They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky

They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky

by Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, and Benjamin Ajak

I came across this book after I attended a presentation at my school about the Lost Boys of Sudan, where Alephonsion Deng spoke to us personally about his experience as a refugee. His story interested a great many of me and my friends, and we decided to buy the books that they were selling at ten dollars each. I'm very glad I got a chance to read it; there is a story here, a TRUE story, that speaks out to Americans with a very relevant, very present message.

This book is not a moral call to action, nor is it a heart-rendering tale that sends its readers on a guilt trip. The point of this book isn't to blame anyone for what happened to them; it is to let people know it is happening. It is simply a testimony of 3 boys who survived the Sudanese civil war, and witnessed things that no boy should ever have to witness.

Their descriptions of the fire bombs, the wild animals, the starvation, the despair, the callousness of the people around them, the utter loss of hope, are all told frankly and without any sentimental adjectives to try to appeal it to the readers. The narrating voice is simple, spoken in ways that even little children can understand, and talks about things that even adults may find a hard time comprehending. It is ironic, but also a very effective narration.

What I admired most about this book, though, was the fact that these boys were able to still talk, laugh, play, and have fun as boys even in the midst of all this chaos. Yes, these moments were few and far in between, but they were there, portraying their humanity in ways that bellied any sort of tragic and epic adventurous tone they could have adopted.

This is a book whose voice needs to be heard by the world.

Seabiscuit: an American Legend



Seabiscuit: An American Legend

by Laura Hillenbrand

A well-crafted narration, with a lot of hard facts mixed in well with a fast-paced, heart-warming storytelling voice to let the world of America's famed racehorse come alive back from the Great Depression.

Hillenbrand's focus on the three primary men surrounding Seabiscuit's life was a very smart idea; it allowed her to explore the horse from multiple angles--that of Seabiscuit's owner, Seabiscuit's trainer, and Seabiscuit's rider--and better describe the backdrop of the horse races through the biographies of the three. Through the owner, Charles Howard, she describes the upper class society and the dazzling community of America's best men during the 1920s; through the trainer, Tom Smith, Hillenbrand explores the spirit of the old West; and with the horse's rider, Red Pollard, she reveals the behind-the-scenes of the world of jockeys and their desperate competition for the chance to ride the best horse around. Each man's story is explored and commoderated, converging together into Seabiscuit's life as one storyline.

There is never a doubt that Seabiscuit himself is the center of the story. I never got the sense that Pollard, or Smith, or Howard was the main character of the story. It was always Seabiscuit. The facts and figures, the dates and times, the records and competitions, the trainers and riders, all of them revolve around Seabiscuit. I have come to love the horse for his dogged tenacity and lovable personality, as well as his fierce sense of competition, all of which Hillenbrand highlights through an enthusiastic, yet strictly factual tone.

I admit, she lost me a couple of times when all the explanations in the jargon of horseracing came up. It would be hard for anyone who isn't particularly into horseracing to fully understand the astounding amount of detail she puts into this book to make it real. The general storyline can be followed without any problems, but I often got stuck in the nitty-gritty details of her paragraphs. What's a handicap? How long is a length? Questions like these often popped up, halting the flow of an otherwise very good narration. Never have I lamented my lack of knowledge in this area so much. For horseracing junkies, however, this book is it.

The way Hillenbrand brings the readers right into the middle of the racing field made me feel like I was riding right next to Pollard on Seabiscuit, facing the wide-open rail and hearing the thunderous roar of the crowd behind me. These were the parts in the book that departed from the facts and figures, relying purely on the author's imagination to draw out the feeling of being in the midst of a breathtaking horserace. These scenes were executed marvelously; she peppers her paragraphs with short and sweet sentences to blow big impact on her readers.

Her organization of the storyline is well-though out as well. It must not have been easy to bring out so much in this horse's 3 or 4 years of public life, but Hillenbrand does it, even writing it out so as to have a hook in the beginning, a sequence of events leading up to a big climax (the Santa Anita Handicap of 1940), and the anticlimax when she wraps it all up. Also, the theme of the American Dream is impossible to miss in this book--it is so blatantly obvious in all three of the men's lives, as well as in Seabiscuit himself, as well as all the reporters and horse owners and millions of fans that take part in her narration: they are all living out the American Dream of going from underdog to fame and fortune.

She really proves that this horse is worthy of her book's subtitle: an American Legend.