Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness

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Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness

by Tracy Kidder

3.94 · rating details · 4,108 ratings · 1,006 reviews

Tracy Kidder, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of the bestsellers The Soul of a New Machine, House, and the enduring classic Mountains Beyond Mountains, has been described by the Baltimore Sun as the “master of the non-fiction narrative.” In this new book, Kidder gives us the superb story of a hero for our time. Strength in What Remains is a wonderfully written, ins...more

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published August 25th 2009 by Random House (first published February 29th 2000)

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Aug 16, 2011

Meri rated it

Shelves: biography-memoir, africa

It's not easy to write an effective genocide memoir. At first, it shocks and moves the reader to see people turn on each other, bodies burned, and children slaughtered. As the bodies start piling up, we start feeling numb and removed from the violence, which seems cartoonish at a certain point.

Tracy Kidder takes a different approach by starting the story in the middle, as Deo is leaving Burundi. We suffer with Deo as he struggles to find his feet as a penniless illegal immigrant...more

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May 14, 2010

Tatiana rated it

Shelves: nonfiction, worldsaving

I'm about 4/5 of the way through this book, and I wanted to record my impressions. I love this book. It's heartbreakingly sad but also enheartening and healing, in some inexplicable way. I love Deo, the person whose story this is.

I've felt since the genocide in Rwanda and Burundi that my understanding of and response to this episode was pathetically inadequate. I know that that particular time and place was not special or odd. Things like that can happen anywhere, anytime. A ...moreI'm about 4/5 of the way through this book, and I wanted to record my impressions. I love this book. It's heartbreakingly sad but also enheartening and healing, in some inexplicable way. I love Deo, the person whose story this is.

I've felt since the genocide in Rwanda and Burundi that my understanding of and response to this episode was pathetically inadequate. I know that that particular time and place was not special or odd. Things like that can happen anywhere, anytime. A few of the factors that supported such a sequence of events are ignorance, fear, and the severe poverty and desperation of the populations of those two countries. Poor governance, and scare-mongering by unscrupulous elites so that they could remain in power also played a part. But here's the thing: none of us is completely immune from this scenario. Only a small portion of the populations of the two countries were involved in the militias, in the slaughter of their neighbors. Perhaps 2% or 3%, that is all it takes, apparently.

So my deep puzzlement remains. What is it that causes people to give up the rule of law for anomie? And what happens to reestablish the rule of law and normalcy afterward? It's something we as a species really need to understand well, so that we can protect ourselves and each other, and quickly do whatever is needed to put a stop to conditions like this, to rebuild nomie out of anomie. So I've been pondering and worrying the question in the back of my mind ever since, during these last 16 or 17 years.

Riots sometimes have broken out in the US in various places in my lifetime. There was the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s, which happened when I was a young child and unaware of what was going on, yet it could have led to a state of armed violence. It might have been another Northern Ireland, an endless series of attacks and counter-attacks with no political solution for decades. I'm so grateful that it didn't come to that, so grateful that we found reason, found something approaching justice. Not complete justice, not a perfect solution, not by a long way, but something far better than we had before.

This book, though, stretches my heart and extends my sympathies to all the people in the world who live in conditions of intolerable poverty. There's no reason at all that everyone born on our planet shouldn't have access to clean water, to adequate nutrition and medical care, means for prevention and treatment of treatable diseases, decent housing, clothing, adequate parental care, and education. Those are the non-negotiable elements that must be put in place very soon, in the next few decades, to avert human extinction. It's the only thing for a caring and decent civilization to do, and it's also wise and in everyone's self-interest. We simply can't afford to throw away all our human capital anymore.

So as heartbreaking as episodes like this are, as painful to examine carefully, it is necessary that we do open our hearts and minds to these situations and the people who become victims of them. It's possible for us to do that. Our hearts can be stretched wide. There's no limit to the compass of the human heart. We can ask ourselves and expect ourselves to care about all 7 billion humans alive today. It's not beyond our capacities in the least, we just have to accept and open our minds and hearts to receive it.

