Reviews for The River Between

The average rating for The River Between based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-12-10 00:00:00 Bede Harris I imagine being a woman in the beautiful landscape of colonial Kenya as having to choose between Scylla and Charybdis, as being torn between ancient rites and Christian missionaries - neither of them offering any kind of individual choice and development for a woman. As a woman, you are stuck between quite similar, yet opposing male monsters of rigid patriarchal rituals, fighting each other with religious salvation vocabulary and with you as a prize. It is interesting for myself to follow my multiple changes in attitude and perspective during the reading process. My modern, liberal and democratic values were shaken and attacked from different angles. In the character of rebellious Muthoni, the hopelessly bitter life of a daughter of a dogmatic Christian preacher is outlined. To connect with her ancestral roots, she has to break with the brutal single-mindedness of her father, who considers himself her only authority while bowing to the power of white rule through Christianity and administration. Disobedience equals ostracism. It feels natural to side with Muthoni against her dogmatic, brutal father. But when she makes the decision to go through circumcision in order to feel "beautiful in the way of the tribe", I shiver. What a brutal world for her, having to choose between what she calls Christian submission and the demands of her tribe, which will effectively take away her ability to feel sexual pleasure! Male dominance is guaranteed either way. It gets worse when she dies of her wounds. My heart now moves to side with the white oppressors and their most effective tools - the preachers. Even if they are evil and oppressive, their take on life must be more humane than the ancient tribal rites? For a moment, I hesitate, and then I make up my mind: "No!" One wrong is not excused by another wrong. "Whataboutism" is the worst kind of indifference and irresponsibility. Young women deserve to make their own valid choices, oppressed neither by inhumane and brutal religious doctrine, nor by surgery aiming at reducing their sexuality. If I am between Scylla and Charybdis, it is not about choosing which way to give up my life, it is about doing my best to steer away from both dangers - on the river between. The natural beauty of the river flowing between the two opposed shores in the novel remains a symbol for the possibility of change and movement! As long as the waters are flowing on the river between, there is hope. Slim as it may be!

Review # 2 was written on 2011-12-26 00:00:00 Hilliard Smith I found this story to be very reminiscent of one of my favourite books, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, as both stories deal with the turmoil, changes and confusion that arose in Africa after Christianity was introduced. In The River Between, two communities of Kikuyu (a Kenyan ethnic group), one Christian, the other traditional, struggle as the Christian group tries to outlaw female circumcision, which they believe to be a pagan practice, while the traditionals being distrustful of the "white man's religion", feel that circumcision is an important part of their culture and struggle to continue with their practice. The protagonist, Waiyaki, is caught between his destiny as the direct descendant of an African seer who supposedly foresaw the arrival of the white man, a "people with clothes like butterflies," and who must therefore lead the village, as well as being a young man who obtained education from the missionaries, and is in love with Nyambura, the Christian daughter of Joshua, the Kikuyu pastor. I liked the book a lot. Like African society in general, I found the story to have lots of patriarchal elements. First of all, there was the issue of the practice of female circumcision. Second, the female characters in the story barely had a voice, and were left out of political and economic matters, causing them to be the most vulnerable members in the society. What I also found interesting was the struggle between the traditional and the modern, something that is very difficult to be overcome.