My Traitor's Heart - Rian MalanA book that someone lent me, and that I finally read because I'd had the book too long and had to give it back. I'd never really asked for it, and I don't know why this guy at church liked it or thought I'd like it, but man... WHAT a book. Sometimes there are ideas in life that you're taught, but you don't really internalize them, or envision what they really mean. This is one of those books that took some *nice ideas* and showed how powerful they can really be. And at another level, it's just a great book at showing how Complicated Life Is to understand--that you can't take a country's history and politics, submit them to a little analysis, and set down a bunch of easy conclusions. History is FUBAR.
It's an autobiographical story of a guy who was supposed to write a history of South Africa, but found he couldn't do it without writing about his personal struggle as a Guilty White Liberal growing up in the 70s, and a crime reporter in the extremely repressive and violent 80s. This book just blew me away. Malan tells you a story and you believe one thing--then peels away another layer for you, shaking the thing you've just come to believe. And on and on he peels away the layers, until you feel as messed up and confused as he does.
And then at the end of the book he tells this Disney like story about a Nice White Couple who go off into a poor community and revive it... and then it all unravels, he's killed, and she loses everything. But after a long struggle she commits to staying out there anyway, because she decides that you can't just love people when they love you back. You have to love them, even if they hate you.
I would have to say that story definitely became foundational to my core values.
