Through These Winsome Gates

There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no employment of the process of life.

Sitting down to start writing thoughts about the books I read during the fall of 2016, I feel like there's a loose theme that I can't quite describe. Governments failing, people opting out of official channels, realizations that perhaps those in power do not have our best interests at heart. It's not universal, but it's common enough that it sticks out among the half dozen stories I'll be reviewing in the next month or two.

Not Your Sidekick is one of them.

Downed on her first flight over the Himalayas, Viveka Vanachek finds herself imprisoned in a secret and remote camp with only a few prisoners and even fewer guards. Days turn into months, and then into uncounted years. Slowly, the prisoners find themselves making their own lives and beginning to care for their guards. And then the world ends.

Somehow, I missed this book in both high school and college. It just didn't make it into the reading lists that passed through my hands. But a copy landed in my to-read pile this winter (put there by me - apparently picked up from the local Goodwill by my partner), so I jumped on the opportunity.

Today, it feels timely.

Told from the perspective of a 16 year old girl, this story takes us through the days leading up to the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina and into the beginning of recovery. But more importantly, it's a window into the lives of people who stayed in the path of disaster despite warnings and instincts and all wisdom to the contrary. It is a reminder that the choices so many of us take for granted are simply not available to far too many. It is a pointed reprimand for the divide between privileged and not.