- Home
- GENERAL FICTION REVIEWS
- BAKHITA: A Novel of the Saint of Sudan Reviewed By June Maffin of Bookpleasures.com
BAKHITA: A Novel of the Saint of Sudan Reviewed By June Maffin of Bookpleasures.com
- By June Maffin
- Published January 28, 2019
- GENERAL FICTION REVIEWS
June Maffin
Reviewer June Maffin:Living on an island in British Columbia, Canada, Dr. Maffin is a neophyte organic gardener, eclectic reader, ordained minister (Anglican/Episcopal priest) and creative spirituality writer/photographer with a deep zest for life. Previously, she has been grief counselor, broadcaster, teacher, journalist, television host, chaplain and spiritual director with an earned doctorate in Pastoral Care (medical ethics i.e. euthanasia focus). Presently an educator, freelance editor, blogger, and published author of three books, her most recent (Soulistry-Artistry of the Soul: Creative Ways to Nurture your Spirituality) has been published in e-book as well as paperback format and a preview can be viewed on YouTube videos. Founder of Soulistry™ she continues to lead a variety of workshops and retreats connecting spirituality with creativity and delights in a spirituality of play. You can find out more about June by clicking on her Web Site.
Author: Véronique Olmi Translated by Adriana
Hunter
Publisher: Other Press
ISBN-10: 1590519779 ISBN-13: 978-1590519776
And then, two years later, abduction as she is dragged away by slave traders with a knife at her throat, beginning years of unspeakable terror and obliteration of her identity. Given the name: Bakhita (a cruel twist, for it means the ‘lucky one’ in Arabic), she is anything but ‘lucky.’ Walking thousands of miles, solid steel chain around her throat, she suffers from abominable heat, dehydration and constant beatings; watches others being tortured, tattooed to death and experiences cruelty, abuse, separation and physical suffering beyond imagining for years. Sold and resold along the slave trade routes, humiliated by the physical examinations, it is inconceivable how she endures with no hope of rescue or freedom or relief from the daily suffering.
When she is thirteen, the Italian consul in Khartoum purchases her and takes her to Italy where, by a circuitous route, she enters the Canossian Sisters convent, discovers hope. Ultimately, a spiritual path of religious life begins to unfold in spite of the cruel racist comments and actions that come her way over the years. Somehow, Madre Giuseppina Bakhita (Mother Josephine Bakhita) rises above it all. In 1995 the Church declares her to be the patron of Sudan and five years later, Pope John Paul 11 declares her to be a Saint.
Véronique Olmi’s
descriptive language puts the reader right beside Bakhita who must
endure each day - stumbling, bleeding, suffering, without a break.
The editor’s insertion of extra spaces between paragraphs and the
italicization of the first several words in each paragraph gives the
reader that much-needed break and space to breathe and think.
This
is an intimate, moving story, powerful and captivatinginly set in a
historical context from the civil war in Sudan to WW1 and WW11, and
the fascist reign of Mussolini, told by a very skilled writer who
knows how to write exceptionally well. While the reader is
faced with questions throughout the reading of the book (cruelty of
human beings; suffering; racism; the importance of one’s name;
faith, luck/co-incidence/God’s will; war; slavery; and more), those
questions are important questions to ask of oneself and clearly
demonstrates the skill of this writer to be more than a writer who
simply puts words on paper to tell a story. She challenges
readers to think. Few writers can do that as effectively
as Véronique Olmi can ... and does.