The book is very well-written and allows the reader to become immersed in the story and forget all about her local time and place, even one that contains seven devastatingly cute 5-week-old kittens. The story is a true one. The implications of it are broad. It gives me a whole lot to think about, how the human mind and spirit overcome impossible trauma, how it's possible to bring to pass great good out of horrible evil, how to transform things that are grievous beyond understanding into building blocks for good things in our future. For, make no mistake, that is the task at hand for the human species today. There have been many genocides throughout our history, but sooner or later, one way or the other, there will be a last genocide. Let's make it come true today. (less)

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Mar 07, 2010

Anna rated it

Shelves: history-current-events-non-fictio, africa, favorites

Fabulous, moving and complex-- it takes you between NYC and Burundi and Rwanda through the life of Deo, who was medical student when the massacres of Tutsis began in Burundi (Oct 1993- about 6 months before the genocide in Rwanda). It is not easy to describe this book, but Tracy Kidder with his usual understated gift manages to allow us to begin to enter the unimaginable world of Deo, in ways that don't ever reduce anything to simple. It is a must read if you care about being human, and maintai...more

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Aug 26, 2010

Michael rated it

Despite the awkward title (a quote from Wordsworth) this is a great book about good and evil, even better than "Mountains beyond Mountains," although it is in way a sequel to Kidder's essay on Dr. Paul Farmer, the man who single-handedly took on tuberculosis and the World Health Organization.

The tale of Deo, a survivor of tbe Burundi holocaust (a lesser-known adjunct to the Rwanda slaughter), is more accessible as Deo, a medical student refugee, is (at first) less heroic t...more

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Feb 19, 2011

Marie rated it

It is story of an African refugee, Deo and his struggles, both in America and his native country of Burundi. I was glad I read this following Man's Search for Meaning as it recomfirmed that when man is faced with the most unimaginable atrocities of human creation he still has the ability to choose how he will react. His story showed the best and worst of humanity. Unfortunately his story was all too familiar, whether it is set in Africa, Guatemala or Nazi Germany. Are we fated to keep repeat...more

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Jan 17, 2012

Tomek rated it

· review of another edition

I suppose there are a decent number of memoirs about tragedies. Without looking at what it says about us, more importantly, I want to say this one stands out as a unique style of memoir.

It does give the details of Deogratias's life. But...it travels through this in a tasteful flow, moving from america to Burundi, and back and forth. In this way it's more than a chronological recreation from memory of the past, the way you might expect it to be. In a sense, if I'm not being overdra...more

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Oct 13, 2011

Elizabeth rated it

I loved this book,and what it represents. I am so grateful to the author and to Deo for letting us in to this part of African history. It is not a light read,and I fear there will always be a part of me that is haunted by this story. The fact that I know so little about these genocides, is no excuse, but it is true . I knew nothing of such death, destruction ,violence ,mistrust. This is unfamiliar territory in most of our worlds ,and my head is spinning with all this tragedy, that has oc...more

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Aug 14, 2011

Nancy rated it

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I am always taken by a good memoir- and this one is just that. Deo is a man from Burundi in Africa. He has fled the genocide and civil war between the Hutus and Tutsis. As a medical student, he was in school at the time the violence began and through fear and physical strength as well as his wits he escapes the city and travels to Rwanda, where the fighting is even more intense. While fleeing and traveling he comes upon atrocities that haunt him through out his life. He is also helped by a varie...more

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Aug 09, 2011

Bonita Sim rated it

This book was mind blowing. I definitely gained a new perspective of Africa after reading this book. The book explains the tragedy of genocide that spans two countries and how ethnic groups can fight each other and kill even though they are the same people. Families are heavily affected by the civil war. People are killed from right to left. The worst part is innocent civilians being killed. Strength in What Remains follows the life of a boy who escapes this nightmare and tries to live a new one...more

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Apr 05, 2011

Spencer rated it

Shelves: biography

It is hard to comprehend the amount of death and destruction that occurred during the genocides in Rwanda and Burundi during the early 1990s. How is it possible to mentally digest the fact that hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered, often times by their own neighbors, over the course of a few months and years? This book tells the equally hard-to-believe story of a young man that managed to escape the chaos of Burundi in 1993, and found himself in New York City with no friends, only ...more

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Mar 13, 2011

Rachel Rueckert rated it

Shelves: africa, biography

Strength in What Remains is a tragic and moving story about a Burundian man, Deogratias, who escaped genocide in both Rwanda and Burundi.

