Book Review: The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood: Helene Cooper: Books
Book Review: The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood: Helene Cooper: Books
Going Home Through the Pages of a Book.,
By The Elephant’s Child -
This review is from: The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood (Hardcover)
Ms. Cooper’s story is, in so very many ways, my story, too. I grew up in Liberia, a “second-class” American because we were missionaries and not American Embassy personnel. My years at the American Cooperative School overlapped hers; I had the same first grade teacher as her little sister. I bought ice cream at Sophie’s (mind the flies!) and ate hamburgers at Diana’s. How many times I drove past that same three-headed palm tree! Like her, I left in my early teens, without properly saying goodbye.
Samuel K. Doe’s coup d’etat stole Ms. Cooper’s childhood; Charles Taylor’s invasion in late 1989 stole mine.
Much has been said about Liberia’s descent into chaos. But what is never spoken of, in all the reports and documentaries, is the old Liberia - the Liberia that I love, the Liberia of my heart, the Liberia of people who have never given up hope, even in the darkest hour, that they can rebuild out the ashes of evil.
It will be several years yet before I can make the trip that Ms. Cooper has, and return home. I’d like to stand in our old house on Old Road, if only just to prove that the first 15 years of my life weren’t a dream. Maybe the mango tree is still there. In the meantime, I have her book, to help me remember that I have come from somewhere. Home is still there, in the coalpots and red dirt roads, in the potato greens and the palm butter, in the sound of the ocean at night.
For all the horrors that war has visited upon my hometown, Liberia stands. The rice bird still sings.
Could not put the book down,
By T. Tomaszkiewicz (Saint Paul, MN USA) -
This review is from: The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood (Hardcover)
I eagerly awaited the release of Cooper’s book after reading the excerpt in the New York Times Magazine earlier this spring. The book arrived and did not disappoint. I could not put the book down and finished it in one sitting. Cooper’s writing is honest, sincere and raw. I found myself drawn to her childhood and her adventures as if they were my own. While Cooper leaves out answers to many questions I had about her life in high school and college, she does come full circle in acknowledging the impact of her childhood on her life today. A masterful book. I was left wanting to read more about the Coopers.
Descent Into Madness For Liberia,
By C. Hutton “book maven” (East Coast, USA) -
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)
This review is from: The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood (Hardcover)
Helene Cooper has written a memoir of her privilege African childhood in Liberia before the slaughters of the civil war destroyed the country and her lifestyle. Descended from a family of strong women, she comically describes their mansion at Sugar Beach before the horrors of the soldiers. Written in a you are there style, she conveys all changes of coming to America as a nobody and remaking herself as a journalist. The last part of the book concerns her journey homeward to search for a lost foster sister and to come full circle again.
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