Sunday, August 22, 2010

A brave young girl

I purchased this next work because seeing the title sitting on the Target shelves just plain shocked me into curiousity. Let's see what you make of it!

Title: I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced
Author: Nujood Ali, with Delphine Minoui
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Publish date: 2010
My start date: 8/7/10
My finish date: 8/8/10
Book count: 37/100

So, you saw the title, right? It is serious. This is the memoir (albeit short memoir) of a ten year old girl who already has a divorce. Wow. I am just not even really sure what to say. Must read, that about covers it.

These brief memoir tells the fascinating story of a young Yemeni girl who is forced by her family, driven by poverty, to marry a man three times her age. She is abused in a myriad of ways, yet finds the courage at the tender age of ten to make her way to the court and plead for a divorce. Her story made headlines around the world, as she is presumable the youngest divocee ever.

This is a very short work; even slower readers can finish it relatively quickly. Also, although Ali has an adult professional writer who is technically behind the book, it is clear the Minoui has left the voice largely to young Nujood herself. Thus, the writing is very childlike and characteristic of a kid pulled out of her elementary school class to go be a wife. Not exactly high brow language. Yet beautiful and charming nonetheless. Ali has a sense of self and poise that most adult women would envy and her story comes breathtakingly to live in these 188 pages.

That is really all there is to say, much more and I will have given the entire short story away! This memoir is simply captivating, so what are you waiting for?

Keep Reading!
Sarah

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