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The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood
Helene Cooper is “Congo,” a descendant of two Liberian dynasties—traced back to the first ship of freemen that set sail from New York in 1820 to found Monrovia. Helene grew up at Sugar Beach, a twenty-two-room mansion by the sea. Her childhood was filled with servants, flashy cars, a villa in Spain, and a farmhouse up-country. It was also an African childhood, filled ...more
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
September 2nd 2008
by Simon & Schuster
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Liberia, if you didn't know, and I sure didn't, was founded by free slaves in the 1800's. Like most civilizations, they immediately divided the country into a caste system, the cultivated American born and the native, "country" people. According to history, this eventually resulted in a coup, no real surprise.
This memoir is written by one of the little girls that grew up in the upper class of this society until she was a teen. Her family had more or less adopted a "cou...more
This memoir is written by one of the little girls that grew up in the upper class of this society until she was a teen. Her family had more or less adopted a "cou...more
I nabbed this book from my husband's to-read pile one afternoon, thinking I'd read a few pages. I had a hard time putting it down and had to claim it as my own for a few days.
Ms. Cooper's memoir is gentle and wry, which is probably pretty difficult to do when you are writing about one of the most volatile areas in recent memory.
I liked it best when she wrote about her family and her own experience, but the "history lessons" she inserted were relevant, and cer...more
Ms. Cooper's memoir is gentle and wry, which is probably pretty difficult to do when you are writing about one of the most volatile areas in recent memory.
I liked it best when she wrote about her family and her own experience, but the "history lessons" she inserted were relevant, and cer...more
If you are interested in learning a thing or two about Liberia, definitely pick up this book. Helene Cooper does a wonderful job of telling her family's very interesting story while putting everything into a historical context. I learned a lot more about Liberia by reading this book and it has inspired me to learn more.
If you enjoyed this book, you should check out “My Colombian War: A Journey through the Country I Left Behind” by Silvana Paternostro. Their stories are remarkably similar: the narrator is part of the rich, privileged class in predominantly poor country, her ancestors are important founders of her country, she lives a charmed childhood, she flees the country in her teens due to increasing violence – leaving behind the lower-class girl her parents had semi-adopted to be her friend, she immerses h...more
This book is soft, tentative and predictable. It is 85% Helene Cooper and 15% Liberia. Though Cooper is a reputable journalist, this is her memoir; it lingers on her girlish crushes, her favorite dresses and the troubled marriage of her aristocratic parents. The second part is an unexceptional account of Cooper's semi-assimilation into American culture, starting midway through her high school years and tracing her deliberate mission to become an influential foreign correspondent. Throughout this...more
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This extraordinary memoir deserves all the rave reviews it has received. The author skillfully combines stories about her own life with the history of Liberia. The destruction of the country during the fighting seems inevitable as she describes the problems which existed there from the early 19th C. on. Don't miss this one.
I liked it. Didn't LOVE it. It was an easy read, thanks probably to the fact that the author is a journalist. I appreciated the history in the book. Rather than just launch into what a crazy time it is in Liberia, she sets up the book very well by telling how it came to be that way. I was amazed at how a small turn of events can cause chaos that lasts decades. The author herself admits that when things get tough, she focuses on other things, and I think that comes across in this book. Even thoug...more
This tender memoir shows us a side of society that exists in many African countries but is seldom portrayed--the upper middle class. I found it refreshing to read about the lives of Africans of means who aren't embezzlers and tin-pot dictators or blood-crazed war lords bent on carving out a kingdom from the flesh of their victims. Helene Cooper's family certainly had its share of flawed characters, but their lifestyle wasn't vastly different from Americans in similar economic circumstances.
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I'd like to excuse Cooper's failure to grapple meaningfully with the themes that should be all over a book about a girl growing up in pre-war Liberia as a character weakness, which is how she presents it, but I can't. To constantly focus on the superficial as a defense mechanism against disparity and atrocity makes for a poor memoir. The "Acknowledgments" section is full of thanks to people who encouraged her to delve deeper and talk about the big picture - I can only imagine what a di...more
Helene Cooper's memoir of her childhood as a member of the privileged Liberian elite has the classic narrative arc. She lives in luxury in an impoverished nation, boasting lineage back to the original black American founders of the country. Hostility to the elites from average Liberians begins to build, then boils into tragedy, then chaos. The Cooper family scatters in the US: Ohio, North Carolina. For 20 yrs she builds her career as a journalist (NYTimes and Wall Street Journal); not until her ...more
Helene Cooper's memoir of growing up in Liberia is one of those books that you just can't put down. Because I grew up in the U.S. at the same time as the author, I was captivated by the stories of her girlhood. Nancy Drew, green eye shadow, Barry White, velvet upholstery... even singing Blessed Assurance endlessly in church. It all sounds so familiar, and yet, that's where the similarity ends. Guns and war, soldiers and strongmen, rapes and executions. We who grew up in the relative safety of th...more
This is one of those gems I found on the bargain table at Borders a few weeks ago. I started reading it and could hardly put it down. The author grew up in Liberia the daughter of a father who was the postmaster general of Liberia and a man of wealth and means. She tells her story of growing up in a wealthy family of the upper class in Liberia with such honesty and humor ... I love her insertion of Liberian English in the narrative !
