learned a lot from this slim memoir Kidder penned about an extraordinary individual and inevitably was moved by what I learned. The story covers the life of Deogratias, including his childhood in Burundi, his escape from what we think of as the Rawanda genocide, and his subsequent life in New York City and the United States, from street person, to doctor, to African clinic builder. Rather than telling the story chronologically, Kidder begins with Deo's coming to New York and his struggles and progress here, before going back to the tales of Deo's childhood, and, finally, his horrifying and harrowing escape from genocide. Kidder is a gifted writer and very present in the telling, which, while spare, is well-invested with Kidder's humanizing perspective. Events--homeless and destitute in New York City, fleeing from an army of ethnic killers--familiar in concept but so foreign to experience, are brought to realization on a human level. And that level includes soft reference to the enduring trauma's of these events: this is a survival story, a warm story and a heroic story, but neither an idealized nor sugarcoated one. Kidder's success in this regard is a product of both his writing and his order of construction of the story: he gives us information in doses as we are ready to absorb them. It is also a product of his focus: we learn deeply of some aspect of Deo's life, others are simply untouched. The final portion of the book, in which Kidder relates Deo's efforts to build a clinic in Burundi, are less dramatic and less compelling (though perhaps more miraculous), and actually served as a helpful gradual step-down from the intense experiences of earlier portions of the story.

This extraordinary non-fiction book about human endurance has been reviewed by dozens of the store readers by now, and has received rave reviews in the press, including two reviews in the New York Times (one in the Sunday Book Review section, one in Books of the Times.) I won't, therefore, bore readers with a plot summary or with a restatement of the positive comments others have made. I will, however, add my voice of praise to Tracy Kidder, for: identifying Deogratias, the Burundi refugee who is the book's protagonist, as a remarkable human being whose strength defines resiliency; working and traveling with him for more than two years to research the background for this book; and then writing one of the most absorbing and emotionally moving books of recent years. As others have stated, Kidder met Deo while doing the research for a previous book about Paul Farmer, Mountains Beyond Mountains -- Deo worked in Farmer's Cambridge, MA, organization. Kidder's great gift as a researcher and writer is to develop his stories as one would a novel. His glowing scenes, rich with detail and dialogue, bring us into Deo's troubled yet determined mind in ways that display both his deep intellect and his ability to work through the emotional trauma of what he experienced during the Rwandan and Burundi tribal wars. Few of us have heard of Burundi, the African country bordering Rwanda, though it is also home to two highly similar yet diverse tribes, the Hutu and Tutsi. Without bogging the book down in historical data, Kidder makes plain the differences in the two countries, as well as their dangerous similarities, while showing how Deo's difficult but empowering Burundi upbringing had a lasting impact on his ability to persevere. As with most books dealing with the Rwandan/Burundi wars, scenes in this book are exceedingly difficult to read. Their importance, however, is immeasurable: Deo, despite experiencing the most horrifying occurrences, is determined to succeed, to overcome the roadblocks he encounters in Burundi and in the US, and to persevere until he achieves his dream of building a clinic in a desperately needy area of his home country. What may be shocking to American readers is the callous treatment Deo, who was a medical student in Burundi encounters when he first arrives here. However, there is a hopeful aspect to this story that emphasizes the good humans can do for each other -- and makes its point without becoming maudlin or pollyanna-like. In sum, this is a deeply affecting, informative work of great genius, one that will live in my memory for years.

Strength in What Remains
As is often remarked, the story of one life sometimes can tell us more of what we might need to know about a historical tragedy than any number of statistics or dispassionate analyses. That is the case here.

Strength in What Remains is the true story of Deogratias (Deo), born in rural Burundi in 1970. He was a bright youth, and by 1993 he was in his third year attending the national medical school. Then came the Burundian civil war.

Readers will eventually learn what happened to Deo and his family in that brutal period, but Tracy Kidder takes up the story in 1994 as Deo boarded a plane to escape. His destination was New York, where he knew no one. He had $200 in his pocket and spoke no English.

Kidder is among the very best living American writers of non-fiction. The narrative here consists of simple direct sentences, lean on adjectives. Throughout Kidder artfully shifts the scene between New York and Burundi, filling in details not in chronological order but in a sequence that opens questions and creates sufficient suspense to keep readers engaged.

Part I of the story is told in the third-person, but from Deo's point of view. It is clear that Kidder must have spent considerable time with him to be able to recount in such detail Deo's experiences, inner thoughts, and feelings. Part II shifts to Kidder's own voice and a large portion of it relates the events of a trip he made with Deo back to central Africa in 2006.

Deo survived his early period in New York, but just barely. He was homeless, had a job delivering groceries paying only $15 for a twelve-hour day, was malnourished, and had medical problems. He had endured much hardship growing up in Burundi, but he always felt that toil would lead to something better; however, in New York he didn't even feel like a human being.

From that low point Deo's story becomes mostly one of uplift, enabled not only by his own fortitude but also in large measure by the beneficence of others. He meets some remarkable people, most notably an ex-nun, Sharon McKenna, and a Soho couple, Charlie and Nancy Wolf. Later he introduces himself to Dr. Paul Farmer, the hero of Kidder's Mountains beyond Mountains and the founder of Partners in Health, which delivers vital medical services in Haiti and other poor nations. These folks will help shape the path that Deo takes.

Through Deo's story and by relating some of the relevant scholarship Kidder addresses the history and nature of the conflict between Hutus and Tutsis in Burundi and Rwanda. The circumstances in the two countries were not the same, but the horrors of the 1990s were similar. Deo himself witnessed terrible sights that will cause many readers to cringe. Speaking with Kidder, he remarked that there were "... teachers killing their students, priests killing their parishioners. Who is left to trust, really?" When Kidder asked Deo how long it would take for Hutus and Tutsis to forget, Deo replied, "It will probably take the time the earth has left."