I am embarrassed to say that I had never heard of Burundi until I read this book. It is a country right next to Rwanda and Tanzania, and the country underwent the same thing that Rwanda did but with less coverage and less aid after the fact. Tutsi's and Hutus, the dueling tribes (this book argues that they are more "relative categories", ...moreStrength in What Remains is a tragic and moving story about a Burundian man, Deogratias, who escaped genocide in both Rwanda and Burundi.

I am embarrassed to say that I had never heard of Burundi until I read this book. It is a country right next to Rwanda and Tanzania, and the country underwent the same thing that Rwanda did but with less coverage and less aid after the fact. Tutsi's and Hutus, the dueling tribes (this book argues that they are more "relative categories", especially since they share the same language, religious practices, and are not really distinguishable by physical features now (263)), also make up the population of this country like Rwanda.

The main character in this story, Deo, is a Tutsi who ends up escaping genocide under extremely rare circumstances by getting to America on the pretense of selling coffee. He goes from homeless in Harlem to a medical student at Dartmouth, and this book chronicles that adventure as well as the road that took him there. Half of the book is told in Deo's perspective, narrating his story and his experience first coming to America. The second half is told from the point of view from the author, Tracey Kidder,once he has become acquainted with Deo and has traveled back to Burundi and Rwanda to retrace the main characters steps.

One of the questions I think this book raises is one that I just might be highly sensitive to after finishing Volatire's Candid, but that is the idea of God in a world that allows such awful things like genocide to happen. I think that juxtaposed to this horrendous account are several great individuals who saved Deo on many occasions. One Hutu woman who had lost her son, claiming that her ethnicity was a "woman and a mother," claimed him to be her son so that he could have a chance to escape. Others were strangers he met in New York who financed his education and gave him a place to stay. The author reluctantly remarked that "someone must have been looking out for Deo." Reluctant because of this tension and question about all of the others that made up the million people who were massacred. Did God not love them?

One of theses angels that aided Deo, Sharon, has a theory on this that seemed to tie the two contradictions together. She says that "we're loved infinitely for however little bit of time we have" and it is "not ultimately tragic to die at any age...I just think there isn't ultimate tragedy except for evil, and God doesn't will any evil. And we're surround by this tremendously loving presence" whether or not we realize it (177).

I think that you need to have a very strong testimony of the afterlife and of God to trust in that, but I am not sure where I would be if I did not have that knowledge. I am grateful for my own religion for helping me to reconcile the evil in the world with the goodness of humanity. Especially when you get talking about some of the examples like the Holocaust and tragedy of Burundi and Rwanda. Can God allow these things to happen?

My thoughts are that he is not responsible for it, as Sharon suggests. He loves us all and he has given us free agency. There is opposition in the world that we have to live in. I believe he has plans (not one plan, but plans) for all of us based on our decisions. Of course, he can intervene, and does in certain circumstances, like Deo's, but that does not mean that all of us get a free easy life card.

These are difficult thoughts, but this is what I am starting to believe more firmly. This was a really informational book and I think anyone, especially someone who thinks that genocide stopped after WWII, should read it.(less)

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Dec 28, 2010

Louise rated it

Shelves: non-fiction-other

I really enjoyed the earlier parts of the book, in the understanding it gave me of the absolutely enormous challenges faced by many refugees to western countries - such as loneliness, poverty, and language barriers. All things I could relate to. The next sections describing Deo's escape from the genocide in Burundi were eye-opening, and gave me even more respect for this man. Where I thought the book slipped a little was towards the end, in describing the author's visit to Burundi with Deo. In p...more

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Sep 08, 2010

Kate rated it

Disclaimer/Disclosure. I don’t cope well with reading about pain and torture inflicted on people (especially children) and animals. I had to page past certain sections in everyone’s favorite potboilers by Steig Larsson. This informs my review of Tracy Kidder’s book Strength in What Remains. Just so you know.
This is a painful read about a survivor (Deogratias) from the Burundi ethnic wars who manages to escape to the U.S. where he regains his former profession as a doctor, meets and works w...more

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Aug 19, 2010

Sarah rated it

Shelves: adult, african-american, africa, medical, immigration, genocide, civil-war, non-fiction

Tracy Kidder is best known for Mountains Beyond Mountains, which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. His newest creation, Strength in What Remains only reinforces his gift for storytelling and evoking powerful emotion in his readers.

