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Emails From The Edge:
The Life of an Expatriate Wife Reviewed by: Carolyn
Howard-Johnson, MyShelf.com Emails From The Edge is a book for this time. Kristie Leigh Maguire uses her own emails and those of her electronic pen-pal, Sandy Davis, to tell a story of the psychological strain created when a person lives outside her own environment. It is an important lesson for those of us who-on occasion-- look at our own emigrants with less compassion that we should. In its pages, we share Maguire's experiences as an expatriate wife in a country where she knows no one. The pure frustration she feels every day trying to perform the simplest of daily tasks is a reminder that we have people among us who are doing the same thing. The joy the author feels at a small kindness, a gesture from a friend afar, or a stranger on the street reminds us that we, too, can make a difference in someone else's life. It may take no more effort than tapping out a brief note to an acquaintance or nodding our head to a new arrival on our shores. It may even encourage us to smile at someone different from ourselves or to play a short game of charades with someone who only speaks a language we don't understand. This book is also a testament to how much one person can overcome if she but perseveres. The struggle of learning to live in a land where one understands not a single spoken word, can read nothing, and fears getting lost every time one steps out of one's home is told completely with actual reproduced emails. Early on, I would have preferred to hear a bit more about the two women, know more about their appearances and backgrounds. That eventually comes, however, revealed little by little. I suppose, then, that this book is also a tutorial in letting a story unravel as it goes and in not rushing a good ----- |
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