Friday, August 4, 2023

SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL

Romeo Dallaire. SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL: The FAILURE of HUMANITY in RWANDA. Vintage, 2004.

I have long been an admirer of Lieutenant-General Dallaire but I've hesitated to read his memoir because I was just too afraid of the darkness of the story. When a copy appeared on a favourite thrift store shelf shortly after I'd been thinking that I should read it in prep for writing about TRC, I took it as a sign. 

My admiration has not diminished. However, I have to confess that, once the killing starts, near the middle of its 560 pages, I did not read every word. I tried to train myself to speed read. First and last lines of each paragraph. Concluding paragraphs. The most useful is the final chapter, "Conclusion". I shall be citing more than one of his comments.




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