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(More customer reviews)I finished reading Isaiah Washington's book last week but as I am still thinking about the book today, I guess it has earned the phrase "thought provoking". The essence of the story for me is that it is a memoir of self discovery told in a very interesting voice with something new to say. While there is the narrative of the DNA that provides a link to Sierra Leone, I think the real discovery is how the reader perceives the author through his account of events. Mr. Washington is a man who knows what it is like to live in relative anonymity (as he starts out), to live in a world of approbation, and to live in a world of public disapproval, somewhat overblown media-hyped disapproval. The discovery is to be true to one's self through it all. There are vignettes of joy and of pain, of history and forgiveness. There is a celebration of knowledge, of understanding DNA and that it has "memory". The author is on a journey that is truly fascinating because he does not know where it will lead when it begins. I found the situations in Sierra Leone compelling and the narrative places that country squarely "on the radar". Like all things in the book, Mr. Washington finds some situations in Sierra Leone exhilarating and some situations truly heartbreaking. There is a story on page 141 of a water pipe which I won't relate here-you can read it. But as a father, my heart breaks reading that story as his does while he is witnessing it. So this is a truly compelling, human story that snuck up on me with each chapter.
As I read A Man from Another Land, it seemed to me like a shoo-in for an audio book. You feel like the account is truly Mr. Washington's personal journey that he is telling. Personally I think the voice is so strong that when the sequel is done, and I'd like to see it released as an audio book and printed at the same time, maybe with a podcast supplementing it.
Why do I think there's a compelling second book there?
Mr. Washington tells the story in his book how he read in the newspaper that Bausch and Laumb suffered a bad "media liability" moment. Their stock plummeted and he took that moment to buy stock, making enough to finance some of his Sierra Leone work. I think that's where Mr. Washington was after suffering a simple bad media moment blown way out of proportion. The public also loves Act Two, The Comeback, and that's clearly going to happen. Mr. Washington had a ten year plan to work with Spike Lee. He had a 365 day plan to build a school, and did it. I think any reader who reads A Man from Another Land to the end will want to see his three or four year plan for his career and for Sierra Leone. If he achieves success, as I believe he will, that will be the unbeatable story. We will want to watch it, hear it and read it and we're going to learn how it's done.
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In this inspirational memoir, Grey's Anatomy actor Isaiah Washington explains how filling in the gaps of his past led him to discover a new passion: helping those less fortunate. DNA testing revealed that Washington was descended from the Mende people, who today live in Sierra Leone. For many people, the story would end with the results of the search; for Isaiah, it had just begun. Discovering his roots has given him a new purpose, to lead an inspirational life defined by faith and charity.After visiting Sierra Leone, and researching the country and its needs, Washington forged a strong relationship with the Mende people, and was inducted as Chief Gondobay Manga in May 2006. He established The Gondobay Manga Foundation to institute many improvements suggested by the country's people, addressing educational concerns, practical issues (road building, water supply, and electricity), and rehabilitative projects.Dual citizenship has been a dream of African-Americans such as W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, but Washington became the first to realize that honor in 2008. A twofold milestone, it was also the first time an African president granted citizenship based on DNA.
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