Wednesday Review: In the Shadow of Freedom

I'm not big on biographies. I don't care about other people's lives, who slept with whom, why X became a chef and Y became an actor, or how Z didn't let alcoholism affect the rest of his/her life. I am not fascinated with the minutia of everyday celebrity living, nor do I care beyond the head-shaking headlines of the latest politician to disgrace him/herself.

In the Shadow of Freedom first came to my attention through Twitter; I follow Tchicaya Missamou's agent and when it was first released, she (naturally and as a good agent) announced it.

My internal debate raged. But I was in a non-fiction mood, first with The Tiger: a True story of Vengeance and Survival then the thinly veiled fictionalized version of Every Man Dies Alone.

Read the blurb, a couple reviews on Amazon and B&N, and decided why not? Not normally my kind of read, but Tchicaya's story (no idea how to properly pronounce his name) not only tells of his country, the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) and its tragic story of war, but his own involvement in it from a VERY young age.

A child soldier who knew what he was doing but did it anyway to a young man who changed his ways and eventually made it to America. Here he lived in poverty and joined the Marine Corp where he rose in the ranks.

Tchicaya's story is a true American Dream story. I loved it.

And this Friday, my guest will be Wendi Zwaduk who's talking about how to act naturally and her new release, Careless Whisper.