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from: Simon & Schuster Audio List Price: $39.95 Amazon.com's Price: $28.73 You Save: $11.22 (28%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Dewey Decimal Number: 966.6203 EAN: 9780743579513 Format: Audiobook, Unabridged ISBN: 0743579518 Label: Simon & Schuster Audio Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Audio Number Of Items: 9 Publication Date: September 02, 2008 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio Sales Rank: 449198 Studio: Simon & Schuster Audio Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: A poignant memoir of tragedy, forgiveness, and transcendence told with unflinching honesty and gentle humor Helene Cooper is 'Congo,' a descendant of two Liberian dynasties -- traced back to the first ship of freemen that set sail from New York in 1820 to found Monrovia. Helene grew up at Sugar Beach, a twenty-two room mansion by the sea in a childhood filled with servants, flashy cars, a villa in Spain, and a farmhouse up country. It was also an African childhood, filled with knock foot games and hot pepper soup, heartmen and neegee. When Helene was eight, the Coopers took in a foster child, a Bassa girl named Eunice. For years the Cooper daughters -- Helene, her sister Marlene, and Eunice -- blissfully enjoyed the trappings of wealth and advantage. But on April 12, 1980 a group of soldiers staged a coup d'etat, assassinating Liberian President William Tolbert and executing his cabinet. The Coopers and the entire Congo class were now the hunted, being imprisoned, shot, tortured, and raped. Helene, Marlene, and their mother fled Sugar Beach for America. They left Eunice behind. A world away, Helene tried to assimilate as an American and discovered her passion in journalism, eventually becoming a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. She reported from every part of the globe -- except Africa -- as Liberia descended into war-torn, third-world hell. In 2003, a near-death experience in Iraq convinced Helene that Liberia -- and Eunice -- could wait no longer. At once a deeply personal memoir and an examination of a violent and stratified country to which her own family is inextricably linked, The House At Sugar Beach is the story of Helene Cooper's long voyage home. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Interesting Story, but very dryI thought I would love this memoir, but the writing style just didn't draw me in. It just lacked something. I found the background on the slave trade interesting, though. Rating:  - Enjoyed the background history of LiberiaI have always been interested in the Liberian "experiment" and how it started. This book gives an interesting historical background of the founders. After that, I was really disappointed with the memoir aspect of this novel. The author gives a very detailed perspective on her life and her people, less on the indigenous natives of Liberia or "townies". Something was missing, a sort of compassion for the people who could not/ or would not leave. It was written so matter of factly. As a youth, she didn't ... Read More Rating:  - BookThis book was not a historical document. Meaning it didn't tell me much about the history of Liberia that I didn't already know. What it did do was help me dive into the way of life of the so called elite and their children during those pre-coup years. Very easy and fun read. Rating:  - A glimpse at Liberia.A memoir by Helene Cooper detailing her family's history as far back as 1820, as it educates the reader about the peoples of Liberia and the war that eventually engulfed her homeland. While the main thread of the story takes the reader from Liberia to the US and back again to Liberia, it also depicts the disparities that existed and allowed to simmer between the 'congo' and 'country' peoples. Through it all Helene experiences a rich and loving family life. At her father's death she declares ... Read More Rating: - LV REVIEWERA very readable book. Interesting story about the founding of Liberia and the author's priviledged life as a descendant of the founding families. This life is shattered in a military coup and the author and part of her family escape to the US. We follow the author as a teenager through Tennessee and North Carolina, to the University of North Carolina, then as a journalist in Rhode Island and eventually as foreign correspondent for the New York Times. It includes an excellent piece on her return to Liberia ... Read More |