Part II is entitled "Gusimbura," a Kurundi word conveying that it is worse than inconsiderate to revive painful memories - there are certain things one should not bring up. Deo instructs Kidder to adhere to this principle when they visit Burundi and Kidder appears to buy into it, although the fact that he wrote this book surely helps keep the memories alive (indeed it broadcasts them). Deo himself seems of two minds about whether it is better to remember or to forget. When they tour Rwanda it is Deo, not Kidder, who urges stops so that they might visit memorial sites.

While Deo's story is uplifting, there is no happy ending in the larger context. In 2006 Kidder and Deo sat in Rwanda gazing across Lake Kivu toward the Congo, the scene then and now of mass atrocities every bit as abhorrent as those earlier in Burundi and Rwanda.

When Mr. Kidder tells Deogratias' story (Deo's surname not revealed in the book), he does so beautifully, with a clean and uncluttered style. Mr. Kidder's skill is such that I always believed I heard Deo's voice, not the author's. Everything about Deo's story was so vivid, from tiny humorous moments of a daily life back home or in a new land -- to the profane "crisis" in Burundi and Rwanda that Deo escaped.

In telling Deo's story, Mr. Kidder brushes so very slightly on the similarities between the inhumanities and trauma of places far away and that which occurs within 30 minutes' drive of millions of us. We can blame whomever we wish, the harsh reality is this: There are many of our fellow citizens who breathe fear and despair every day.

Another secondary theme, more prominent than the one above, are the 'differences' between African-Americans and first-generation immigrants from African countries. Deo, through Mr. Kidder, makes some observations, but for the most part, leaves it at that - observations without analysis. And this is appropriate, I believe, so as not to go beyond the book's scope.

As much as Deo's story is about horror, it is almost as much about the kindness that people extend to others, even strangers, whether they are in Burundi, Rwanda, or the U.S., sometimes at risk to their own lives.

Mr. Kidder falters in two areas: 1) He leaves the reader in suspense about what Deo is doing now; and 2) at the end, he goes into an analysis of the atrocities in Burundi and Rwanda that I believe is largely unhelpful. Also, while he has a fairly large reference list to support his analysis, I was disappointed that _The Graves Are Not Yet Full_ was not among them. I believe *that* book broke new ground to help us understand more deeply -- and to hold all of us more accountable -- to what contributes to these seismic obscenities of violence, wherever they occur.

The subject of Tracy Kidder's book has experienced horrors those of us lucky enough to have been born in the first world probably can't begin to comprehend. Deogratias Niyizonkia, known as Deo, grew up in the central African mountains of Burundi, one of the poorest countries in the world. He overcame what might have seemed to be difficult odds--isolation and poverty--to enter medical school. He was nearing graduation when his world was shattered by a genocide that erupted in Burundi and neighboring Rwanda in 1993.

Kidder's narrative begins with Deo's arrival at JFK Airport in New York the following year. For the first half of the book, Kidder does a remarkable job of putting us in Deo's shoes. We see and hear what he sees and hears, without the benefit of understanding much of what is going on around him as he struggles to master a new language and life in a strange new land. Deo endured indignities great and small, but finally found a path to a home, stability, and eventual entry into medical school in the United States.

In the second half of the book, Kidder enters the narrative, as he meets Deo and gradually wins his trust and persuades him to tell his story. The two travel back to Burundi and retrace Deo's steps to freedom. It's a remarkable tale of survival and a remarkable story of the human will to transcend the worst horrors. Deo's ordeal could have killed him, or left him a walking shell, devoid of purpose. Instead, the world gained a man of great strength and compassion. Thanks to Kidder's gifts as a storyteller, we are privileged to get to know him.--William C. Hall

A very strong rendition of the genocide in Berundi and Rwanda based on the personal experience of a victim (Deo).

The book is divided into two sections. The later portion is more powerful - it dwells on the events in Berundi and Rwanda during and after the genocide in 1993-94. It also explains in more detail the background of the New Yorker's who helped Deo upon his arrival in New York City - basically `fresh off the boat'.

The first half of the book centers mostly on Deo's struggles as a penniless new-comer. I did find this somewhat Disney-like with Deo's various saviour's. I could not help but think of all those who's initial North American exposure is not resolved so satisfactorily. But perhaps I am being too cynical; credit must be given to the spirit of generosity of people who dedicate themselves to aid those in need. Even if one person is helped it can radiate outwardly.

His African experience always forms the background of the New York story. The portrait of Deo is intimate and enthralling. Even though he has endured the worst that humanity has to offer, he never loses site that goodness can be found in the least likely of places. We can also feel Deo's inner strength which the author convincingly conveys through-out the pages of this book.

The latest work from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tracy Kidder is a stirring account of one man's remarkable flight from genocidal terror in his homeland of Burundi to the United States and then back home to confront the burdens of memory and reconciliation. The journey of Deogratias ("Deo") traverses the depths of human depravity and the most exalted heights of altruism and grace.

Kidder's account encompasses three narrative strands. The first chronicles Deo's arrival in New York in 1994 with $200 in his pocket and even less command of English, and his slow, often painful assimilation into Western society. Deo is befriended by an airport baggage handler who leads him to an abandoned Harlem tenement on whose façade is fittingly scrawled the word "PEN." Eventually abandoning the squalid conditions there to take up residence in Central Park, Deo has the good fortune to win the friendship of Sharon McKenna, a former nun he meets while delivering groceries (a job for which he earned $15 a day for 12 hours work) to the rectory of the Church of St. Thomas More on the Upper East Side.

