Welcome to Windows & Mirrors, where we feature books that provide us windows to lives outside our own and mirrors to our shared common human experiences.
This week we are featuring Dream Country by Shannon Gibney.
DREAM COUNTRY begins with the incredible and gut-wrenching story of a seventeen-year-old Liberian refugee. Kollie, who is both too black and not black enough for his African-American peers, is exhausted by the expectations of his family and community. When he gets into a fight, his parents send him back to Liberia. Next, we go back in time to learn about Kollie’s eighteen-year-old ancestor, Togar, on the run from Liberian government militias that want to force him to work on Congo plantations. We jump in the time machine again and travel to 1827 to follow Togar’s grandmother, Yasmine, an indentured servant who gains freedom for her family by taking them back to Liberia. This “free trip” back home to Africa is actually a repatriation scheme by white men intent on reducing the black population in America and using the returned domesticated slaves to tame the African “savages” with their American know-how and religion. Then we twist our way back up the family tree to Kollie’s parents’ struggles in Liberia as a young couple. Finally, the stories are all stitched together by Kollie’s sister Angel, a young dreamer who has finally gained control of her own destiny.
History comes alive in DREAM COUNTRY as we learn intimately about the colonization of Liberia by America through the characters. As someone who knew practically nothing about Liberia before reading this story, Gibney’s masterful storytelling coupled with her thoroughly researched historical detail was fascinating and mind-expanding. By moving through the perspectives of five generations of one family, DREAM COUNTRY illuminates in unflinching detail the far-reaching effects of slavery- the recycling nature of abusive power, the power/difficulties associated with identity, and the devastation of not having a place to truly call home for those trapped by the legacy of slavery.
DREAM COUNTRY is a miracle in its depth and scope in weaving together the complicated history of America and Africa, but perhaps the biggest revelation is the spotlight it puts on the importance of empowering immigrants in search of home and self, so they can be the masters of their own stories and dreams.
The characters in DREAM COUNTRY will linger with me for some time, in part because their stories of danger, trauma, and triumph of the human spirit are all somewhat unfinished and I’m left wondering about them. But that is an important part of the artistry of the book. Between the awakening of ideas and the lingering imaginings left within our own control, we all become a part of DREAM COUNTRY, as we should.
DREAM COUNTRY has earned starred reviews from School Library Journal, Kirkus, and Booklist and is on bookstores shelves now. Filled with hope, heartbreak, and raw, revealing, and captivating truths, I highly recommend DREAM COUNTRY for older teens and adults, especially those interested in anthropology or American/African history, and as a classroom discussion book for eleventh grade through college studies.
Shannon Gibney is an author and university professor. Her novel See No Color, drawn from her life as a transracial adoptee, won the Minnesota Book Award and was hailed by Kirkus as “an exceptionally accomplished debut” and by Publishers Weekly as “an unflinching look at the complexities of racial identity.” Her essay “Fear of a Black Mother” appears in the anthology A Good Time for the Truth. She lives with her two Liberian-American children in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Visit Shannon’s website or connect with her on Twitter.
Posted by Michelle Leonard.
