A lucid critique of a humanitarian organization.
In this debut memoir, O’Reilly recounts her experiences working with refugees and accuses a humanitarian aid agency of corruption and hypocrisy.
While visiting Zagreb, Croatia, in the year 2000, when she was in her 20s, the author met Agata, an Italian woman who was interning for the United Nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Agata had earned a master’s degree in human rights—something that the author, who once aspired to be a human rights lawyer, didn’t know was possible. O’Reilly moved to London in 2002 to pursue the same degree, and took a job in Uganda four years later, eager to trade her current life, which included the use of recreational drugs, for a “different kind of living on the edge.” In Kampala, she found a diverse refugee community seeking assistance, and her job was to assess suitability for relocation—a task for which she readily admits she was unprepared: “People’s lives hinged on conclusions that we were unqualified to make.” She encountered people who were fleeing war and persecution in Sudan, Eritrea, Rwanda, and Somalia, among other locations. With unalloyed frankness, O’Reilly accuses the agency for which she worked of callousness, venality, and general incompetence. She says that she encountered casual racism, sexual harassment, and a culture of cowardice; one high-ranking commissioner, she says, was found to have been guilty of sexual harassment, and then given an award upon his resignation. The author also poignantly chronicles the heartbreaking plights of those she was charged with helping. Overall, O’Reilly writes simply but elegantly, without a hint of sentimentality but with plenty of emotion and provocative thought. And although her criticism of her profession is scathing, she impressively doesn’t spare herself from scrutiny: “I was beginning to wonder if we were quick to accuse refugees of lying because it let us off the hook. If refugees were lying anyway, what did it matter if our work was sloppy, if we were lazy if we earned thousands of dollars per month while they lived in squalid camps and slums?”
A lucid critique of a humanitarian organization.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-68433-391-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Oct. 3, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
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Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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