In a series of events so improbable as to partake of the quality of a fairy tale, Sharon helps Deo find a home with Charlie and Nancy Wolf, a sociologist and artist in SoHo, where he spends the next seven years, haunted by nightmares of his homeland. "Again and again, on the perimeter of sleep," Kidder writes, "he was visited by sudden vivid images, of machete and flesh, and by those dreams in which, sooner or later, he had to run and couldn't move." During this time he gains admission to Columbia University where he studies philosophy in the hope of fathoming the mystery of human wickedness, enrolls in the Harvard School of Public Health, meets and works with Paul Farmer, the hero of Kidder's book MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS, and eventually is accepted at Dartmouth Medical School.

The second and most powerful section of the book turns back to recount Deo's harrowing flight from the Burundi hospital where he worked as a third-year medical student and his narrow escapes from the gangs of machete-wielding Hutu genocidaires. Deo is a member of Burundi's Tutsi minority, and Kidder's account (including a brief historical afterword) reveals both the roots and the absurdity of those pseudo-ethnic divisions. For six months Deo is on the run through the mountains and valleys of Burundi, at every step encountering scenes of unspeakable horror, like the wide-eyed baby who stared at him from its dead mother's breast. "Survival simply had its own momentum," Kidder starkly observes. Deo eventually was led by a Hutu woman to a camp in Rwanda, where 300,000 of his countrymen sought refuge. In the end, some 50,000 Burundians were massacred in this orgy of violence, although that bloodshed soon would be eclipsed by the slaughter in neighboring Rwanda that followed the next year. In these pages, Kidder does an extraordinary job of channeling Deo's voice, capturing the terror that beset him as he fled:

"He headed to the southwest, along the valley of the Mubarazi, keeping to woods and brush and tall grass and avoiding all roads. In places, the river's shallow waters seemed all but dammed with bodies and the valley was littered with them, the corpses and feasting dogs thickening as he approached Kibimba, where just before sunset he saw smoke rising from a building on a hilltop. It was his cousin's school."

In the final section of the book, in June 2006 Kidder follows Deo to Burundi to watch his protagonist labor to establish a clinic. It's a land of crushing poverty (the per capita GDP is $83) and rampant disease, where patients who cannot pay their bills are imprisoned without treatment in hospitals until family members can find the money to free them. Their journey is a powerful one, author and subject visiting endless memorials to the genocide that wiped out members of Deo's family and drove him from his home. Along the way, Kidder raises provocative questions about the power of memory and the improbable way victims of genocide can summon the will to forgive, contrasting the Western notion that it is healthy to "flush out and dissect one's memories" with his feeling that "there was such a thing as too much remembering, that too much of it could suffocate a person, and indeed a culture."

Although less sweeping in scope, STRENGTH IN WHAT REMAINS stands as a worthy companion to WE WISH TO INFORM YOU THAT TOMORROW WE WILL BE KILLED WITH OUR FAMILIES, Philip Gourevitch's horrific account of the Rwandan genocide. What gives this book its undeniable power is the intense and deeply personal story that lies at the heart of Tracy Kidder's compassionate telling.

--- Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg

I picked up Kidder's Strength in What Remains because I had immensely enjoyed reading his Pulitzer Prize-winning story previously about the people in the early computer industry, The Soul Of A New Machine, even though the only common thread between the two books was the author. The focus of this story is a young African named Deo, who by a separate miracle in itself was barely able to escape the genocide of Burundi and Rwanda in the early 90s, only to be thrown into an upside-down `heart of darkness', New York City in this case, with nothing more than $200 in his pocket, the will to survive and an ability speak French.

Kidder, true to his talent, initially throws the reader into the slums of Harlem with Deo and challenges our ability to comprehend such conditions. Then, after he introduces us to the generosity of total strangers that is equally difficult to accept, one is almost moved to now conclude that they are reading a work of fiction, but it is not. Through Deo's eyes we slowly begin to learn about his early life in Burundi, his values and of the 'hell on earth' calamity that he was forced to evade and endure as he made his escape. His grim tour of the carnage brings it home to us.

In the end we begin to understand some of the facts underlying the massacres of the Hutu and Tutsi people that killed hundreds of thousands on both sides and destroyed the lives of thousands more. The sad part was that the slaughter was based on lies and manipulations and had no roots in geography, religion or in ethnicity. To me it was another look at 'man's inhumanity to man' as described in Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century), but this time through the eyes of a real young African man who believed in his own human potential. Through his experiences here in New York, at Columbia, the Harvard School of Public Health, the Partners In Health and earlier in his homeland, he is bringing back to Burundi the foundations of a healthcare system for his family and his people and an understanding of life that goes far beyond average. Deo's story should be of interest to us all on many fronts.

Bob Magnant is the author of The Last Transition..., a fact-based novel about politics, the Internet and US policy in the Middle East...

A period of bloody Tutsi-Hutu conflict occurred in Burundi following the assassination of the president in October 1993, pushing many refugees over the border into Rwanda. The Rwandan genocide of 1994 pushed many refugees back into Burundi. Some 300,000 people were killed in Burundi. This book Stells the story of one refugee who managed to escape to America.

Arriving in New York with just $200 in his pocket, almost no understanding of the English language, and no-one to turn to, Deo soon experienced New York-style slum living and homelessness. The book goes on to describe both the acts unspeakable cruelty that Deo had witnessed and fled from in his own country and the enormous daily living difficulties faced by illegal immigrants in the US. Finally, Deo's lot took a turn for the better as a result of the generosity of others.

