Faith Adiele

3.5/5 stars. A deeply moving look at a Nordic-Nigerian woman's experience with fibroids and the healthcare system. It's also an excellent look at culture, gender, and the intersection at which Faith Adiele lives. I absolutely want to read more by her.

(Provided by publisher)

Average. Starts out well but fades as the last few stories are distinctly less interesting than the beginning. Was the editior runnign out of material?

More a collection of essays and fragments than a cohesive whole, this is a collection of writings from women who have travelled somewhere, at some stage in their lives. Not always recently, not always to distant places (although both are also represented). It is the fragments that seemed particularly dijointed and out of place. Sometimes show more chapters or parts of chapters from the author's other complete books, they lacked the background and introductions that describe the situation properly. There is also a very US centric focus. I think all the stories certainly the vast majority were about US based travellers. They may not have been born in the US, or they were, and now live abroad, but in whatever manner their cultural background is very american. This grates after a while. In many cases there is quite a stunning lack of cultural sensitivity to the way other people live their lives. Only sometimes do the suthors come to realise this.

Apart from this it is frequently quite interesting - especially so when the traveller comes to a part of the world that you've visited, or undergoes an experience you've encountered. Many of the situations are of course specific to women, but even so I feel there is a general interest in the tales given - not sufficient to seek out any of the authors' individual works - but the varies styles and situation mean that most readers will discover something to their taste, and of course some that they don't like.

The Ebook formatting was particularly poor - many runonwords which seems to be a frequent problem in ebooks, but also misplaced pictures, and poor text formatting around them. show less

Stimulating is the best way to describe this book. In addition to the factual information about the Buddhist faith that Adiele provides, readers are given a narrative of her spiritual journey, as well. Adiele is a relatable narrator with whom the reader can relate, no matter one's background, social situation, or faith. Her self-discovery mirrors the desire to reveal what is innately human in all of us; in immersing herself in a completely foreign culture, Faith Adiele identifies those things.

Compelling story. Jumbled writing/formatting.