Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak
by Jean Hatzfeld
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jean HatzfeldTranslator: Linda Coverdale
Preface: Susan Sontag
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-04-18
ISBN: 0312425031
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Picador
Book Reviews of Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak
Book Review: Brilliant
Summary: 5 Stars
I love the way the book was presented (a stylistic choice suitable to the topic and not at all structurally flawed as another reviewer suggests).
If you are expecting to come away with some definitive answers about the genocide... think again, as it is not the purpose of this book. The beauty of this book is that is illuminating, but somewhat open. Hatzfeld does not spoon feed the reader and he keeps the book's focus on the voices of the men he interviewed. There is a rawness about the process of human self-reflection and this book captures it, laying bare the truths and lies people tell themselves while recounting their role in the past. The human psyche is fascinating, and what people choose to share is as interesting as what we see them refuse to share. For example, some passages reveal a shocking frankness -sometimes as much a shock to the speaker as the reader. Yet, some passages reveal a distance, a cold detachedness... a refusal or incapability of the soul to either publicly or privately connect and unburden. All this said, Hatzfeld acknowledges that beyond inner turmoil, legal and other reprecussions influence what is shared and what is not.
This is a MUST READ for those who study genocide and mass violence. It is recommended for all interested others who have the maturity, respect, and the stomach to handle it.
For those not familiar with the Rwandan genocide: If you are looking for an excellent book that will help you understand a little something about what happened and why see "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda" by Philip Gourevitch. Read Gourevitch first and Hatzfeld's book afterward. You can't understand and fully appreciate this book properly -and its significant contribution -unless you have some background knowledge of the genocide.
Summary of Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak
During the spring of 1994, in a tiny country called Rwanda, some 800,000 people were hacked to death, one by one, by their neighbors in a gruesome civil war. Several years later, journalist Jean Hatzfeld traveled to Rwanda to interview ten participants in the killings, eliciting extraordinary testimony from these men about the genocide they perpetrated. As Susan Sontag wrote in the preface, Machete Season is a document that "everyone should read . . . [because making] the effort to understand what happened in Rwanda . . . is part of being a moral adult."
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