The story is encouraging and disturbing at the same time. How is it that people in the West can bury their heads in the sand and ignore it when innocent people in other countries are suffering savage brutality? And closer to home, why do wealthy people tolerate the existence on their very doorsteps of an underclass living in abject poverty? What happens to the majority of homeless people who do not encounter rich benefactors?

I was first introduced to Tracy Kidder when I read Mountains Beyond Mountains. I was blown away by his writing and the successes of the man he chronicled, Paul Farmer. Strength in What Remains is the story of Deo, a medical student who escapes a bloody civil war in his home country of Burundi and arrives in New York City with nothing but an entry Visa. The writing style is a little different than Mountains Beyond Mountains and, admittedly, I was a little uncertain at first whether this was a work of complete fiction or a factual account. The story is so odd at times that I couldn't believe it could be true. Someone cared enough about Deo to provide a false reason for him to acquire a Visa allowing legal entry to the United States and a plane ticket, yet they didn't provide him any assistance once he arrived. Yet, through his own persistence and some luck, Deo eventually continues his Medical studies in America. He later is introduced to Paul Farmer and many of the people we learned about in Mountains Beyond Mountains. This is not a story that is as easy to read as Mr. Kidder's other books; the subject matter explores the darkest hearts of some people. In his journey, however, Deo does find some people that truly care about him and help him immensely. It is truly a testament to the power of one man to make a difference. The book also provided me an opportunity to learn more about Burundi and Rwanda and the terrible conflicts there.

Tracy Kidder is one of those rare authors who makes whatever topic he chooses to write about--from building a custom home (House), to inventing a new computer (Soul of a New Machine), to following a doctor dedicated to improving healthcare in a third world country (Mountains Beyond Mountains)--compelling.Strength in What Remains is no different. it tells the remarkable story of a young African medical student, Deo, who manages to escape from the Burundi genocide in 1994 only to land homeless in New York City with $200 to his name. Against all odds, Deo graduates from Columbia University and enrolls in medical school. Kidder tells Deo's story in jump-cuts, alternating between Deo's struggles and success in New York and the people who help him out, the horror of Burundi in 1994 and Deo's escape, and Deo's return trips to Burundi to exorcise the horrors of what he went through and to establish a medical clinic in the town where his parents resettled. Even if this doesn't sound like a book you'd want to read, you won't regret doing so.

Tracy Kidder's Strength in What Remains put a face on Burundi for me. After the horrors there and in Rwanda, it was important to me to understand more deeply the nature of the conflict and the antipathies between the Hutus and the Tutsies.

This book takes me part way there. It looks at the events from the point of view of the subject, a young Tutsi medical student names Deo whose life is disrupted and almost destroyed by events that took over his world.

Deo's second life begins in New York where he is miraculously delivered. One thing that I wish was more detailed are the circumstances around this escape to the the US. The descriptions of life in squats, with other immigrants, and living in rough on the streets of New York are enlightening as much as they are depressing. That he is able to come through and continue on with his goals after all the injury, spiritual, emotional, physical, in his life is inspiring even if it becomes clear that Deo will always be marked by the horror and loss he has endured.

I have not read Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World (Random House Reader's Circle) yet but after reading Strength in What Remains I certainly plan to.

This book tells the story of Deogratias, an immigrant refugee, from how he survived a massacre in his homeland, to building a new life in the United States. Kidder, a journalist and chronicler of extraordinary stories of ordinary life, met Deogratias through some mutual friends. Deo shared with him some of the details of his harrowing escape from the Burundian genocide, and Kidder found himself drawn into Deo's story of loss, pain, reconciliation, and growth. In this book, Kidder describes how Deo's life was turned upside down by the horrific slaughter in Burundi that pitted neighbor against neighbor, and how Deo managed to get on his feet again in New York City, landing at first without a job, a friend, or even knowledge of English. Kidder also follows Deo back to Burundi to see him reconcile with his past and start a health clinic in his home village.

This book is remarkable, not only for its true story of survival and success against overwhelming odds, but also as a narrative of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and recovery. Although the term PTSD never comes up in the text explicitly, Deo experiences the classic symptoms, from depression and sleep disorders to hypervigilance and digestive problems. Kidder's narrative includes a description of the terrifying events that disrupted Deo's life, the initial psychological shock and breakdown, and the slow road to recovery. It would make an excellent case study text for coursework on PTSD.

"Strength in What Remains" tells the admirable, indeed inspiring, story of one man's miraculous escape from the Rwadan/Burundan genocide of 1994, and his subsequent life in the United States. If it were fiction, it would be found in either the adventure, or the fantasy, section of any bookstore. Because it is so well-written, it has the feel of literature. Yet, I'm not as high on this book as are many others, for two reasons.

While the outer details of the life of Deo, a medical student in Burundi, are meticulously detailed, I never had a sense of his inner life, his interior construction; hence, he comes across as one-dimensional, as impressive as that dimension is. Then, the last third of the book, in which Deo, now a Columbia University graduate, makes a return journey to Rwanda and Burundi, accompanied by the author, is, quite frankly, boring, and adds nothing to the narrative in chief. Other readers have noted this also.

Quite a bit of the book is devoted to the many generous and dedicated Americans who helped Deo establish himself and thrive in the US. Their unselfish efforts on his behalf are as inspiring a tale as is Deo's escape from the genocide in Rwanda and Burundi, and they made me proud to be an American.

The story of Deogratias, whose life and times make for gripping reading, alone would make this book worthwhile. His early life in rural Burundi, his passage through all the horrific scenes in Burundi and Rwanda in the early 1990s, his hardscrabble early years in New York City. It's told in a way that you never know how the story might come out, how many frightful endings it could have, how many unlikely escapes and meetings Deo might encounter next.

