Monique and the Mango Rains by Kris Holloway
#21 in my 2007 book challenge is Kris Holloway’s Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali. I know the author, since we attended high school together, but I would admire this book in any case. Holloway details her two years in the Peace Corps in Africa working with a local midwife, Monique. Holloway shows how important and influential Monique was to her village, and to Holloway, whose prior training had been in agriculture, not health. The book is extremely well researched. The bibliography has recent and classic works on international women’s health, birthing traditions, and the ethics of ethnography. Holloway respectfully avoids both criticism and romanticization of the Africans, though she makes clear at the end which cultural differences she’ll miss and which she won’t. The influence of each woman on the other, and the different insights and information they share, make this a moving and detailed portrait of two women’s friendship that crossed cultures. Additionally, it’s a fascinating portrait of birth and childcare practices in another culture.
This book is not easily categorized, but it’s garnered a great deal of attention in spite of that. It was the first nonfiction book chosen by the Literary Ventures Fund, a nonprofit foundation that presented at BEA earlier this year. It has already been included in several college reading lists. I highly recommend this book. It provides a refreshingly different perspective on friendship, birth, men’s and women’s relationships, family and community relationships, and more.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Thank you for reviewing this book! I picked it up and think it will be my next selection for my bookclub. I haven’t finished it yet, but I think you gave it a fair and balanced review. Thanks again.
July 25th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Elle, I hope you liked it. I thought the story was wonderful, though I felt she was trying too hard to write well, and some of that effort showed through in an excess of similes. Both my bookgroups really liked it.