The House at Sugar Beach
Helene Cooper’s memoir tells the story of her childhood in Liberia. Her family was part of the elite class of “Congo People” whose ancestors were freed American slaves who settled in Liberia around 1840. Her family had great power in Liberia until the civil war began there in 1980. Her uncle was then executed publicly on broadcast TV, her family was forced to leave the country and the home (mansion) they lived in at Sugar Beach. She came to North Carolina with her sister and mother, but the family left her “adopted’ sister, Eunice, back in Liberia. Ms. Cooper attended UNC at Chapel Hill and became a Journalist.
The book is an interesting read — it revealed a part of history that I was not familiar with. It is an eye-opening story about Liberia, families, forgiveness, and the sheer determination to go on after living through tragedy. You can see how these dramatic events influenced the author to become a journalist. There is the sense that the story needed to be told to right the wrongs, and reveal the devastation that went on in Liberia between its own cultural groups. At times I felt the author was trying to be emotionally unbiased—no doubt a reflection of her journalistic training; still, her story spotlights a much forgotten land and tells of its simplicity and its agony.
