Comments on: Home to Africa

By: Mary Koehler

Mary Koehler — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:19:20 +0000

On September 17, 2008 in a suburb of Milwaukee I had maintenance done on my car while I was at work. At 5:30 pm I was picked up by the dealer’s friendly driver for a ride back to my car. He has an accent so I asked him where he was from. He told me he grew up in Liberia but his ancestors had lived in the U.S. He moved here to escape the political strife in his home country. Imagine my surprise when I tuned to “On Point” at 7 pm and heard a very similar story from your guest! Now I want to read Helene Cooper’s book.

By: Eda

Eda — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 05:47:35 +0000

Ms. Cooper’s experience, how she feels either more American or Liberian depending on geography, I think, speaks to those of us of African descent who live in the US. I am not sure one can be completely assimilated into the American culture and there remains a great sense of pride and belonging being African.
Great NYT article, plan on buying the book!

By: Mike Francis

Mike Francis — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:51:22 +0000

This will become the first book for me to purchase and read this year.

This is new untold History in writing.

By: Meredith Cutler

Meredith Cutler — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:36:04 +0000

This past July, I had the (serendipitous) pleasure to meet Ms. Cooper at a completely different outpost of “the good life” – La Montagola – a good friend’s family estate and agro-tourism villa, nestled in the hills of Umbria. Another fine example of an elite, family-owned Shangri-La, an ancestral legacy altogether alien and fascinating to my 3rd generation, Eastern-European American (via Ellis Island) eye.

Not having known of Ms. Cooper’s fascinating background before recognizing her voice on the radio today – it is a wonderful counterpoint to place this unique story alongside the bucolic scene where we met. As in every scene of apparent perfection, there is always a deeper storyline.

I’ll certainly be picking up this book and look forward to reading it.