Beneath the Lion's Gaze

Maaza Mengiste's "Beneath The Lion's Gaze" provides the view of an observant insider to a horrendous historical chapter few of us knew, or even tried to follow. Beginning with the last of the emperors of Ethiopia--detailed as if by a courtier who went everywhere and knew everybody and everything--the novel moves along into the repression by the military government. Mengiste tells us, because sometimes we forget, that the repression techniques were exported by the Soviets and their cohorts in East Germany and elsewhere, who were advisors to the local power structure. Mengiste uses the trials of the extended family of a well-off and urban physician, and some of their friends, to show us how things went. Some are disappeared, some are killed, some resist, some are tortured. In an average story, we read of the characters. In a superb story, we identify with the characters, sometimes asking ourselves if we would do this, or risk that. Mengiste gets us asking these questions repeatedly. I have one quibble. A collaborator, a friend of the family, is presented as inadequate in several ways. We'd like to believe that tyrannies attract the inadequate and the incompetent and the self-doubters, as a way of making up for their shortcomings. That might be true. But, inadequate and lacking in self-esteem as they might be, an organized tyranny is the hardest thing in the world to face. They have the power. They have the communications. They have subverted your neighbors. It's easier to be brave when it's yourself. It's tougher when your act of courage, should you be caught or killed and identified, will cost your family deaths of horrifying torture. Mengiste shows us just how much power the tyranny has, despite the resistance and the hopes of the people. We even see idealistic young students fooling themselves about such things because...they might get into med school in Cuba or something. During the Second World War, the resistance in various occupied countries had support from the outside, the British Special Operations Executive, the US OSS, the Jedburgh teams, the weapons and supplies, the promise that, sooner or later, the outside world would come to their aid. The Ethiopian resistance had none of this. Mengiste asks the reader the question; Would you fight?

A wonderfully written book about a family set in Ethiopia, in the early 1970's. The story the author weaves of the characters is heartwrenching and at times grim. Yet just as blues is uplifting music to the soul, so is the novel uplifting story to the spirit. Can't stop reading! It's just amazing how authentically she's captured the essence of the Ethiopian people, their mannerism and their poetic language. Will recomend this book to anyone I know. Can't wait to see her next novel.

The tremendous difficulty in writing a historical novel is striving to find a balance between narrative and history. The reader of historical fiction is either aware of the history of the story she reads; or is "interested" in the history of the story he reads. Likewise, the writer of a historical novel is often entirely focused on his story; or similarly focused on the history that's irrevocably connected to her story. It is in managing to strike the perfect balance between these dialectics that a book is either successful or not. Maaza Mengiste's Beneath the Lion's Gaze is a powerful novel that successfully manages to do this. She has written a gripping tale, yet at the same time it is clearly evident that she is intent on teaching us about this very important part of Ethiopian history. It is this aspect of Beneath the Lion's Gaze that forces a reader to ask himself/herself: what do we know of Ethiopia? On a populist level, we know about their runners. We "know" about the very public famine that was televised all over Europe and in the United States. And we "know" of Kapusinski's fictionalized tale of Emperor Haile Selassie. Which is interesting because the educated reader "knows" more about the former Emperor than of the Communist revolution that cost the lives of so many and that pitted families, neighbors and loved ones against each other. This is precisely why Maaza Mengiste's novel is such an important work. She demands that her reader truly scrutinize what we think we "know" of Ethiopia. And to imagine a reality that has never been presented to us, the Western reader, until now. In this wonderfully constructed tale of a doctor and his family, and how each member of his family is forced to come to grips with the revolution, she paints a vivid picture of the humanity that isn't present in a history textbook, or in Kapusinski's allegorical tale. [Beneath the Lion's Gaze, unlike Lorraine Adams' review in the NY Times, is ultimately about this family and not about Haile Selassie.] And in the process, Maaza Mengiste challenges us to try to understand this very important moment in human history. The events of our world in the recent years have tested our humanity in so many ways. If we look at how we interact with news, the "facts" and "fiction" of the world around us, it is easy to see how divided we are. In Beneath the Lion's Gaze, Maaza Mengiste, explores just how our humanity can be impacted by our leaders and their visions. In showing best friends at odds; brothers, so similar in appearance and in their capacity to love, yet so different ideologically; a husband and wife, who love each other and their daughter, and whose love is tested by the daily horrors of the Derg; and a highly respected doctor, who is questioned and incarcerated and who emerges a shadow of himself, Maaza Mengiste makes every reader of Beneath the Lion's Gaze a part of this family, a part of this history and connects us to the Ethiopian people. How many historica

I enjoyed reading this book. The book brought back memories and reminded me of the student movement era. This book is more than a fiction to me. I thank the author, Maaza Mengiste. I am looking forward for her second book.

This a well-written and gripping debut. I hate to think what she will produce when she comes of age. THis is a novel about horrors of revolution,tragedies that grip Africa, and the resilience of human spirit in the midst of turmoil and pain. The emotions here are raw and the images (especially of torture and pain) at times too vivid. I recommend it.