Our protagonist Deo escapes a grim civil war in Burundi, a small, African country bordered by Rwanda and Tanzania. The country’s genocide ended in 2005, claiming over 300,000 lives. Deo somehow managed to escape his village, while ...moreTracy Kidder is best known for Mountains Beyond Mountains, which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. His newest creation, Strength in What Remains only reinforces his gift for storytelling and evoking powerful emotion in his readers.

Our protagonist Deo escapes a grim civil war in Burundi, a small, African country bordered by Rwanda and Tanzania. The country’s genocide ended in 2005, claiming over 300,000 lives. Deo somehow managed to escape his village, while his friends and relatives were being slaughtered. Several strokes of good luck get him on a flight to the United States. But upon his arrival, he is plagued by poverty, illness and an inability to communicate in English.

In Burundi, Deo had been a trained medical professional, being schooled at a prestigious university. But in New York City, he is resigned to accept a low-paying job delivering groceries in order to stay afloat. Through the kindness of strangers and chance encounters, Deo is given opportunities to continue his education. He eventually finds himself at Columbia University, enrolled in their medical school.

But the journey is not an easy one for Deo. He is consistently plagued by nightmares and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Having witnessed so many violent crimes against humans, he is cautious of kindness and tries hard to forget the atrocities he cannot erase from his mind. There is a term in the Kurundi language called gusimbura, which reflects a victim’s unwillingness to bring up painful memories. Deo and Kidder converse about this concept:

“It’s a bad word. You are reminding people….it’s so hard to understand, because in the Western world…”
“People try to remember?”
“Yah”
“Here in Burundi, they try to forget?”
“Exactly”

Kidder chronicles Deo’s life, from childhood in his village, through adolescence, to the attack on his village, and his eventual escape to the United States. Kidder then accompanies Deo on a reconnaissance trip to Burundi, where Deo painfully revisits his past and works tirelessly to create new hope for the future.

The Strength in What Remains painfully reminds us of the effects of genocide. They are a devastating reality to many innocent victims and the practice is still being employed at alarming rates. This book provides a glimmer of hope for a world that is troubled by human violence, war and oppression.

If you like books about refugees, Dave Egger's What is the What is an engrossing tale of genocide and the Lost Boys of Sudan.(less)

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Jun 24, 2010

Sherry rated it

· review of another edition

Tracy Kidder, you continue to rock my world with your humble talent, your ability to listen deeply and your passion for sharing the real--and the hopeful. I tired of this story in the middle--oh no, I thought, I can't read more of the horror of the Burundi/Rwanda Hutu/Tutsi massacre. Silly me to tire for all I had to do was read with you as you followed Deo through his nightmares, to New York City, Columbia, Dartmouth, the federal office building in Manhattan where in 2007 he became a US Citizen...more

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May 31, 2010

Ellyn rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

This fabulous book tells the story of Deo, a young medical student who survives genocide and war in Burundi and escapes, only to find himself struggling to make it from day to day on the streets of New York City. The book begins with Deo's arrival and early months in New York. Little by little, the author goes back in time to reveal first Deo's childhood and adolescent years in Burundi, spent in a typical family in a typical village, his high school and medical school years, and ultimately, hi...more

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May 02, 2010

Lisa (Ravenswood) rated it

In this book Tracy Kidder chronicles the path of Deo, a young man studying pre-med in Burundi at the beginning of the Rwandian genocide. Through miracle after miracle, Deo escapes massacre, eventually finding himself in New York, where he befriended by a woman working at St. Thomas More, Sharon McKenna, and a couple from Greenwich Village, Charlie and Nancy Wolfe. Deo learns English by studying at the New York Public Library and working at low-end jobs such as delivering groceries. After grad...more

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Apr 28, 2010

Nicole rated it

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I normally love Tracy Kidder books. And this book had an incredibly compelling story to tell, about a man who escapes genocide in Burundi and amazingly goes on to complete his education and even return to Africa to help rebuild his country.

