GRACE BOOK CLUB
Every Monday, Grace recommends a book by a woman writing literary prose.
MONIQUE AND THE MANGO RAINS by Kris Holloway
A memoir of a young American woman’s two years in the Peace Corps in Africa assisting a Malian midwife, Monique and the Mango Rains is a straight-ahead plunge into female friendship that tackles women’s issues in a developing country. Kris Holloway’s memoir is true-blue, the genuine article, a journey at once familiar and excitingly new as she vigilantly, and with great heart, recreates life in the tiny West African village of Nampossela. Holloway’s working relationship and friendship with Monique Dembele, a modern, educated African woman who works to advance girls’ education, maternal and child health, and to prevent brutal female genital cutting moves with all the urgency expected of a profound life-changing relationship. Most of the import and drama takes place in the village birthing hut, where women and their babies live or die by what they manage for themselves in a country where men come first. What this book unfailingly does is bring up the question of vocation and avocation in women’s lives. The acceptance of what comes with being a woman and at the same time how to push for reform, to coax acceptable degrees of change and development in an environment where women, even as victims, are less than equal is captured in the singular sagesse of Monique in Kris Holloway's remarkable memoir.