Wow, has my year of reading started off with a bang.  I’ll start with the easy part.  Iceland is a country I’ve always wanted to visit.  Learning more about its history, farming culture, and the wild landscape has piqued my interest even more. I was fascinated and at times repelled by some of the butchering and slaughter scenes described on the farm.  Although many of the place names were unpronounceable (to me), I didn’t let myself get snagged or bothered so as not to break the flow of the narrative.  

Agnes’ story unfolds slowly as she recounts her history to the naive assistant priest who has been sent to spiritually counsel her before the execution.  At the beginning and end of several chapters are letters and documents from 1829, records of the actual event which in themselves are quite revealing.

I was expecting something dreary and depressing but from the first few pages I felt my gut churning and could not put the book down. Knowing that the book was based on a true story with a sad outcome did not prepare me for the depth of emotion that hit me as I read late into the night.  I very quickly became enraged by the inhumane and degrading treatment of Agnes as a prisoner.  The further into the book I got, the more invested I became in finding proof of her innocence.  Her intelligence and spark made her a target for the corpulent, and self important man who was her judge and jury.  As I write this, I am infuriated anew.  I am reminded of the horrible treatment of women throughout history especially when they did not conform to rigid codes of pious behavior.

This book screams and tears at me from start to finish.  My tears are not only for Agnes who I know was a living, breathing, person but for all the countless women whose stories of unjust imprisonment, humiliation, abuse, and torment will never be told.  I think the author did an incredible job weaving a believable account from the history.  I say bravo!  This is one story that will stay with me for a very long time. 

I loved this book.  The main protagonist, Mr. Malik is simply adorable.  He is a man of unusual integrity living in a city filled with corruption.  He is an older man in love with a woman who has no idea of the secrets that lie behind an unassuming façade. 

The story unfolds over the course of a few weeks and the reader, chapter by chapter, becomes privy to these surprising depths.  Mr. Malik is an extremely private person and not even his closest drinking buddies at the club, nor the bird watching kindred spirit he chats with every week, have any idea of the burning passions and personal demons that lie beneath the surface.   

I was enchanted by this book and if I hadn't been so distracted by other things, I would have easily wanted to read it in one sitting.  A really lovely way to pass an afternoon.   

Reviewed October 3, 2011

When I started this book I had no idea that it would end up being my favourite book of the year.  It was so unexpectedly moving and brilliant that I am still shocked it's over.  Abraham Verghese writes the kind of story that makes you a part of his world.  A hospital
compound in Ethiopia inhabited by an eclectic but warm cast of characters who form a tight knit family and who experience all sorts of upheaval from failed political coup attempts to extreme medical emergencies. 

I found the amount of medical detail quite fascinating but I imagine not everyone would.  It does create very vivid pictures and sometimes uncomfortable reactions while reading but for me, it made sense, as every main character in the book is a physician.  The story took me to the very edge of life and death, love and suffering and then left me in a place of peace.  A really wonderful reading experience. 

Reviewed August 2009

This fascinating story takes us between two very different worlds.  London in the 1980’s where Lily is a nurse struggling to find her place and Africa where she was raised by a Moroccan religious leader after being orphaned by her hippie English parents.  

Much of the action takes place in Ethiopia where Lily must struggle to integrate herself and come to terms with cultural practices strange and abhorrent to her.  She finds acceptance and comfort in teaching her adoptive family and other neighborhood children from the Koran. 

When Lily is separated from the man she loves and forced to flee Ethiopia because of political events, her inner life stagnates.  She is emotionally frozen in the past, waiting and wondering what has become of him.  She isolates herself by solely connecting with other refugees in the housing estate where she lives. 

Parts of the story I had great difficulty reading, but over all, getting a glimpse of the culture and everyday lives of women in this part of the world was illuminating, and really beautiful.  Lily’s faith sustains her through a difficult life and in the end I was left with a feeling of admiration for her devotion as well as the author’s subtle handling of painful personal and political events.                

Reviewed August 2008

I definitely enjoyed this book.  The subject matter is fascinating.  This is partly the story of the Tarahumara people who live in a remote and extremely inaccessible canyon in Mexico with very little outside influence.  Apparently they can run for days, without breaking a sweat, in a completely relaxed manner with smiles on their faces. 

I am not a runner and never have been except for running a few sprints in the mandatory track competitions of my school days.  Oh, and I once participated in a cross country race when I was about eleven (without any training) because my school gym teacher was a sadist and a bully.  Reading Born to Run actually made me actually want to get out and run.  It made me sigh with relief to learn that I didn't need expensive shoes or fancy orthotics to correct my flat, wide, feet.  It made me curious if I could run without pain in my middle-aged knees that sound like a thousand ball bearings rolling around in a tin can when I bend them.  

The narrative jumps around a bit crazily and at times left me feeling a little disjointed. I wasn’t a huge fan of the author’s voice.  But, despite these minor irritations, I was left feeling inspired and interested in learning more about the assertion that we as human beings evolved as running beings.  That we all have the innate ability to run long distances.  This may be the book that motivates me to test the hypothesis.  And even if I never make it half way around the block, my interest in knowing more about long distance running and the enigmatic Tarahumara has definitely been piqued.   

January 3, 2012