Beneath the Lion's Gaze Book

Let's be real here - a lot of what we (Westerners) know of Ethiopia is based on those late night aid commercials soliciting support for starving children with distended bellies and flies swarming their faces. This is incredibly problematic. Maaza Mengiste's "Beneath The Lion's Gaze" flies in the face of that monolithic stock image of the country and gives a richly drawn description of Ethiopian life before the 1974 revolution that many people know little or nothing about.

This is the story of a family set against the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie, and is easily one of most gripping books I've read in a very long time. It looks baldly at the beauty of Ethiopian culture (a strongly family, community, and faith centered way of life), Ethiopian history (Ethiopia proudly off Italian forces and was the only African nation not colonized by Europeans), and the political machinations that tore at the fabric of that society. Main characters include Hailu, a medical doctor and the father and head of the household; Selam, his ailing wife, Yonas, their eldest son, Dawit the younger, more rebellious son, and Sara, Yonas's wife. There are a number of ancillary characters that weave in and out of the narrative to tell a story that is about family, love, war, and convictions.

For me this novel renewed my interest in Ethiopian history. As a black American I already had some idea of Ethiopia's rich contribution to black history, and knew of Haile Selassie's importance to Rastafarianism, but this book made me think about the ramifications of deifying political leaders, black or otherwise. The torture/death scenes in the book were hard to bear because you realize how both fragile and resilient human life can be. This book is definitely worth the read.