LOVING HEALING PRESS
Confessions of a Trauma Junkie

 

 

Black Man’s Grave
Letters from Sierra Leone

by Gary Stewart & John Amman
Cold Run Books
ISBN-13: 978-0-9790808-2-1
223 pages, paperback
$14.95

 

According to urban gang expert David Kennedy it takes relatively few thugs to begin utterly terrorizing a neighborhood — or, as Gary Stewart, John Amman, and their informants in Sierra Leone can testify, an entire country.

Black Man’s Grave is contemporary African history as viewed by a journalist and an academic, professionals whose assessments are deepened by a patina of nostalgia. Both Stewart and Amman were Peace Corps volunteers in Sierra Leone, and they mourn the imperfect paradise they knew from their work in the same northern village, Fadugu (which means in Mandingo, “a town where one is well fed”), where three ethnic groups converged more than a century ago and managed to co-exist and thrive. Rounding out their insights are letters from old Fadugu friends: teachers, agricultural technicians, and other citizens who somehow, but not always, survived Sierra Leone’s genocidal 1992-2002 civil war. 

Evocatively written and carefully researched, Black Man’s Grave can’t really be done justice in a short review. Stewart and Ammans’s combination of history and reportage, and the letters’ poignantly matter-of-fact close-ups, take the reader from Sierra Leone’s days as a refuge for former slaves through the nineteenth century, when regional chiefs cannily manipulated their British masters, into the last century of cultural progress and relative affluence. Sierra Leone was eventually devastated by greed, with the struggle to control its diamond mines resulting in mass killings and punitive mutilations, sexual violence, and the enslavement of child soldiers, a nightmare orchestrated by the country’s rival leaders and neighboring Liberia’s president Charles Taylor.

A number of publishers inexplicably turned down Black Man’s Grave, although declaring it “remarkable” (Thomas Dunne Books), “quite compelling” (Beacon Press), and “the kind of book [we’d] love to publish here” (Basic Books). The Special Court for Sierra Leone, set up jointly by the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations, is now underway in The Hague, mandated to try Charles Taylor and other leaders for war crimes committed in Sierra Leone since November 30, 1996. As of this writing, Mr. Taylor’s case is in the defense phase, so Black Man’s Grave is a particularly timely read. Fifty percent of its profits will go to projects benefiting the people of Fadugu.—M.LAWRENCE • 10/10 

See the YouTube book trailer for this title.

---

Confessions of a Trauma Junkie
My Life as a Nurse Paramedic

Sherry Jones Mayo, RN, EMTP, NCCM
Modern History Press
ISBN 978-7-932690-96-5
204 pages, paperback
$19.95

Confessions of a Trauma Junkie affords the average layperson an interesting look into the fast-paced world of emergency medicine. Sherry Jones Mayo uses her experiences working as a both a paramedic and an E.R. nurse to present an overview of the life of “trauma junkies” through a series of essays and stories written by herself and others. Each insight clearly demonstrates the high stress and emotional hazards inherent in this much needed profession.

But all is not doom and gloom — there are some glimmers of hope and laughter. Particularly charming is the section entitled “E.R. Short Stuff: The Day to Day Life of Emergency Room Personnel.” In these brief vignettes we see some of the attraction of the emergency medicine world. There are days when patients show up at the E.R. door with the most unbelievable (and embarrassing) of complaints. You may never look at a shampoo bottle or a thong in quite the same way again.

Gallows humor and giggles provide a much needed stress outlet for those times when things go horribly wrong. Before we pass judgment on the laughs these hardworking souls may have at the public’s expense, Mayo points out how much emotional relief is needed in the story of her daughter, a fresh out-of-training E.R. technician. Her daughter is ordered to wrap the head of a very small boy who dies of injuries from a gun accident after she worked long and hard to save this poor child’s life. Practiced clinical detachment and cool professionalism easily fly out the window when dealing with the young and vulnerable.

Confessions is quite an eye-opening read for those outside the emergency medical profession, but Mayo’s target audience is primarily those who work in the field. In spite of poor editing, the book will succeed for this audience. By sharing these joys and sorrows, E.R. personnel can take comfort in knowing they are not alone. — C.MATTHEWS • 10/10