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Amnesty
211 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1993
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August 24, 2017
Many of the writers in this anthology are "big names" and all of them know how to craft a story. The themes are ones of various human rights abuses around the world. Many of the stories are about the human spirit's ability to rise above these abuses- to resist, to survive , to connect although some have a very grim almost fatalistic tone which seems like an unhelpful perspective to take in fiction, without having a developed critical perspective.
The last story is a memoir as far as I can tell and that is certainly interesting.
Some of the stories are written about various cultures but by a white author- so there is a sort of patronising perspective where this "other" is valued but as exotic and under-developed. I don;t think the authors meant it that way, and I wouldn't even be aware of it if I hadn't read Edward Said. I think the stories may need to be told, but I am not sure that the tone taken is quite the right one. Toward the end of the book I also felt that the collective world-view of the authors became more and more andro-centric...popes and ministers and blokish farmers and women only on the periphery of the story. Some stories may need to be that way but there was not a balance.
Nevertheless we ought to think about things that happen in the world with empathy and so these stories are worth reading.
The last story is a memoir as far as I can tell and that is certainly interesting.
Some of the stories are written about various cultures but by a white author- so there is a sort of patronising perspective where this "other" is valued but as exotic and under-developed. I don;t think the authors meant it that way, and I wouldn't even be aware of it if I hadn't read Edward Said. I think the stories may need to be told, but I am not sure that the tone taken is quite the right one. Toward the end of the book I also felt that the collective world-view of the authors became more and more andro-centric...popes and ministers and blokish farmers and women only on the periphery of the story. Some stories may need to be that way but there was not a balance.
Nevertheless we ought to think about things that happen in the world with empathy and so these stories are worth reading.
Displaying 1 of 1 review