He's fortunate to have met the author. A story this vivid needs an author whose prose, whose narrative skill, whose intelligence would carry it forward, not detract from it or give it tones it shouldn't have. Mr. Kidder has handled Deo's travels and tribulations with sensitivity and care. In the process, he imparts an understanding of how Deo grew up, how much poverty he had to overcome, and how Burundi and Rwanda came to those terrible years. It's perhaps a better and more instructive treatment of those countries than much that others have written of this time. This was not a sudden calamity out of nowhere, and it makes Deo's story all that much more gripping. In the end, you feel you've met Deo, enough to want to befriend him.

Highest recommendation.

Fans of Tracy Kidder's incredible "Moutains beyond Mountains" are likely to be attracted to this book. It tells the harrowing story of Deogratias, a medical student from Burundi, caught up in the horrifying Rwandan genocide of 1994. After a mind-bending six-month escape, he finds himself in New York City, practically penniless, and not speaking the language. With the help of his incredible inner strength and the fortuitous help of some generous souls, he finds work, enters college and begins work on his medical degree.

But "Strength" is not a feel-good story about happy endings in spite of difficult beginnings. The subtitle, "A story a rembrance and forgiveness" is only half right. Deo is trapped in his terrible memories and struggles over years to come to terms with them. But forgiveness? If forgiveness is the ability to work alongside your people's killers without murdering them in return, I suppose the book is about forgivenss. But the word never comes from Deo himself.

Deo is an extraordinarily intelligent and resilient man. But it's hard to feel that his story is enough to fill this book. Kidder is a gifted writer, but even he seems to struggle. About 2/3 of the way through the book, he inserts himself into the story, as he accompanies Deo on a tour the sites of his youthful trauma. Kidder shares his impressions of people that he spoke about through Deo's eyes in the first half of the book. But the one thing that could bring unity to the book, a glimpse of Deo's inner life, is nearly absent from the writing. Kidder watches Deo from the outside, but cannot inhabit him, and seems not to want to. This is a major shortcoming, especially for such an important topic.

In the end, the book is neither about Rwanda, nor about Deo's struggele to become a doctor, nor about living poor in New York, nor about the mindset of genocidal killers. It is not about much beyond a telling, from a safe remove, of one man's story. But in glimpses, it is a book about the pain that must be carried following an absurd encounter with death and horror. And it is about the few human beings who are humane and generous enough to extend a hand to a fellow sufferer. It is about the never-dying face of ethnic violence in central Africa. Aspiring to be paean to the human spirit, "Strength in What Remains" chronicles the daily dilemma of surviving in a world tilted toward death.

Deo fled from Burundi (an African nation south of Rwanda) to the United States to escape the bloody civil war between the Tutsi and Hutu ethnic groups. He started a new life in the United States, and with the help of strangers, he was able to realize his dreams of going to medical school and starting a clinic in his hometown in Burundi.

Strength In What Remains will give you pause to consider those who are mired in poverty due truly to the lack of opportunities and financial resources. Kidder echoes my sentiments exactly when he says, "... seeing so many Africans doing the lowest level jobs. And you think what kind of human potential is not going to be realized, is not going to be recognized, and ever since I've meet Deo and done this research, I've look differently at the strangers I've seen."

Strength In What Remains is a true story of hope and altruism that is both touching and inspiring.

In 2003, Tracy Kidder brought out _Mountains Beyond Mountains_, his book about Dr. Paul Farmer and his organization Partners in Health which has the goal of eradicating the globe's preventable diseases. Kidder met an African refugee Farmer had taken into the organization, a factotum who eagerly did e-mails or errands. This was Deogratias Niyizonkiza, or Deo; his first name is the Latin for "thanks be to God". The chance meeting was the start of research into Deo's astonishing life story, from the savage ethnic wars in Burundi to the slums of New York and back to Burundi again. _Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness_ (Random House) is a book full of horrors and optimism, a fine example of how absorbing and inspiring nonfiction can be. Kidder has obviously worked closely with his subject, but does not inject himself into the story until the final parts where they jointly visit his homeland again, and then does so judiciously with as much distance as he can manage as a reporter. If the distance is not so distant, that is not surprising; Deo is an intensely likable and stirring figure with a great story of overcoming obstacles in Burundi and in America

Deo had been born in Burundi, a small country in between the Congo and the Nile. As a child he tended his family's cows, but his high marks on the national tests got him into university, and then into medical school in the Burundi capital Bujumbura. There in 1993, when Tutsi and Hutu strife was restarted, he smelled burning flesh wafting into his training hospital, and had to hide under a bed. Even a man who had been his colleague days before came on a murderous search for him. His nightmarish and zigzag escape makes for distressing reading. Deo fled following a river whose "shallow waters seemed all but dammed with bodies, and the valley was littered with them, the corpses and feasting dogs thickening as he approached Kibimba." The father of a wealthy former classmate arranged to get him on a plane to New York City with $200 in hand. New York may not have had genocide, but it was not easy for the former medical student to get by. He found places to sleep outside in Central Park. He struggled to learn English. Trying to understand graffiti by way of his language books did not work. He got a job delivering groceries for $15 for a twelve hour workday, and got poked regularly with a stick by his boss. A stroke of luck was that he made deliveries to a former nun who took an interest in him. She worked to get him stable with emigration, with a pro bono lawyer to help his case. She also persuaded a generous childless couple, older bohemians, to take him in and sponsor his schooling. He enrolled at Columbia and then into medical school. He had a chance meeting with Dr. Farmer, and fit perfectly into the goals of his worldwide organization Partners in Health.

