Beneath the Lion's Gaze

This is a well-written and gripping book if read as historical FICTION; it's a well-written and frightening book when read as HISTORICAL fiction. It is amazing how quickly the machinery of fascism and totalitarianism can get set up by people ostensibly working in the interest of the "people". Africa usually shakes free of the shackles of colonial powers only to fall prey to dictators backed by those powers. But Ethiopia was a sovereign nation ruled by an emperor whose lineage extended back into antiquity, so one could hope for so much more. Alas, like many kings and emperors, his neglect of the common people while living a life of luxury led to the coup that the cold war powers were only to glad to help make even more rapacious and show more violent.
Against this backdrop we get the gripping story of a family and country torn apart by the brutality of the Derg. Mengiste does a brilliant job of showing the different paths even members of the same family can take through a crisis of this magnitude and how there are many different types of courage and of resistance. When I read books like this, I always wonder, what would I do? How would that change based on when in my life it occurred? How did something like this happen without my knowledge? I was 13 when the Derg took power in the '70s. As an American, I remember Vietnam from that era, of course. I remember the Iranian Revolution. I remember Idi Amin and Apartheid. But why do I have this blank spot in my knowledge? Is it because no Americans or American interests were threatened? No cute elephants killed? Glad to fill in this missing knowledge even though it is sobering and gruesome to do so, and makes me grieve even more for Africa. I'll continue to fill in the holes of my knowledge of Africa as I find literature from each country and culture. I would heartily recommend Megiste for Ethiopia. show less

This is the story of a family on the eve of the Ethiopian revolution that would topple the centuries old monarchy. Hailu is a famous doctor, who is helpless before his wife's congenital heart failure. His older son, Yonas, is in his thirties and a professor of history, religious, with a wife and young daughter. The younger son, Dawit, is a college student, idealistic and intent on being part of the change happening around him, rebelling against his father's attempts to protect him. What happens to them during the years 1974-77 is heartbreaking and absorbing and a beautiful look at family relationships during a tumultuous period of political upheaval.

Maaza Mengiste was born in Addis Ababa and now lives in the United States. She writes show more with a maturity that belies this is her first novel. The language is such that I reread passages just to enjoy the language. It is a difficult novel to read, however, because of the atrocities that happened in those years. Although the setting is historical, and I know nothing about Ethiopian history, I had no trouble following the plot because this is not a novel about the macro, but the micro, a family. That said, I think the novel is well-researched, given the bibliography at the end. I very much look forward to reading her later novel, The Shadow King. show less

This review was first written for Author Exposure:
http://www.authorexposure.com/2011/01/book-review-beneath-lions-gaze-by-maaza.ht...

Beneath the Lion’s Gaze disturbingly, vividly, and passionately reminds us that only those willing to be fearless in their quest for knowledge of our world community’s history will recognize what an indomitable spirit we though scattered, demonstrate as inhabitants of a global community. With an unwavering hand, Maaza Mengiste pens an extraordinarily gripping debut narrative during the turbulent events that transpired not only in Addis Ababa, its capital and her birthplace, but also throughout the outlying regions of Ethiopia during one of its most inhumane periods in modern history.

In 1974, despite show more Emperor Haile Selassie’s exalted military status coupled with his humanitarian reign, the Rastafarian spirited winds of the “Horn of Africa” quietly whisper that the hour has come to depose our “King of Kings,” whose renowned leonine strength stealthily diminishes as age weakens and inflicts its inevitable miseries upon the mind and the body. Flickering triumphant memories become his daily reality. Incognizant or reluctant to address the current famine’s devastation, he silently ignores the increasing rumble of discontent and unremitting complaints among his subjects.

Meanwhile, rebellious university students take to the streets, clash with intractable soldiers secretly influenced by the sadistic military leader General Guddu, as other high-ranking officers subtly infiltrate the Emperor’s militia to swiftly depose the reigning monarch, thus marking the end of an ancient dynasty with a carefully planned coup d’état as a Marxist/Socialist Derg which promised positive change, initiates a reign of terror that effectively decimates a nation through atrocious torture, imprisonment of innocents (Selassie and members of his family, men, women, and children), assassinations and executions.

Neither palpable acrimony nor unreasonable judgment corrupts Mengiste’s scrupulous research. Her brilliant vessel to craft this unrelenting, brutal, yet effusive tale of her heritage centers on an ordinary family caught between the crossfire of a brutal military junta that eventually leads to civil war, and the intimate human connection that prevails despite its minute idiosyncrasies.

Grief-stricken, Hailu, the brilliant Addis Ababa doctor and patriarch stubbornly refuses to keep his promise to peacefully release his beloved wife Selam from her inevitable agonizing death. Yonas, his elder university professor son’s character mirrors his father. With his wife Sara and daughter Tizita, he lives within the family home. Dawit, the younger son, a university student initially committed to overthrow Selassie, recoils in horror when he views the Derg’s atrocities toward the Ethiopian people. Now united with the counterrevolutionaries, he is branded a traitor, unable to return home.

The peaceful compassion Hailu is unable to grant Salem, he ultimately provides to a young woman, tortured, brutalized, near death, but transported to the hospital and to him personally by soldiers with the Derg Colonel’s orders to tend to her wounds, and return her healed to him. Subsequently, Hailu is ordered to report to the newly constructed prison.

“…I have no need for bones and cartilage, blood and
breath. I can forget…I know now that time sinks to
the bottom of the sea and rises again in curves. My
reflection is only an illusion, only flesh and water
manifest in a drop of moonlight that shudders at what
it sees on this dead land I once called home…” (Page 207)

As I attempt to envision myself as an inhabitant of a global community, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze enhanced my knowledge by transporting me to another time in a country’s history, and this journey deeply affected me. Maaza Mengiste’s debut is an unforgettable tribute to the enormous strength, courage and pride of the Ethiopian people amid unspeakable adversity. Her eloquent prose exudes authenticity and glistens with poetic and spiritual nuances.

“Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb…thought and speculation at a standstill.”
- Barbara Tuchman show less

Beneath the Lion's Gaze is an excellent novel that brings light to an historic crisis that I had very little knowledge of before reading it. Mengiste's writing is beautifully crafted; the descriptions are elegant and put the reader right in the moment, yet they are not elongated or exaggerated at all. I have heard it said that good clear writing is saying what you want to say in as few words as possible, and this book shows how that can be done and still evoke the deep emotions that the context demands. It is the story of a family in the midst of revolution in Ethiopia. It was amazing and very eye opening to read about the excitement and passion of the youngest son at the beginning of the book when the students are demanding that the show more emperor be held responsible for ignoring the death of people in rural areas, followed by dismay and disillusionment when the empire is replaced by an even more menacing military dictatorship. I also appreciated that Mengiste refuses to divide his characters with an imaginary line separating "good" and "evil." His story reminds us that in our humanity we are all capable, and at times guilty, of both. Nothing is black and white, and I'm not sure how he did it, but somehow the story still evokes some hopefulness in the end despite the horrors that the characters live through. show less

This debut novel begins as Hailu, the patriarch of a successful family in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, operates on a young man who has sustained a bullet wound in his back that will paralyze him permanently. It is 1974, and Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia and the "King of Kings", is old, tired, and far removed from his country's numerous problems. The boy that Hailu operates on reminds him of his youngest son, Dawit, a law student who is active in the movement that seeks to overthrow Selassie. Dawit is headstrong, but careless and arrogant, as he refuses his father's pleas to obey the government enforced curfew during the crisis. Hailu's eldest son, Yonas, is a married university professor, who, like Dawit, lives under show more his father's roof. Hailu's beloved wife, Selam, is dying in the same hospital in which he works, from congestive heart failure. She has lost the will to live, despite Hailu's protestations that she will be cured by the Western medicine that he so fervently believes in.

Selassie's cabinet is insidiously infiltrated by high ranking members of the military, who steadily gain more power, and ultimately remove Selassie from office. A military junta takes over, led by the ruthless General Guddu. Dawit's closest friend Mickey, an awkward, heavyset boy who is treated as a member of the family after his father dies, becomes a soldier and trusted adviser to the General. The people of Ethiopia initially support the junta, but their support is lost after several dozen cabinet members are brutally executed. Dawit joins an underground resistance movement, and uses his brother's car to dispense pamphlets denouncing the military, putting himself and the household in danger. Several military officials are murdered, and the junta strikes back viciously, murdering thousands of civilians and leaving their freshly killed bodies on the streets of Addis Ababa, as a warning to those who would oppose them.

A young girl is brought to Hailu's hospital by two young soldiers, who order Hailu to save her life; she has been savagely raped and tortured and is near death. Hailu realizes that, by saving her life, he will deliver her back to those who committed this atrocity, and, as she nears a satisfactory recovery, he decides to end her life. He is soon arrested, and is brought to the new Soviet-styled jail at the edge of town for questioning. At the same time, the military presence in the neighborhood increases, as Dawit takes on a greater role in the resistance movement and as Mickey protects the family, while assisting in the brutal crackdown that puts all of their lives in extreme danger.

Beneath the Lion's Gaze is a gripping novel based on fictionalized events during the Ethiopian Civil War, and the violent crackdown that ensued. The story begins steadily, in keeping with the relative peace while Selassie was in power, but it becomes more taut and claustrophobic as the junta's grip on the country tightens and suffocates the normality of daily life. This is a fantastic effort from a young and talented writer, and this untold story of a proud country deserves to be widely read.

http://www.belletrista.com/2010/issue4/reviews_5.php show less

A powerful novel covering the long dark history of Revolutionary Ethiopia. Vibrant characters almost force the reader to engage with them in their increasingly repressive world. Mengiste presents us with a heart wrenching tale that is told all too convincingly. Well done!

In the 1970s, Emperor Haile Selassie's regime brings famine and growing discontent among the people. The civil war that ensues sees greater tragedy, fear with a military that grows in power and Communistic fervor.

This civil war forms the background of a family torn asunder in the process. A prominent doctor, Dr Hailu, suffers through his wife's death, is confused by his younger son's growing distance and dangerous pursuit of revolution, and is brought sharply to the present by a young girl severely tortured, brought to him by 2 soldiers with orders that he heal her.

The idealism of those who fought with the military to bring down Emperor Selassie's regime is quickly and shockingly smashed when news break that the entire cabinet and the show more Prime Minister had been executed in the night without the trial the military promised. With the later execution of the Emperor, Ethiopia's citizens now live on ration cards and curfews set by the military who court the Soviet Union, Cuba and North Korea. Revolutionaries continue their dangerous quest to drum up more support to overthrow the current government, spies live among neighbors, and a new prison is built, into which many are brought by soldiers, but few are seen to leave.

All Dr Hailu wants is to have his family around him, and for him to continue doing his work at the hospital. But after he himself is summoned to the prison, his beliefs are severely tested, and he has to draw on reserves he did not know he possessed to keep his family safe.

Into this chaos, we also see a weak and poor boy, who finds himself in and believing the uniform, who later hates the uniform but fears life for himself and his mother without it. Can he find a way to accept his orders without losing his soul?

The amount of tension and hopelessness in this book is what makes it a compelling read. It leaves the reader to consider if it's better to live with devil you know or if it's better to risk opening Pandora's Box. show less