Only Acts of Genocide

Saw Hotel Rwanda a month or so ago and loved it. Don Cheadle was great, and the movie did an excellent job of portraying what happened without ever getting overly preachy or sentimental--but instead by being clear-eyed and honest. I didn't know, well, pretty much anything about the whole Rwanda conflict before seeing the movie, and so came out of it very much wanting to learn more. A little digging led me to a remarkable book: Philip Gourevitch's We Wish To Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families.

The book is a comprehensive, extremely wel-written, and engaging summary of the history that led to the conflict, the genocide itself, and the aftermath, told as often as is possible through the stories of Rwandans Gourevitch interviewed. The story is a stunning one, and it's hard to come away from reading it without being affected in some way. Gourevitch tells anecdotes about priests leading bands of killers to refugees hiding in their churches; stories of murders upon murders committed with machetes, of the slaughter of children, that make one blanch. But he also tells stories like the one that inspired the film, of ordinary Rwandans acting with simple courage and conviction. And he spends a fair amount of time discussing the lack of a response from the Western world, in particular the United States. For anyone looking for a clear and comprehenisive overview of the history, without wanting a simple, sterile encyclopedia-like summary, this is the book. Highly recommended.

Until Whenever