The classic version of this story might have been that Deo became a doctor and built up a practice within his adopted nation by which he helped whatever family remained back home. It wasn't that simple. He had intrusive memories of the carnage he had left, and was eager to get back and make a difference with a medical clinic. He didn't finish his medical degree, but returned to his imperfect but less-murderous home in Burundi. The subsequent adventures might have less potential lethality in this last part of the book, where Kidder accompanies Deo in a tour of the killing fields and of the incipient clinic, but it is clear that there is lots of work to do, and no diminution of Deo's eagerness and optimism to get it done. One admiring villager said, "Many others went abroad, but most of them have not returned to show us how we can improve our situation." Deo imagines that Tutsis and Hutus might mingle at the clinic, with all getting treatment for the serious and real health problems in the area, with little regard to problems of imagined ethnic differences. Kidder's quietly moving book shows plenty of the worst in human atrocities, and also shows that we could have the grace to rise above them only by kindness and generosity.

Deogratias's story of his escape from genocide in Burundia and his struggles in the U.S. make for a compelling and remarkable story. An immigrant who is able to find his way to Columbia University, Harvard Public School of Health, and Dartmouth Medical School is inspiring indeed.

However, the writing of this book is really dry and boring. Some parts of the book contained long descriptions which I found unnecessary. Though I read the whole thing, it was hard to get into the book. Mostly I am left with lingering traces of sadness at the awareness of the senseless violence between Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi.

How could I have hoped that this book would surpass Kidder's last book? Impossible, really. I loved his last book and rated it one of my best reads of the year.

So the standards were high. I wish I could take that off the table, and simply evaluate this book on its own merits.

First, the story: Kidder has chosen Deo, a refugee from Burundi, as the subject of his latest book. Deo is truly a hero. He has survived a genocide and has returned to Burundi to improve health care in that country.

So, once again Kidder has done a brilliant job of bringing to widespread attention the amazing story of a virtuous man. I thank him for that.

It's a story that should be read. A great story, perhaps. Just a tiny bit less powerful than Mountains Beyond Mountains.

The protagonist's name, Deogratias, must go down in nonfiction history as one of most apt ever.

As a boy in Rwanda, Deogratias walks up mountains and across valleys in bare feet to attend school. Friends die suddenly, due to a lack of health care or as part of casual hatreds and ethnic violence. Getting ahead in life requires intelligence and savvy, which he appears to have, and a thick skin, which he does not. Ultrasensitive and all too human, he responds with sadness and fear to daily life in Rwanda as the nation comes apart at the seams.

Readers will never forget the depiction of pivotal events in Deogratias's life, after his hard work and brains get him into medical school. There he notices whisperings among the Hutus, who utter cryptic chants they hear on radio and repeat them. One morning, he wakes up to an awful slaughter under way. His survival as he wanders as hidden as a ghost through a landscape from Hell depends on luck, accidents and the hand of an older woman who helps avoid being identified as a Tutsi, which would have led him to a Nazi-like slaughter of a Tutsi group at a refugee camp.

His wanderings take him in the hills around a smoking, burning town where a genocide is in progress. He puts one foot in front of the other and through connections ends up with a few hundred dollars in New York, speaking only French, and relies on a kind stranger to take him to a squatter's building. Life becomes a new kind of hell, but he finds three mentors who rescue him from life as a homeless resident of Central Park delivering groceries.

The story takes another turn as he enrolls at Columbia, and looks on the verge of flunking out, when another intercessionary professor figures out that chemistry equations are constructed differently in French than in English.

As other reviewers have noted, the drama of the tale lessens when author Tracy Kidder meets Deogratias, and we learn of his obsession with taking leave of Columbia and his better job with a nonprofit to construct a clinic in a village of Hutus, where no doubt Tutsi acquaintances of his were killed. Still, the book provides an indelible look at a sensitive man who has been asked to bear more than a human being should ever see yet remains passionately committed to doing something to improve a little patch of this Earth. Kidder does the best job I have seen of explaining the unexplainable tension between Tutsi and Hutu, really the same people for all practical purposes. Kudos for writing one man's story, a truly remarkable one.

Tracy Kidder is one of those very gifted writers who can bring the experiences of deep emotions and social awareness to the readers and also leave them with the room for more questions about our existence/roles/places in the good and evil of the world. His writing is not excessively detailed, very efficient to generate curiosity and interest in the person and the political/social phenomena. Throughout this book, the resonating question in my mind is about the existence of the evil--"structured violence", and of the goodness--providence(?)-of Deo and the wonderful individuals in his life. The author asks this very question to Sharon, (and to be honest, I didn't find her answer acceptable to me personally), but her real answer is not in what she thinks, but how she lives her convictions.

Reviewing a book by Tracy Kidder is like a weekend landscape painter critiquing Matisse, it's possible, but you feel foolish. The words "well written" and "intelligent" are over used, but fit so well in describing his writing. So many books are written with the hope of Hollywood permeating every page; you can almost feel the author staging the book for the eventual and lucrative transition to the screen. Tracy Kidder writes books you want to read and then keep on your bookshelf to read again.

The story of Deogratias and his life in America is the same story that made my great-grandparents so proud to be naturalized Americans. They rarely spoke of the hardships they had in coming to America without money or English. But they always had damp eyes when they spoke of the many acts of kindness that Americans gave to them.

You can see the fundamental problem with this book just by looking at the cover. What are the largest words on the cover? Right: Tracy Kidder, the author. The title is in much smaller type. And the person whose story this is is entirely missing. Invisible.

Tracy Kidder is a skillful writer, a Pulitzer prize winner, as the cover will also inform you. But he is not African, and he did not survive the genocide in Burundi or the dangers on the streets of New York. This is not his story to tell.