Her book includes a history of the establishment of...more
Her book includes a history of the establishment of...more
I have been fascinated with Liberia since I read Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's autobiography, "This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President." and saw the documentary, “Pray the devil back to hell.” They were stories about how the courageous women of Liberia went on strike to stop the endless wars, a marvelous example of non-violent protest that led to the election of Ellen Sirleaf.
We hear about Ghandi, Nelson Mandela and the Civil War pr...more
We hear about Ghandi, Nelson Mandela and the Civil War pr...more
Helene Cooper grew up as one of the "Congo" people in Liberia at very large home on Sugar Beach. "Congo" people were the freed blacks of America who settled in Liberia, becoming rich and powerful, while the native "Country" people remained poor and subservient. Helene and her sisters led a charmed life with servants and chauffeurs, even after their daddy divorced their mommee.
The tide turned when the price of rice was so high, that only the "Cong...more
The tide turned when the price of rice was so high, that only the "Cong...more
I was supremely disappointed by this book. It tells us little of value about the author. It probably misleads us about the revolutions in Liberia. It's writing style is simplistic. It's a vacuous text told by and empty voice.
Like the good pre-revolutionary aristocrat, Cooper tells us about her social position and her family network before she begins to describe herself. She derives importance and self worth from her roots. Her roots were deeply embedded in the exploitation of n...more
Like the good pre-revolutionary aristocrat, Cooper tells us about her social position and her family network before she begins to describe herself. She derives importance and self worth from her roots. Her roots were deeply embedded in the exploitation of n...more
"I did what I always did when something seismic happened that I couldn't deal with. I concentrated on the superficial."
- This quote describes a good half of the book. It's a story about a girl growing up, but she just happens to grow up in Liberia and her childhood gets stolen from her by the horrors of war.
Having not known much about the events of Liberian history, this memoir made the situation there very real to me. I am amazed at the ability to survive that the peop...more
- This quote describes a good half of the book. It's a story about a girl growing up, but she just happens to grow up in Liberia and her childhood gets stolen from her by the horrors of war.
Having not known much about the events of Liberian history, this memoir made the situation there very real to me. I am amazed at the ability to survive that the peop...more
Wow. In spite of a slow start, this was a beautifully written and poignant memoir. I not only felt like I experienced an important history lesson in learning about Cooper's rich family tree and the founding of Liberia, but I also felt like I came to understand more deeply the way in which history constantly demands that women carry profound emotional burdens.
Cooper, who grows up as a happy Congo person in Liberia, has to flee the country with her mom and her sister after a major co...more
Cooper, who grows up as a happy Congo person in Liberia, has to flee the country with her mom and her sister after a major co...more
i loved this book, but I have to admit that I listened to an audio edition read by the author and I think that added to the impact of the story. Hope, I have the audio and will lend it to you if you would like. Helene Cooper is a daughter of Liberia. In fact, she is "Congo people"--a privileged member of the ruling elite in Liberia. The Congo people are descendents of the free blacks who were transported back to Africa in the 1820s and 1830s by the American Colonization Society whi...more
When I see the words “conquerors”, “settlers”, “colonialists”, “oppressors”, I think of white people. When I see the words, conquered, indigenous, oppressed, I think of blacks, American Indians, Aborigines of Australia, Palestinians. Handy as shorthand, perhaps, yet this is inaccurate. For Whites weren’t the first nor the last in the conquering and exploitation business. After all African chiefs traded their brethren into slavery for guns, ammunition and alcohol.
Perhaps that’s...more
Perhaps that’s...more
Gostei!
Helene Cooper conta a sua história de uma forma nua e crua, nada romanceada. Ela fala-nos dos seus antepassados, de tudo o que fizeram aquando da abolição da escravatura e como foram para África, formando a Libéria. Na 1º Parte da história ficamos a conhecer os antepassados de Helene e também a familia com quem ela vivia ma Monróvia, ela descreve todos ao pormenor, tem de ser ter atenção redobrada nesta parte pois são muitos e a maioria mantém-se até ao final do seu relato.
Na ...more
Helene Cooper conta a sua história de uma forma nua e crua, nada romanceada. Ela fala-nos dos seus antepassados, de tudo o que fizeram aquando da abolição da escravatura e como foram para África, formando a Libéria. Na 1º Parte da história ficamos a conhecer os antepassados de Helene e também a familia com quem ela vivia ma Monróvia, ela descreve todos ao pormenor, tem de ser ter atenção redobrada nesta parte pois são muitos e a maioria mantém-se até ao final do seu relato.
