Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Memoir and history intertwine here, usually engagingly and sometimes with a degree of detail that's a little boring to those not conversant with recent Liberian politics. Still, Sirleaf has had an amazing life with surprisingly good outcomes, considering how chutzpahdik she's been when confronted by threats of imminent torture, rape, or death. It's quite an astonishing story.

Read with [b:Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World's Most Precious Stones|49226|Blood Diamonds Tracing the Deadly Path of the World's Most Precious Stones|Greg Campbell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170358072s/49226.jpg|48152] to see how the Charles Taylor years affected nearby countries, and with [b:The House at Sugar Beach|2643182|The House at Sugar Beach|Helene Cooper|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255974419s/2643182.jpg|2667918] for another, and different, story of a "Congo" woman surviving the Liberian conflicts.… (meer)

This is not the best-written memoir that I've ever read. President Sirleaf spent much of her career working for corporations and large institutions, and that shows in her writing style which has a tendency to read like a development programme manifesto. I wonder if the decision to publish her memoirs now, rather than after her term in office, was motivated by a desire to capitalise on her fame as Africa's first female president; regardless of the motivation, there's more than a modicum of self-promotion here and a reticence to discuss her personal life. Sirleaf may well have written a very different kind of book had she waited to do so until she left office. There is a lot to learn here about Liberian history and about the politics of the last few decades, but I think to get the most out of This Child Will Be Great, you'd need to read it in tandem with something like Leymah Gbowee's Mighty Be Our Powers.… (meer)