Description
From Publishers Weekly In 1983, at age seven, Asgedom and his family arrived in this country under the sponsorship of World Relief, a U.S.-based Christian organization that helps refugees from all over the world resettle here. Having fled the Eritrean and Ethiopian conflict, Asgedom and his parents and three siblings had spent the previous three years in a refugee camp in Sudan, then in the throes of a civil war. This earnest account of his life up to his graduation from Harvard is peppered with powerful moments. The opening description of his family's flight recalls the media images of Ethiopia in the 1980s: skeletal children trailing across a war-torn, drought-ridden land. Those images aroused great sympathy in American viewers, who nonetheless remained comfortably remote. That one of those children would land in an American suburb, grow up on welfare, earn an Ivy League degree and publish a memoir at first elicits a kind of cognitive dissonance. But Asgedom soon familiarizes us with his family's experience. Much of the book consists of anecdotal recollections of schoolyard pranks and fights that illustrate an immigrant family's experience in a Chicago suburb, although the telling can be rote and gives short shrift to key periods of Asgedom's life. We learn almost nothing, for instance, about his Harvard years, and little about his life before coming to the States. In the end, the book seems only a sketch of a life full of drama and courage. (Mar.)Forecast: Asgedom now works full-time as an inspirational speaker at venues ranging from schools and churches to Fortune 500 companies, which should provide him with a small but devoted readership. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From Booklist When he was four years old, Asgedom's family left their war-ravaged home in Ethiopia. They spent three years in a Sudanese refugee camp before coming to the U.S. in 1983, where they were settled by World Relief in a wealthy white suburb near Chicago. He later earned a full scholarship to Harvard, where in 1999 he delivered the commencement address. His simple lyrical narrative, both wry and tender, stays true to the child's viewpoint as he grows up, taunted at school, but pretty bad and rough himself. His coming-of-age story is both darkened and enriched by the stories he hears about his parents' lives back home and by the pieces he remembers. At the center of the book is his father, a fierce family disciplinarian, once an all-powerful medical assistant at home, now reduced to a "beetle," unemployed, half-blind, raging at his dependency. Only at the very end, when Asgedom spells out the metaphor of the title, does the message overwhelm the story. What stays with you is the quiet, honest drama of a family's heartrending journey. Hazel Rochman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "Asgedom stands as an exemplar of the strength of the human spirit." -- Harry Lewis, Dean of the College, Harvard University A wonderful tribute to the unsung heroism of countless refugee families....The most inspiring story I have read in recent years. -- Hayelom Ayele, Director/Community Liason, City of Chicago Council on Immigrant and Refugee Affairs I am truly awed by Mawi's strength and conviction. -- Charlie Trotter, Chef/Author Mawi Asgedom graduated from Harvard University in 1999 with many top honors. His classmates elected him to be one of eight class marshals and he delivered the commencement speech to more than 30,000 people at his graduation. He currently works full-time as a professional speaker. His clients range from middle schools and high schools, to universities and Fortune 500 companies. He lives in Chicago. He is twenty-four years old. Read more
Features & Highlights
- An autobiography of a boy who, at the age of three, fled civil war in Ethiopia by walking with his mother and brother to a Sudanese refugee camp, and later moved to Chicago and earned a scholarship to Harvard University.
