Customer Reviews

Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie

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We have all read the final emails of Rachel Corrie, and mourned the death of one of the most compassionate and courageous young women ever to walk the face of this earth. We know about her concern for the oppressed peoples of this world, and her desire to stamp out hunger from the speech she made at the tender age of ten. However, this new book, 'Let Me Stand Alone', shows us the other side of Rachel - fun loving, vivacious, and a brilliant young writer and drawer. Her writing on her boyfriend's 'addiction to bee keeping' is remarkable, and the description of her big sister is very touching. Her love for her parents is beautifully expressed and her compassion for the less fortunate in the world is marvelous. She has more understanding about homelessness and our attitude to it than many adults in their 40s or 50s. It is astonishing that she wrote the piece about the homeless (page 15) at the tender age of 11.
Rachel's attitude towards the mentally ill is equally admirable. So often the treatment of the mentally ill is condescending and extremely arrogant. Clearly, they are inferior beings. Rachel's humility and caring towards her clients when she worked for the local mental health services is one in a million.
Her essays in creative writing are unique. Whoever else has ever thought of evoking childhood memories through the Tooth Fairy?
The subjects on which Rachel writes seem to be limitless, and many are extremely witty: entertaining articles about mowing the lawn, where buses go at night, how to deal with teenagers, and 'conservation' work in national parks.
Rachel's warmth and sensitivity shine out from every page, but above all, her irrepressible sense of humor.
Rachel's family has been extremely generous to share the writings of their daughter with the general public, especially since so much of it includes personal details. Take hold of this book, and treasure it, as the opportunity to read such a book only comes once in a lifetime.

Journals offer private thoughts not intended for an audience; rather, they serve as a means of sorting out life's challenges and exposing one's inner demons. Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie leads the reader into Rachel's inner world as she negotiates the challenges of adolescence and early adulthood. Sadly, her life comes to an untimely end when she faced down a bulldozer that was about to destroy a Palestinian home in Gaza.

Early in her life, Rachel's literary abilities shine through her poetry as she expresses her delight in nature and small creatures that cross her path. At eleven, on the death of her grandfather, she remarks her own selfishness as she sleeps while others are grieving. She says, "I have already grown bored of being sad and I am ready to go back to being normal." How wise she is to identify that universal feeling.

Many of Rachel's musings reflect her attitude toward death. At fourteen, she says, "Death smells like homemade applesauce as it cooks on the stove." At eighteen, "If I die today,...you must burn the papers under my bed...to charred leaves of ash...You must silence my dead voice...so it will not embarrass my memory." Her journals definitely reflect her inner thoughts, conflicts, and behaviors that might be embarrassing, and I wonder whether she would have wanted them published.

A trip to Russia became a turning point for Rachel. A girl who lived a sheltered, privileged life, she returned from her journey a woman with a mission, awakened by "the initial disappointment in discovering that my government really did lie to me about the Russians, and in the massive absence of justice in the world, and again...in discovering my participation in the subjugation of other people." This experience led her to become an activist during her college years and then took her to Israel to support the Palestinians as they suffered through repeated US-backed Israeli attacks on their families and homes.

Because of the intensely personal nature of the writings, it was difficult at times to read the revelations in these pages--the self-deprecation, the self-destructive behaviors, the lists of self-improvement tasks--and I felt uncomfortable looking into the private thoughts of someone who didn't sound as if she would like me to read them. I also felt that the pace of the book was slow and the final outcome depressing. But it comes together at the end, when Rachel writes long emails to her family and friends outlining her political convictions and showing her journalistic potential. Her life abruptly ended just three weeks short of her twenty-fifth birthday.

by Susan M. Andrus
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Rachel Corrie represents the best of America. As a young woman, her understanding and writing on issues of injustice and oppression were prescient. If only most Americans could understand the oppression of the Palestinian people as Rachel did, perhaps the American funded illegal Israeli military occupation of Palestine would end. Many internationals working for peace have been murdered in occupied Palestine -- Rachel was the first American. Because of her compassion and wonderful writing, Rachel will be remembered forever as a peacemaker. "My Name is Rachel Corrie," the reading of her writings, has seen sold out performances in London and is now playing in venues in the United States. It will soon be performed in Israel. Bravo, Rachel!!!

Maya Angelou said, "One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest."

Very touching journal by a very courageous young girl

The negative reactions to the book, I'm afraid, prove importance of the issue Rachel gave her life for. Many Americans remained "passively" approving of the occupation despite not just its blatant imperialist aggressiveness but its sheer irrationality and absurdity.

The best way to see an issue objectively, with the efforts of finding a solution, is to put yourself in the position of both sides. This book will definitely help you see the Palestinian issue the way it is, and not the way the media wants you to see it.

No individuals, no interest groups, no lobbies have influenced the writing of this book. A pure message straight from the heart of a first line observer.

A MUST READ!

Rachel Corrie's narratives are written as though she would look back at the transcript in later years to remind herself of who she had been and exactly what she had thought and done. Tragically, she cannot look back since she is dead, victim of the struggle she chronicles with such passion.

I do not get an impression of Rachel as anti-semitic or anti-Jewish, or even anti-Israel. She has aligned herself with the Palestinians in Gaza who are being forcibly removed from their homes, which are being bulldozed. That same Israeli government has forcibly removed Jews from their unauthorized settlements. This was about standing up to an inhumane process. What a very high cost she paid for that opposition.

Rachael Corrie was, in my opinion, a remarkable young woman. This book is her journal. Some of her poetry is rough around the edges, some is of great beauty. She died for her beliefs, crushed by an Israeli bulldozer, which was to raze the house of a Palestinian doctor.
The world is a much poorer place without her. I wish I could have met this wonderful person, but this book is as close as I am able.

One can not travel to Gaza and not be shocked at the injustice of the situation. Rachel Corrie wrote about her experiences with eloquence and wisdom beyond her years. She was in Rafah fighting to make a difference - not only by directly helping Palestinians living under occupation but also by educating people back in Olympia. In her short life, she did indeed make a difference. She has been an inspiration to many & I thank the Corrie family for generously sharing her letters & jourals.

From afar it might be easy to write off or embrace Rachel Corrie because of her strong position on the Palestinian situation in Israel.

Whatever one's views on that, this book shows that Rachel was an extraordinary and beautiful human being, a person of conviction with a special gift for expressing herself as she discovers herself and the world. If you want to know more about Rachel Corrie, I suggest looking past the media stories and the opinion columns. Read the words of Rachel herself.

I am grateful that the book has allowed me to encounter Rachel as a person, even after her tragic death.

By the way, I had never heard of Rachel Corrie before coming across an advance copy of this book.

"Writing is brave. It is maybe the only brave thing about me."

While the second part of that statement could not have been true, Rachel Corrie's writing--at times perceptive, passionate, or whimsically funny--certainly was brave. This collection, spanning from strikingly mature childhood musings and poetry to the stirring e-mails she sent home from Gaza, reveal a young woman who was not afraid to speak her truth. Although Rachel became an international figure after her 2003 death in Gaza --to many, a symbol to be venerated or vilified--her versatile writings show who she was as a human being. Her spirited humanity and unique view of the world continue to resonate six years after her death.

Rachel Corrie writes in short passages about everything from love to activism to ideas of want,sibling rivalry, dance and poetry. She is fresh, honest, young, and absolutely inspiring, but her inspiration doesn't come in a formal charge toward social justice, rather a great sense of happy curiosity and respect for the world around her. It's simply a fragmented view into the mind of a courageous woman, who turns out to be absolutely human.