The person whose story this is is named Deo Gratias. To hear Kidder's telling of the story, one might think that Deo is some sort of idiot savant. He speaks fluent French as well as his native language, and he is a medical student in Burundi. But when horrendous violence breaks out in his country, forcing him to flee for his life, Kidder imagines Deo's thoughts as if the man has no idea what he's doing. He mistakes Moscow for New York, and arrives in the United States finally almost by accident. He roams the city helplessly for a while, but before you know it, he has been accepted into Columbia University, an Ivy league university. Gee, maybe he's not as naive as Kidder seems to imagine he is.

While Kidder's writing can be haunting and evocative, he also makes rather inexplicable choices in how to tell this story. The first half of the book is called Flights, and it tells Deo's story in the third person omniscient, as if he were a character in a novel whose thought Kidder can know from within. Then in the second half of the book, called Gusimbura, a Burundian word that means something like "Forget" or "Don't remind me," Kidder tells the story in first person, including himself as he travels with Deo to the places in the story. As other have mentioned, this part of the book is far more awkward than the first part.

To make the book even more disjointed, the first half is not presented in chronological order, but jumps back and forth for no apparent reason: The trip from Burundi to New York in 1994 is told first, followed by a detailed narrative taking place in New York in 1994. Then we flash back to the 1970s in Burundi, back to the United States in 1994 for 3 chapters, then Burundi 1976-1993. Then we jump to New York 1993-2000, Africa 1993-1994, and then it is 2003 and the author and his subject are in Boston. I understand the usual plan of starting a story at an exciting scene and then going back to the beginning and leading back up again to that climactic moment. But this book jumps and jars the reader over and over again, making it very difficult to keep track of how a man who arrives speaking no English manages to find his way to a top university, and how much time was involved.

What bothered me most about the whole story was the fact that it is being filtered through Tracy Kidder's mind and imagination. If Deo Gratias is smart enough to graduate from Columbia University and study at Dartmouth Medical School, one assumes he could also write his story himself, if he chose to do so. Since his French is perhaps more fluent than his English, he could certainly write his life story in French, and it could be translated into English. And then instead of Kidder describing how Deo gazes off into the distance, remembering and forgetting, Deo could show us what is actually haunting his mind.

As for this story being uplifting....well maybe my powers of uplift are defective, but to me it's uplifting the way Holocaust memoirs are uplifting: one is stunned at the depths to which human beings, particularly in large groups, can sink, and perhaps relieved to know that in spite of it all, an individual can manage to survive and recover from the horror. But the bitter truth is that human beings can behave worse than any animals.

Once again, Tracy Kidder speaks to the injustices that plague our world. A trusted friend to Deo, Kidder tells this traumatized young man's story before entering the story himself(in Part Two). We often hear the message: "Don't forget." Yet, what Deo teaches us--more than anything--is that memory is painful. And sometimes reliving memories can kill our spirits.

But he does not and must not forget. He revisits the places that represent evil and forces himself to confront the past. However, only when Deo works beyond the past--with its ghosts and blood--can he rebuild his life and his homeland. Deo's story is one of terror as well as beauty, and Kidder--just as in MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS, delves deeply into the life of this extraordinary man who has chosen, unlike many of the militia men he once encountered, to save the lives of those who have been forsaken.

I expected to like this book: I like Tracy Kidder's style of writing and the way he relates a story. What I didn't expect is that I would not be able to put this book down.

Deogratias (Deo) is from Burundi and managed to survive the turmoil of the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic conflict and make his way to New York. Through the telling of his growing up years in Burundi, his escape from the massacres, and his immigrant experiences in New York, we learn how he makes his boyhood vision of free health care for the people of his home village become a reality.

The story is truly horrific in parts and inspiring in others. That Deo is able to accomplish his vision is a testament to him and his strength of spirit. I'm glad I read this book.

This book is a remarkable life story about the horrors of war and genocide one man experienced in Burundi and Rwanda. It is an amazing story of his survival through unfathomable and heart-wrenching atrocities, and the intense challenge and struggle of rebuilding his life after fleeing to America. His bravery and perseverance in overcoming trauma and desperation are truly remarkable. I found this book to be intense and sad, and felt very disheartened at the reminder that human beings can be capable of horrible acts toward their fellow human beings. I found myself feeling sadness and hope, success and support toward this individual through this story of his life experiences.

This understated history has lessons to teach.

The debt which is incurred by the horrendous crime of genocide cannot be resolved by retaliation. It can only be resolved by forgiveness.

If this is your first by this author, you will be inspired to read the author's other works.

I recommend you start by reading MOUNTAINS BEYOND MOUNTAINS, then HOME TOWN, then THE SOUL OF A NEW MACHINE, then Tracy Kidder's recalled Viet Nam experience, MY DETACHMENT: A MEMOIR. Honest and literary and wise, this last is the kind of war memoir that never gets published by authors who not previously won the Pulitzer Prize, as this author did.

A writer's writer.

Both this book as well as "Mountains beyond Mountains" reinforce the point that one person can make a difference.

I was surprised to see how badly people can treat other people, more so by the petty cruelty from shop owners and co-workers in NYC than by the genocide in Africa. I had read about the wars and killing and know it still goes on. America is supposed to be better. Yet our cities allow the subjugation and abuse of others. If it were not for the stories of individual who unilaterally decide to step in and make a difference, this would be a depressing book.

After reading this book I want to do more to help others.

