2012-20 - Something Fierce, by Carmen Aguirre

20 - Something Fierce, by Carmen Aguirre, 277 pages, Douglas and McIntyre, 2011WHY I PICKED IT: Recommended by my friend Alexis
ELAPSED TIME: 3 days
RATING: REQUIRED READING

Wow, this book is fantastic.  Carmen is 6 when a CIA-backed coup places Pinochet in power in Chile.  Her parents join the resistance movement and are forced to run to Vancouver (with her and her sister).  A few years later, her Mom, her new Stepfather, and the two girls return to South America... this book is that story.

Carmen is an engaging writer with a gripping tale.  The path she takes from passionate child to revolutionary is ... brilliant, and to be honest, quite disturbing.  Her continued struggle to maintain emotional control when terror is her constant state of being is palpable ("The body cannot take chronic terror; it must defend itself by refusing to harbour the spirit that wants to soar through it and experience life to its fullest," page 224).

... and in the epilogue she acknowledges a lesson that she learned: "... you don't have to let your beliefs consume you.  You have your loves and your lives and your activism, and you don't have to let anybody dictate to you what you can do." (page 272).

A couple other nuggets:
a) The Oath that she takes to join the revolutionaries is ... interesting (page 193)
b) The banging of pots and pans by protestors who are not allowed to congregate to do so publicly is mentioned in passing here.  The CBC did a piece on it last month, as the student protestors in Montreal have picked up this tactic.  Brilliant :).