Customer Reviews

Love in the Driest Season: A Family Memoir

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"By noon, the ants had found the girl-child."

From the first paragraph, this book had us hooked. Not only is it a great story, but very well written. My wife and I are in a similar situation, living in Africa and trying to adopt a child we've had for years, and the book seems pretty realistic to us. Of note, the author is neither cynical nor romantic about his family's experiences, and gives us a very good picture of the struggles of his heart as well as the external struggle for adoption.

Neely Tucker's story of how he and his wife came to adopt an ailing African child proves the adage that the heart knows no boundries.
The book works so sucessfully on three distinct levels:
-Race and prejudice both in the United States and in Africa.
-The mounting tension and political termoil gripping the AIDS ravaged country.
-And most prominantly as a simple love story between a girl and her caretakers, and what they will undertake to save her.
A moving, exhausting, yet exhilarating book.

Neely Tucker, a writer for the Washington Post , details his travels in Africa as a correspondent for the Detroit Times with his African American wife and their struggle to adopt a baby from Zimbabwe. This is a truly heartwarming story that wraps you up in their family struggles and at the end you hope the author writes a sequel so you can hear more about their life together.

Neely Tucker, a white journalist posted in Zimbabwe, and his wife Vita, a black woman, fall in love with a female infant in an orphanage in that country. The baby's name is Chipo, which means "gift" in the local language. The story, a family memoir, details the couple's attempts to adopt this baby with whom they have fallen in love. The story also explains the political situation in Zimbabwe, which is unstable and volatile, especially toward foreign journalists. There is also a great deal of information about the AIDS crisis in Africa, and how this dread disease has impacted so many families and created millions of orphans. These three topics were interwoven in the book to make a fascinating and extremely interesting story. I could feel the Tuckers' frustration with the bureaucratic red tape they had to wade through in order to someday adopt Chipo. I admired their tenacity--all because of their intense love for this beautiful baby. It would be interesting to follow this little girl into adulthood, and I hope Neely Tucker has such a possibility in mind.

This book is a quick read -- compelling and informative. I learned a tremendous amount about African politics, as well as prejudice, cultural priorities, and the complications that were involved in adopting Chipo. Tucker is quite a good writer, as one would expect from a journalist. The only way it could have been a better book is if it were longer. I closed the book wishing that I had *more* -- a richer history of Zimbabwe and Rwanda, a richer history of Vita, and more context for Mr Tucker's life. Perhaps he will write another book (fiction?) based on Vita and her point of view of this adventure. Like another reviewer, I would like to see a follow up on Chipo.

Fabulous from the start. So much intermingles in this book - history, politics, personal struggle, life in Africa, bi-racial familes, adoption - that to narrow it down to a memoir wouldn't be doing it justice.
Following the writer as he pushes you through each page, you find yourself involved in the world through the eyes of this family. It's one of those books that you rush to get through and then you regret what you've done once you see there's only a few pages left.
When I find an author of this caliber, I stick with them. And Neely Tucker sure can write.

The profound nature of love, and why it matters above all else in this life, has never been better described. For all of us suffering from compassion fatigue and self-absorption this is a joyful, triumphant, and heartbreaking wakeup call to the world and this life. Do yourself a BIG favor...read this book...perhaps aloud to someone you love.

This book has taught me to give an extra smile to my three beautiful children. I am astonished and deeply moved by Neely and Vita Tucker's devotion to their foster child Chipo, by Neely's willingness to sacrifice his job to struggle daily against the crazy Mugabe regimein his fight to legally adopt this child. May love conquer always!

As adoptive parents of two African children, this book captured our hearts from the very beginning. Absolutely heartwrenching, it is about love that refuses to be suffocated under mounds of "red tape". It is about the suffering, wars, political uprisings, diseases, which created the orphan crisis across the vast African continent. Thank you Neely Tucker for sharing your story!

This book just grabs you-from the first page! It doesn't let you ignore what is happening in that part of the world. It's a story about life more than anything. About love between a couple, deals with so many racial issues that are so present in our everyday lives. It deals with love for a child, for a profession, and being pulled in a thousand directions.
The biggest thing I took from this book is just the irony of all the pain and suffering in the world, how all the loss could be prevented but the people in power choose to keep the resources from the most needy. THis book opened my eyes to something i would have never known otherwise and that's the most you could ever ask of a book.