Tracy Kidder, who is a master of dramatic narrative, does not disappoint in "The Strength in What Remains." This is a torturous tale of human suffering. The protagonist relives the heartbreaking civil wars in his native Africa while, at the same time, strives survive on the streets of Manhattan. Making one's way though the painful hopelessness, the reader emerges to find that the story is also a miracle of human courage, illustrating a society in which one's highest aspirations can be attained against the most severe odds. The story is not gracefully told, but rather jumps haphazardly between Africa and New York and from memory to present time, creating a real and natural suspense. By the time I had finished reading this Pulitzer Prize winning account of war, I was wiser, emotionally exhausted, yet possessed of faith restored.

Put aside your own struggles and worries for a bit.

Go to a bookstore and buy Tracy Kidder's new non-fiction Strength in What Remains.

Lose yourself in this incredible true story of a young medical student (Deo) who survives six months of civil war and genocide in his country, Burundi.

Follow him and his $200 to NYC where he lands with no friends, no English, and no prospects. Follow Deo and his nightmares that continue to haunt him from Burundi to the US.

Meet the folks who help him survive, a baggage handler at Kennedy Airport, a former nun, and an aging couple living in SoHo.

Follow him from his life in Harlem tenements to his `camping out' in Central Park, from his consideration of suicide to finding a home with a remarkable couple, Nancy & Charles Wolf.

Follow him through a side of NYC that is in front of us but that we do not really see.

Follow him from his job as a delivery boy to his studies at Columbia University (he also pursues study at Dartmouth Medical School and at Harvard's School of Public Health).

And if that doesn't already sound fictitious enough, continue to follow him in his work with Paul Farmer (the Mountains Beyond Mountains doctor who established Partners in Health).

Go with Deo back to Burundi and Rwanda, both to revisit the places of his nightmares and to learn about the causes of man's inhumanity to man, to begin to understand the Hutu-Tutsi conflicts.

And then rejoice as Deo successfully builds a clinic in the small town in Burundi where his parents lived, a clinic that treats 20,000 patients in its first year of its existence, including both Hutus and Tutsis.

Tracy Kidder, winner of a Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction 27 years ago for The Soul of a Machine, follows up his more recent Mountains Beyond Mountains with a sequel, of sorts.

This amazing story is many stories:

It's an account of one person's survival in two jungles, Burundi and NYC.

It's an account of perseverance and the importance of chance and of luck.

It's an account of goodwill and charity and individuals' giving of themselves.

It's an account of the alternatives to man's inhumanity to man.

It also seeks to explain how that inhumanity can exist.

It is an optimistic accounting of a life that seems too horrible to imagine.

Yet Kidder does all of this without lingering on the horrors and insanity that Deo experiences.

Kidder, who writes somewhat in the tradition of John McPhee, takes you along in this story with his wonderful eyes, ears, and ability to write, and, occasionally, with humor. His descriptions, explanations, and insights remain with you.

There have been a number of books recently that tell similar stories, David Egger's What is the What, Ismael Beah's A Long Way Gone, and Emannual Jal's War Child. All are worth reading.

Strength in What Remains is the best of them all.

It teaches without preaching.

It shows how individuals can make a difference.

It gives us a perspective on life

Biography about poverty, struggle, and genocide in Burundi/Rwanada. The character Deo is brought up in destitution. Author is able to write about it without making you feel miserable. Author writes about Deo's run for life during the massacre with enough details to keep you interested in the story without making you feel disgusted. Deo's struggle after he arrives in US and being able to attract help from total strangers is also quite uplifting. Very captivating tale with lots of wisdom. I will definitely read other books by Tracy Kidder.

The story that Tracy Kidder tries to tell in this book has the potential to be tremendously powerful, with a powerful protagonist -- but Kidder's telling is flat, somewhat disjointed, and lacking in depth. Much of the writing feels perfunctory or even simple to me (and not in the good way). The horrific and miraculous facts of Deo's life are presented, but the prose lacks something -- passion? intensity? insight? I'm not sure. I'm not looking for sensationalism -- it would have been all too easy for Kidder to lapse into that, and I'm glad that he didn't -- but perhaps he was bending over backwards to avoid it, and in the end went too far. The result seems to do a disservice to the story. The sections where Kidder and Deo are talking to one another are particularly flat.

I kept thinking of Anne Fadiman's very fine book, THE SPIRIT CATCHES YOU AND YOU FALL DOWN, which -- though very different from Kidder's subject -- also charts the story of an immigrant in the U.S., her tragedy, and her people's tragedy. But Fadiman tells her story with tremendous eloquence, sensitivity, insight, and a meticulous attention to the details that matter -- all of which seem to be lacking in Kidder's book. Her book has weight, is engaging. I really wanted to like STRENGTH IN WHAT REMAINS, but in the end, I thought the best writing was the title itself (which was lifted from Wordsworth). Still, I'm glad I read it and learned, even if imperfectly, of Deo's story and the story of the Hutus and Tutsis in Burundi.

I felt a sense of incompleteness when I finished this book, partly because of two distancing techniques the author used. First, the book is not a first person account, so the reader views the atrocities of genocide third-hand This left me feeling as if I was watching a documentary about what happened, rather than the narrative taking me right to the scene of horror. Second, the Hutu/Tutsi conflict is explained through passages that read like a history book, making it seem remote in time and place.

As I'm observing from a distance, we come to the "happy ending" part where Deo returns to Burundi and builds the clinic. Instead of celebrating good triumphing over evil, I am left bewildered by Deo's actions. Why did he quit medical school? Why would he return to the scene of so much suffering and the source of his pain? In the end Deo seems hardened and bitter. What am I, the reader, to make of all this?

I believe we can never truly "walk a mile in another's shoes" - especially Deo's. That is why I don't have a good understanding of him, even though I read a book about him. Perhaps Deo will write a book about himself, when he comes to his own understanding. I would read that book.