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This book evokes the details and places that make sense to the reader as soon as we read the words, but which were beyond our imagination moments before. Very early in the book, in Ehiopia at the time of the early 1980s famine, Meti tells her friends that she was a "very interesting and quite phenomenal secret" way to get a state of sweet flavors, by eating small drops of glycerin from her mother's lotion.
"Eew! I can't believe you've been drinking lotion. That's disgusting!"
"You eat mud all the time, debeb!"
"But that's different. Mud is cool. That's where food grows... [Y]our secrets are boring and stupid."
To me, there's no way her life is boring--I didn't get to the book for a long time, but once I did, I read it not just once, but 1 1/2 times straight through--I had to ply myself away from it, to not just read it as if it were on repeat. This means that the book is not riveting, hard to put down, but fast and immensely fulfilling. Quickly, we learn about Ethiopia and its war, Meti being shipped off by herself to Italy at age 10, surrounded by nuns, Fascists, Communists, and fellow Ethiopians and Eritreans, Meti coming to the United States by herself at age 16, being detained in the Los Angeles airport, landing in Juvenile Hall, learning Spanish from Selena songs before she learned English. Along the way, we meet family members and friends we also root for, and others.... I didn't know whether I would've stood up to those others, or withered away before their eyes.
The book's most unique characteristic, however, does not consist of specific episodes (and they are crazy) but its tone--straightforward syntax filled with deservedly lyric diction, declarative sentences undeterred by the circumstances around them, a bizarre mixture of indignation, imagination, and deep, deep faith. Because I not only know (from the words "A Memoir") but feel (from the language) that the "Meti" in the book is not a mask for the real Meti, not just a persona, I reeled with wonder for days after finishing the book.
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"Blue Daughter of the Red Sea: A Memoir" Overview
Born into a life of constant financial, physical, and moral threat, Meti Birabiro takes refuge in literature and the fantastic. Blue Daughter of the Red Sea is Birabiro's poetic account of the harsh reality of her young life spread across three continents. Her voice is a fresh mélange of child and adult perspectives, at once brutally honest and wise beyond her years. Through the journey from Ethiopia to Italy, and finally to the United States, we encounter Birabiro's relatives, friends, and enemies--relationships so intense that these people become her vampires, devils, angels, and saints. These character designations always lead her back to the truth. They help her to decipher what is fair and good, to understand what she must cherish and what she must rage against.
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