Yet somehow the author keeps getting in the way of the story. At first, describing the main character's journey to America, he is a little condescending, making Deo seem a little simple when in reality he...more

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Apr 13, 2010

Andrew Ludke rated it

Completely ignorant of the ruthless hate in the whispers he hears from his neighbors in Burundi, Deo is caught completely off guard as he witnesses the slaughter of his friends and family at the start of the Genocide. Who can you trust if you don't even know who's a Tutsi or a Hutu. The only safe course is to run and hide. Through the generosity and support of a few strangers Deo, a sheep herder and medical student at the only medical college in the country, escapes the genocidal madness only ...more

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Apr 08, 2010

Kdevoli rated it

A truly inspiring book about a young medical student named Deo who lives in Burundi (adjacent to Rwanda) in the 1990's who gets caught up in the civil war between Tutsis and Hutus and needs to escape for his life after the president is assinated. He literally needs to run out of the hospital where he is treating patients to escape machete-wielding madmen. His months on the run are harrowing, but eventually a wealthy friend with ties to America gets him a fake work visa, and he is able to come to...more

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Mar 22, 2010

Judy rated it

Shelves: listened-to

Deogratias was born in Burundi and grew up during the horrible civil wars between the Tutsis and Hutus that has been so movingly documented in "Hotel Rwanda." Deo was a medical student in the capital city when he was forced to flee for his life. After an impossible journey, he ended up in NYC with no sponsor and unable to speak English. He lived first in a boarded up tenement and worked as a delivery boy for almost nothing, then decided the homeless life in Central Park was better t...more

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Feb 16, 2010

Chandra rated it

I keep saying that I'm going to cut myself off from reading more books about escape from genocide in Africa, but then I am always reminded of how fortunate I am that for me they are books I can put down or not read at all, not a reality I had to endure, full of haunting memories. This is an extraordinarily well told tale of Deo, who escaped from the genocide of Burundi and Rwanda to the slums of New York, where, through perseverance and the kindness of strangers, he came to fulfill his dream of ...more

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Feb 06, 2010

Marsha rated it

This book was eye-opening and amazing on several levels. It is the true story of Deo, a Burundian Tutsi, who was caught in the ethnic violence/massacres between Hutus and Tutsis while he was a third year medical student in Burundi. Through serendipity, he managed to escape to New York City where he lived in Central Park for several years, earning $15 a day as a grocery deliveryman. While delivering groceries, he met a woman who took on his cause. She found a couple who practically adopted Deo. T...more

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Jan 31, 2010

Tom rated it

Shelves: biography

Another remarkable book from Tracy Kidder in his distinct genre; part biography, part anthropology. This is an amazing story of a young Burundian (Deo) who arrives in New York city in 1994 with no money and no English and not only makes his way, with the help of a number of people, but finishes university and then begins medical school, before returning to the scene of the massacres in Burundi and Rwanda to build a medical clinic.
One of the most memorable occurrences described in the boo...more

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Jan 12, 2010

Joel rated it

Strength in What Remains tells the true story of a young man named Deo, who flees from his home country and tries to re-establish his life as a refugee in New York City. Burundi, a tiny African nation bordering Rwanda, was engulfed in violence in the 1990s when a Hutu politician was murdered by members of the Tutsi-controlled military, setting off a chain reaction of mob violence and brutal military crackdowns that eventually spilled over into Rwanda.

Deo was a medical student in Burund...moreStrength in What Remains tells the true story of a young man named Deo, who flees from his home country and tries to re-establish his life as a refugee in New York City. Burundi, a tiny African nation bordering Rwanda, was engulfed in violence in the 1990s when a Hutu politician was murdered by members of the Tutsi-controlled military, setting off a chain reaction of mob violence and brutal military crackdowns that eventually spilled over into Rwanda.

Deo was a medical student in Burundi's only medical school when the violence broke out. He traveled for weeks on foot with nothing to eat, while militias armed with machetes and hand-grenades massacred entire villages. When he finally escaped the country - with the help of a well-connected friend of Belgian descent - he found himself struggling to start a new life in which he was no longer a promising medical student, but instead, a homeless refugee who spoke no English and couldn't sleep for fear of the terrible dreams about what he had seen in Burundi and Rwanda.

