A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout

3 stars

Man, life is different. This little boy of mine eats and eats all the time. Between dealing with him and his ferocious appetite and then paying attention to the girls, my reading time has definitely shrunk. When I am not holding Mr. S or helping one of the kids I just want to lie down and sleep. Or if I do start reading, I end up waking up half an hour later. I know that this is life with a new born and I know it will get better, but man... it is rough. Oh well, at least I have a nice chunky baby to show for all the feedings I am doing.

I will try to do weekly posts, but no promises. I find that I will plan to do a post on one day, and then forget or get distracted by other things, or I forget what day of the week it is. So I will do my best to do Thursday posts. But, please be patient with me... sleep trumps everything!

Synopsis

Amanda was held captive in Somalia. This is the story of her experience as well as events leading up to it.

My Thoughts

This book is Waterloo Regions One Book One Community selection for this year.

While this is a book full of interesting insights and scary situations, on the whole, it did not hold my attention. I did read all the way through but I had to force myself to keep reading at times.

Her mental fortitude during her ordeal was amazing. I really did feel for her as she was trying to figure out how to keep things from getting worse and trying to navigate a crazy system of captives where you were never sure if you were on the right path to your goal or not. It really must have been terrifying knowing that your value as a woman was zilch and you don't know what they could do to you at any moment.

I did try hard not to feel to judgemental while reading this, but a few judgy thoughts did creep into my head. She was warned multiple times about how dangerous Somalia was for foreigners. She did not have any protection or insurance from a network. She was freelancing and going about this on her own. And then she roped her friend in to join her on this crazy venture. What!? While I understand that life is about taking risks, we are also able to manage them. So the fact that she went against all these warnings from people who were more experienced and knowledgeable in the field (she was new to all this) just seems crazy to me. Like did she have an inferiority complex. What was she trying to prove? While what happened to her was horrible and should not happen to people period, in her case if she had heeded the warnings it could have been avoided. End of judginess.

In her narrative I liked how she showed that she felt vulnerable that she did feel despair. She wasn't always happy go-lucky everything will turn out. Yet, through her vulnerability she was still able to maintain a strength about her and with that a quiet inner dignity. That came through well. I also liked how she showed us how this ordeal still affects her today. How she gets nervous around certain people and situations. I think sometimes as onlookers we think "well their out now, back to normal". But no! They are still trying to process and come to terms with a traumatic experience and we need to be aware of that. While it still affects her she also doesn't let this situation define her.

Her narrative is not horribly graphic but it doesn't sugar coat things either. She was abused, tortured and to some, just a plaything. We get to understand a little of what it might have been like.

After reading her story, I am not sure what the takeaway is. Was the point just to share her story? If so, she does that well. But if she wanted us to learn something from it I'm not sure what that would be. Don't go to dangerous countries on a whim? Some people are very clear on their takeaways such as Corrie ten Boom, this one not so much. I think it is because the takeaway was not clear the narrative on the whole loses it's impact and perhaps that is what made this book not the attention grabber it could have been. While I am glad to have her story and have her experience filed away in my brain, it is not one that will stay with me in the forefront. This could have been more than just a narrative of one experience of her life but unfortunately it feel short.