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| Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak |
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List Price: $15.00
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Manufacturer: Picador
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 967
EAN: 9780312425036
ISBN: 0312425031
Label: Picador
Manufacturer: Picador
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 272
Publication Date: 2006-04-18
Publisher: Picador
Release Date: 2006-04-18
Studio: Picador
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Editorial Reviews:
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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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Customer Rating:
Summary: Machete Season
Comment: Hatzfeld's book is a welcome addition to the published works on the subject of the Rwandan genocide. It would have benefitted by Hatzfeld making use of his access to the prisoners by actually asking probing questions, but such was not his method. A brief histoty of European influence on Rwanda and it's native peoples would also have been welcome, although from my reading neither this information nor any other lends a believable explanation for the Rwandan genocidal chaos of 1994.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Comment: 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.
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Summary: The Murderers Speak
Comment: The author interviewed in prison a group of friends,a seemingly ordinary crosssection of Rawandan Hutu farmers, who willingly and enthusiastically participated in the brutal extermination of their Tutsi neighbors. The book draws parallels with previous genocides such as perpetuated by the Nazi's and others thruout history. The killers seemed to look upon the massacres as pretty much of a job. With an added benefit often of rape and plunder. An incredibly disturbing, but true story. An interesting sidenote was the significant role played by radio broadcasts in inciting the mobs. Also, how The Church and U.N. and the rest of the world pretty much left the victims to their fates. Amazing as it may seem there were virtually no instances in which Hutus tried to save Tutsis who had been former friends. This whole dark blot on history must not be forgotten.
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Summary: 500,000 not 50,000
Comment: There's a blazing typo in the editorial Booklist review. Approximately 500,000 to over 1,000,000 human beings, not the stated 50,000, were murdered in the Rwandan massacre.
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Summary: Not the book to begun with, but a book for deeper digging
Comment: I would recommend that anyone just starting to study the genocide in Rwanda start with Tomorrow We wish to inform you...
If you want to continue to get insights into this horrible time, Jean Hatzfield's two books should be read. His reflections mirrored my own questions, and even the guarded stories of the killers show their hearts. One killer says, "Someone had failed to finish the job, so I followed the target and finished it." as a reference to killing a neighbor. The killers' complete belief that they only had to ask for forgiveness and it would be granted and they could live together as one happy neighborhood is a sign of their lack of understanding of the horror that was done.
I was especially horrified that Hatfield could find few people who aided a former friend or neighbor, and that the killers had so little remorse that no one committed suicide. They expected no consequences, and in the end, they got a fairly short jail term. They were right, no one really cared.
I was searching for signs that could bring early intervention, but there really didn't seem to be something that was big or significant. Only greed, obedience when it suits, mob thinking and abdication by good people.
Although not as graphic as some books I have read on Rwanda, there are sentences that will haunt you forever, and images you wish were not in your mind. But they happened and we owe it to the survivors to listen.
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