STRENGTH IN WHAT REMAINS REVIEW

Critical Book Review: Strength in What Remains

Tafadzwa Ryan Nemarundwe
Portland State University

STRENGTH IN WHAT REMAINS REVIEW

When everything in your life falls apart, and you have nothing left to live for, is it worth it to
continue going on? Tracy Kidders Strength in what remains conveys a message of hope,
resiliency and a belief in human kindness. It does this through Deogratias life story. Deos life
was filled with so much strife that it portrays these themes quite well. His ability to continue
pushing on even after becoming homeless and running from his homeland is the ultimate form of
resiliency. Kidder does a great job of describing how terrible Deos life was when he first arrived
to the United States, which makes his trail of adversity all the more real to the reader. This makes
characters such as Muhammad and Sharon seem more significant than they otherwise would be.
This is important because these characters, and the many others that help Deo on his journey,
represent hope, a recurring theme within the book. Whenever Deo was in a disheartening
situation, these characters would appear and kept Deo going even if he felt like giving up.
Sharons determination to find Deo a place to live is a good example of this. Although Deo had
become content with staying in the park, Sharon continued pushing and eventually lead Deo into
staying with the Wolfs. Had Deo not lived with the Wolfs, his story would not have ended nearly
as well as it did. Kindness and and selflessness also plays a bigger role within the text than one
would think.
Deos life is struck into chaos due to human cruelty and a lack of empathy. The reason
kindness plays such an important role in Deos life is due to it being the polar of the cruelty he
faced in his home country. This kindness was not just found in the United States, but in Burundi
as well, through people like the hutu woman who removed Deos interrogation band, or Jean,
who helped Deo get to New York. This kindness is significant because it is essentially the
antithesis of what ruined his life, a lack of human empathy. These acts of kindness gave Deo

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multiple opportunities to improve his lifestyle and standing in society. Hope helped him to
continue on, and not give in when life got too complicated. Kindness gave him chances to
improve his situation. By working hand in hand, these two elements of Deos story gave him the
resilience to pull through his adversity. Kidder uses Deos story to bring to light some of the
issues concerning developing nations such as Rwanda and Burundi. Deos story makes the
people in these countries more realistic and relatable. Deo was an African that was given the
opportunity to make something of himself, and he did it outstandingly. He went from being a
homeless man that was working for minimum wage, to a well off educated man. No one could
have imagined him getting as far as he did. This was Kidders main idea; that a persons future
should not be judged by their appearance nor current standing in society, because given the
chance, they could achieve great things.
Deos life is a great analogy for international affairs and interaction between countries.
Kidders message is that developing countries could achieve so much more if the international
community was willing to truly help these countries develop themselves. Just as Muhammads
advice and intervention helped Deo more than the two hundred dollars that Jean gave
him(Kidder, 10), actual advice and intervention from developed nations would help out much
more than just giving developing nations foreign aid in money. As Uvin writes, all this does is,
be a vehicle for exclusion and for the reproduction of privileges for a small elite.(Kidder, 171).
He is suggesting that this money will not be put to effective use if those in charge do not know
how to fully utilize that money, or put their own self-interests before the people. An example
from the text would be how Deo wasted money on subway tickets when he first arrived in New
York. Although he thought he understood how the subway system worked, he really did not and
ended up wasting his money and time. Kidders theme of kindness is directed towards more than

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just people, it can be used for comparison among countries as well. He is calling on countries as
well as people to be selfless.
Although though Kidders message is that developing countries need more help than just
money, he does not provide enough examples of countries that do get personalized help and
succeeded. The book has optimist themes of hope and kindness which leads to resilience, and
Kidder aims to apply these to more than just people but countries as well. While Deo might have
people like Sharon and the Wolfs, countries cannot be expected to show nearly as much
selflessness due to being made up of thousands and up to billions of people with differing
opinions. With every country having their own major issues to deal with, foreign aid money is
the best and least straining method for countries to help other developing countries. While
intensively helping countries might be beneficial for all countries in the long-term, all countries
put their own interests first.
Deos resiliency is attributed to the hope that he is given by those around him. This hope
comes from the opportunities granted to him through their kindness. He receives kindness
because people see his resilience and believe in his potential to make something of himself. The
themes in Strength in what remains all support each other in some way. Kidder writes the
book like this to emphasize the feeling of reliance. The reason for this is that Deo has to put his
pride behind him and accept help from other people. This is significant because it suggests that
people and countries should be willing to show humility and accept help from others if they truly
wish to further and improve themselves. Had Deo been too prideful to accept anyones help, then
he would never have gotten nearly as far as he did. The author hopes to encourage his readers
through Deos experiences. He seeks to encourage a multitude of groups, from refugees to

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people with the capacity of helping others or donating to charities. It also applies for developed
nations helping improve developing nations and pushing for the international economy to grow.
Kidder does a great job at portraying his message through Deos story. His distinct
writing style allows this, and gives him room to bring up crucial issues affecting certain
developing nations such as Rwanda. He uses Deos life to make the lives of those that did
experience the terrors of the genocide more relatable, which makes it easier to understand just
how devastating this event was. It also brings a sense of hope. Even though Deo had to go
through such an intense and scarring situation, he still ended up successful and educated. This
shows that no matter how dire a situation may be, it is very possible to still have a positive
outcome if you work for it. Kidders message may be difficult to understand at first, due to him
writing about someone elses story, but he expresses his ideas through his writing style well
enough for anyone to catch on. His ideas are slightly biased though. One could argue that the
book is slightly misleading due to its optimist feel, and that it makes the struggles that
immigrants and refugees have to go through seem easier and simpler than they actually are. Deo
was an extremely lucky person and was fortunate enough to meet people that were willing to
help him, but not everyone is nearly that lucky. Kidder does a good job of making his struggle
look more difficult and tiring than it actually was. The charity that Deo received while being an
illegal immigrant is astounding, but the author makes it as though Deos success was mostly
through his own accord and everyone that helped him was not nearly as crucial as they were.
Deo was an extremely fortunate person and although his story should be told to help encourage
people of various backgrounds, it should not be used to mislead immigrants and refugees into
believing that moving here will mean all your troubles will be eventually solved because the

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American citizens are very charitable. Just as Deo had to work hard to succeed, others will have
to as well, but they should not expect to do nearly as well nor expect it to be as easy.

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References:
Kidder, T. (2009). Strength in what remains. New York: Random House.