Long story short: things turn out all right for Deo. He ends up getting an education and returning to Burundi to try to make the war-torn nation a better place. Hurray!

I thought that the portions of the book that took place in New York City were substantially better than the portions that took place in Burundi. I can't put my finger on exactly why this is the case, but the portions that occur in Burundi - the portions that are supposed to be the most riveting and the most disturbing, don't really come across that way. While the causes of the genocide are interesting, the question that most interested me was: how can a person continue to live a normal life after witnessing such atrocities? Whether it's the tribal massacres in Burundi and Rwanda, the mass executions in Cambodia or in the Soviet Union, ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, or the gas chambers of Bergen-Belsen - how can a person witness these things and feel anything but bitterness and rage? How could anyone live through these things and still believe that human beings are good and worth trusting? These are the questions that arise after Deo has escaped the genocide, as he tries to adjust to a new culture, a new language, and a new life in which he must accommodate the memory of the things he has seen.

Deo's story turns out far better than those of most of his compatriots. Nevertheless, it isn't exactly a happy ending; the fact that he managed to salvage a life from the wreckage of the genocide is tempered by the fact that the genocide occurred at all. Strength in What Remains is equally the inspirational story of man who overcomes tremendous odds and the tragic story of what could have been - for Deo and for Burundi - if the violence had never occurred.(less)

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Dec 20, 2009

Mag rated it

Shelves: non-fiction, africa, american

When I opened the book, I wasn’t sure I was prepared for yet one more story of flight from genocide in Africa, but before I knew it, I was deeply involved in the life of Deo, a young medical intern who fled Burundi during the ethnic massacre in the country posing as a coffee trader. He found himself in New York with $200 in his pocket, no language apart from fluent French and no contacts. After going through immigration, and arousing sympathy from a baggage handler from Senegal, he lived with hi...more

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Nov 29, 2009

Marcy rated it

Tracy Kidder, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is one of my favorite authors! After reading Mountains Upon Mountains about one of my heroes, Paul Farmer, I couldn't wait to read Strength in What Remains. I was not disappointed!

Deo is a Burundian refugee, arriving in the United States. Through flashbacks, the reader begins to understand the horror that Deo underwent as a Tutsi in his country. As hatred once again grew to a high pitch among the Hutus and Tutsis in Deo's country, Deo...moreTracy Kidder, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is one of my favorite authors! After reading Mountains Upon Mountains about one of my heroes, Paul Farmer, I couldn't wait to read Strength in What Remains. I was not disappointed!

Deo is a Burundian refugee, arriving in the United States. Through flashbacks, the reader begins to understand the horror that Deo underwent as a Tutsi in his country. As hatred once again grew to a high pitch among the Hutus and Tutsis in Deo's country, Deo started making meaning out of these slogans:
"At the level of the ear," meaning "a machete's proper target," and "Warm them up," meaning "Pour gasoline on Tutsis and light a match."

As a third year medical student intern, Deo hid under his dorm bed, holding himself flat against the springs of his mattress, while patients and non-patients were facing genocide. The only reason that Deo ran away safely was that he forgot to lock his dorm door, leaving it open. He knew he was free when he heard the words, "The cockroach is gone. He ran away." Everyone else had locked his door.

Deo escapes to the United States in hopes of freedom. As he slept on the floor in an apartment in Harlem, he was mugged and one week's meagre salary of delivering groceries was stolen. Deo begins sleeping in Central Park, a safer place, out in the open air. Tracy Kidder sums up Deo's frustrations so well:

"He stood on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Ninety-sixth Street and looked at the traffic. What was going to be his future? His life and the future he had imagined had been, not interrupted, but wiped out. There was no future now that he cared to occupy. When would his life be over? Would God please hurry up and end it? It was getting dark. Rush hour was past, and cabs and cars were racing by. Maybe it would be a good idea to close his eyes and run out into the middle of the street."

When Deo befriended kindness by an ex-nun who connected him with the Wolf family who would house him, give him an allowance, and pay for his education, he was still riddled by nightmares and sleeplessness.

"Again and again, on the perimeter of sleep, Deo was visited by sudden vivid images, of machete and flesh, and by those dreams, in which, sooner or later, he had to run but couldn't move. He would get out of bed and tiptoe to the bathroom and take a cold shower, as cold as he could stand, then try to stay awake."