Na ...more
I liked this book mostly for it's historical content rather than the biographical information which was shallow and unaware, her unemotional voice lacks a connection to her experiences. This quote from the book sums up her attitude.
"I did what I always did when something seismic happened that I couldn't deal with. I concentrated on the superficial."
She continued to deal in the superficial which was the loss in this book.
It took me until about page 150 when the...more
"I did what I always did when something seismic happened that I couldn't deal with. I concentrated on the superficial."
She continued to deal in the superficial which was the loss in this book.
It took me until about page 150 when the...more
I have always been interested in the Liberian "experiment" and how it started. This book gives an interesting historical background of the founders. After that, I was really disappointed with the memoir aspect of this novel. The author gives a very detailed perspective on her life and her people, less on the indigenous natives of Liberia or "townies". Something was missing, a sort of compassion for the people who could not/ or would not leave. It was written so matter of fact...more
Helene Cooper grew up in Liberia, the African country founded by freed American slaves in the early 19th century. The founders established themselves as a privileged class, into which Helene Cooper was born, a wealthy internationally-sophisticated little girl in an impoverished nation. When she was 13, her world was torn apart by violent, tribal anarchy. After her education in the U.S. she became a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, and then after traveling the world, returned to her homeland...more
I enjoyed this book. I never paid much attention to the various struggles going on in Liberia and this provided a graphic picture. It also gave unique insight into the creation of Liberia as an American "colony".
The book touches many issues that could generate interesting discussions:
* Why would blacks who knew first-hand the problems with slavery and class institute those same structures in their new country?
* Why do people think they should go into oth...more
The book touches many issues that could generate interesting discussions:
* Why would blacks who knew first-hand the problems with slavery and class institute those same structures in their new country?
* Why do people think they should go into oth...more
The book made me aware of Liberian/American history that was extraordinary and sparked my interest to learn more about his fascinating and disturbing relationship. The author writes of her own experience as the descendant of a slave sent by the United States to establish a free African country in Africa. The reception of native Africans, the elite class created by the newly arrived former slaves and the fact that Africans were involved in the slave trade, selling their own countrymen was fascina...more
How much Liberian English and history can one take? Maybe other readers can take more than I could but I felt like too much of this book was devoted to Helene Cooper's childhood and not enough to how she processed this childhood as a adult. It appears to me that everything has come so easily to her in comparision to the rest of her family. Yes, she credits her mother as a strong woman, but most of this book seems like "poor me" and rarely "poor Liberia". Her digs at the f...more
Judy
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
memoir lovers, those who enjoy reading about Africa
Helene Cooper lived an idyllic life in Sugar Beach, Liberia a proud descendant of Liberia's founding fathers. The trouble begins when Helene's parents divorce, and shortly after a coup takes place upsetting all semblance of order for the wealthier segment of society to which Helene's family belongs. The book details the fight for power between the Country folk and the Congos and the resulting pain and persecution by the winning faction, Helene's family's resulting journey to the U.S. and her dis...more
Helene Cooper is a Liberian-born journalist for the New York Times who left Liberia with her family in 1980 after the coup which sank Liberia into Civil War. Ancestors of her father and mother had helped settle the new country of Liberia in the 1820’s and Helene’s family lived an affluent life there, with several relatives in important government positions. The household consisted of Helene and her parents, a younger sister, Marlene, an older foster-sister Eunice, and some older children from he...more
In her warm, conversational tone, Helene Cooper vividly evokes the sights, sounds, and smells of Liberia for readers as she describes the customs, history, and culture of her native land. Indeed, she has a great deal of background information to convey to Western readers unfamiliar with the country, but she folds this material masterfully into the narrative. An accomplished storyteller, Cooper relates the arrogance and excesses of her family during her early years without losing her readers' sym
...more
I couldn't put down Cooper's engaging memoir of her fractured childhood of privilege in Liberia. Cooper lived in Liberia until age 11 when her wealthy, elite "Congo" family fled the country after Samuel Doe's blood-thirsty coup in 1980. Liberia was decimated by an extremely brutal on-again-off-again civil war until 2003. Meanwhile Cooper came of age in the US and proceeded to become a successful journalist at the Wall Street Journal and then at the New York Times where she covered e...more
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Helene Cooper is a Liberian-born American journalist who is a White House correspondent for the New York Times. Previous to that, she was the diplomatic correspondent for the paper based in Washington, D.C.. She joined the Times in 2004 as assistant editorial page editor.
At The Wall Street Journal, Cooper wrote about trade, politics, race and foreign policy at the Washington and Atlanta bure...more
More about Helene Cooper...
At The Wall Street Journal, Cooper wrote about trade, politics, race and foreign policy at the Washington and Atlanta bure...more
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