Deo's hopes become a reality through the generosity of good people, sheer will and brilliance, Deo achieves his dream of attending Columbia University, medical school, and devotes his life to healing others.

This is an absorbing true story, written as only Tracy Kidder can tell.

(less)

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Nov 13, 2009

Walter rated it

Tracy Kidder's Strength in What Remains is a compelling and compellingly-told story, certainly worthy of any reader's effort, but, in the end, somewhat incomplete or vaguely disappointing. Simply put, the story ends too soon and we never quite find out what his protagonist accomplishes relative to his new life vision. (We leave him as he's just begun to attempt it, which feels premature after the significant and moving ground that we have covered with him to that point.)

The subject...moreTracy Kidder's Strength in What Remains is a compelling and compellingly-told story, certainly worthy of any reader's effort, but, in the end, somewhat incomplete or vaguely disappointing. Simply put, the story ends too soon and we never quite find out what his protagonist accomplishes relative to his new life vision. (We leave him as he's just begun to attempt it, which feels premature after the significant and moving ground that we have covered with him to that point.)

The subject/hero of this book is Deogratias and his story is truly one of the amazing, only-in-America variety. A native of Burundi, he grows up in a rural area but is given the opportunity to go to a good school, gets into college and then medical school (the first in his family to do these things, of course) and then his world falls apart as the country comes apart in the civil war that was the Hutu-Tutsi genocidal conflagration (that has been much more well-documented in neighboring Rwanda). He manages to escape the genocide, makes it to America and in the United States another incredible tale unfolds, transforming him from a homeless grocery deliveryman into a medical student in a little more than five years. The final third of the book is what he does after he has established himself in America to address the situation back in his native land.

Sadly, for me, it was this final third of the story - unfinished in my assessment - that was less compelling. In addition to the author's injecting himself and his thoughts into the storyline more (especially his tendency to share his projections of his protagonist's feelings rather than confirming them), he also ends the story just as Deo begins to realize his vision of doing good works back in Burundi. It almost felt like Kidder had a deadline and couldn't hang around for the end of the story.

Other than this, though, this is an incredible life story grippingly told. In the sections of the book describing Deo's experiences amidst the genocidal insanity, the story is so well told that you can picture what is happening ... and it becomes a disturbing reality that forces you to imagine what an absolute horror it must have been for this incredible young man to experience first-hand.

So, overall, I recommend this book for three reasons: its compelling and compellingly told story; its chronicling of an unfortunately underappreciated period in modern history; and its significance - Deo's story is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit that contrasts hopefully against the darkness of which we as a species are also capable (and that he experienced and through this book we experience with him).(less)

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Oct 26, 2009

Erin rated it

This book involves a young doctor's escape from the civil war/ethnic cleansing in Burindi, which borders Rwanda. The genocide in Burindi had many of the same factors as the Rwandan genocide -- Hutus vs. Tutsis. It was definitely an interesting read -- the protagonist Deo was a resident at a rural hospital when the fighting broke out, and barely managed to escape before making it to New York. The book focuses on his arrival in New York, and how he made it to college and then American medical s...more

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Oct 15, 2009

Gregg rated it

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This is the true story of Deo, a young Burundian who escaped the genocide in both Burundi and Rwanda only to end up in New York City with $200 in his pocket, unable to speak English, not knowing a single soul, and no plan whatsoever. The story of his survival and perseverance as a homeless immigrant living on the tough streets of New York is pretty amazing, but it is the horror of what he experienced in his native land that is nearly beyond imagining.

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About Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder is an American author and Vietnam War veteran. Kidder may be best known, especially within the computing community, for his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Soul of a New Machine, an account of the development of Data General's Eclipse/MV minicomputer. The book typifies his distinctive style of research. He began following the project at its inception and, in addition to interviews, spent c...more

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“I do believe in God. I think God has given so much power to people, and intelligence, and said, 'Well, you are on your own. Maybe I'm tired, I need a nap. You are mature. Why don't you look after yourselves?' And I think He's been sleeping too much.” — 3 people liked it

“In order to go on with our lives, we are always capable of making the ominous into the merely strange.” — 3 people liked it

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