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    The Camel Bookmobile: A Novel
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    The Camel Bookmobile: A Novel
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    The Camel Bookmobile: A Novel
    Ebook335 pages5 hours

    The Camel Bookmobile: A Novel

    By Masha Hamilton

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Fiona Sweeney wants to do something that matters, and she chooses to make her mark in the arid bush of northeastern Kenya. By helping to start a traveling library, she hopes to bring the words of Homer, Hemingway, and Dr. Seuss to far-flung tiny communities where people live daily with drought, hunger, and disease. Her intentions are honorable, and her rules are firm: due to the limited number of donated books, if any one of them is not returned, the bookmobile will not return.

    But, encumbered by her Western values, Fi does not understand the people she seeks to help. And in the impoverished small community of Mididima, she finds herself caught in the middle of a volatile local struggle when the bookmobile's presence sparks a dangerous feud between the proponents of modernization and those who fear the loss of traditional ways.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061871498
    Unavailable
    The Camel Bookmobile: A Novel

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    Reviews for The Camel Bookmobile

    3.5/5

    31 ratings35 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Read this in 2009 but read more slowly this time for the discussion. Fi, a librarian from the states, goes to Africa and begins traveling to an out village with a mobile bookmobile taken by camels. The story chronicles the effect of the "distant land" to the people as brought through books and through Fi. Not a quick read but culturally enriching. I had to make a list of the characters with their native names to keep them straight in my mind.
    • 2/5
      Really drags on
    • 3/5
      saga of a travelling library in africa.
    • 2/5
      A librarian takes on a volunteer project in Kenya, working with the camel bookmobile. The premise is more interesting than the actual story. I couldn't quite figure out what made it so pedestrian. Was it the lack of character background? The people and places never quite came alive for me. Oh well.
    • 4/5
      "The Camel Bookmobile" starts with an idealistic young American woman who wants to bring English and literacy to the Kenyan bush. One village in particular catches her fancy, with its English-speaking teacher, and enthusiastic denizens. She brings her camels from the city each month and feels she is making progress, but behind the happy exterior, events begin to take place which will change everyone's life.This is a novel about the sometimes arrogant beliefs of educated Westerners about the benefits of the modern world, and how those beliefs clash with age-old African nomadic ways. Fi Sweeney, our determined American, finds encouragement from some quarters in this out-of-the-way place, but fierce resistance in others. Certain of the villagers strive to take the necessary steps to keep up with the modern world, but prejudices against the 21st Century run deep.One telling image, mentioned in passing mid-story and brought up again at the end, is that of the bereft zebra who, having lost its mate, or some other family member, joined a group of giraffes, thinking it could find the fulfillment it sought. Such it is with the characters here. Fi considers staying in the bush in Kenya, having found what she thought was love. Various villagers want to leave and live in the distant city and join the modern world. In the end, this is a book about not belonging, in spite of what your heart may tell you.As this book started, I thought it would be a rather light weight. As I progressed through it, it grew strongly on me, until its impressive insights, and the subtle way in which Ms. Hamilton propounds them, made their lasting mark on me. This is a fine book, well worthy of your time, full of human striving and the inevitability of ancient natural imperatives.
    • 4/5
      In "The Camel Bookmobile" (2007), Masha Hamilton weaves a fascinating, multi-layered story about some overdue library books. This isn't an ordinary library, however. The books are, in fact, packed on the back of a camel and taken to remote villages in Kenya, where most of the people can't even read, let alone read English, which is the language most of the donated books happen to be in. The camel bookmobile is viewed differently by different people in these villages. To some it represents progress, the way into the modern world. To others it represents evil, a threat to old ways and old wisdom.Fiona Sweeney, an idealistic 36-year-old American woman, commits herself to this project, and she particularly enjoys visiting Mididma, an isolated village of semi-nomads which includes a teacher, an old woman and her granddaughter who are literate and treasure books, almost any books Fi happens to bring on the camel.Among the library patrons is a teenager called Scar Boy since being attacked by a hyena and badly disfigured. When the bookmobile returns to Mididma, Scar Boy refuses to return the books he borrowed, thus threatening the village's future as a stop on the bookmobile's schedule. This is a problem even for those who object to the bookmobile because of the shame it will bring to the village. Everyone begins pressuring Scar Boy to return the books, but it turns out he could no longer return them even if he wanted to.Much else happens in Hamilton's story. The teacher's lovely wife falls in love with Scar Boy's father, while Fi and the teacher discover a strange attraction to each other. The little girl who loves books decides she wants to follow Fi to America to become a teacher, and Scar Boy is discovered to have a rare talent nobody knew about. Meanwhile a drought threatens the very existence of the village.The camel bookmobile really exists, and has since 1996. Hamilton's novel, besides telling a delightful story about the power of books, brings our attention to that fact and makes us wonder about some of the true stories it must have inspired.
    • 3/5
      Fiona Sweeney is a librarian who accepts a job with a charitable foundation to bring books to remote villages in Africa, promoting literacy among the tiny, far-flung communities of northeastern Kenya. These settlements are impoverished, lacking roads or schools, and the people’s lives are steeped in tradition and superstition. Because the donated books are limited in number and the settlements are many, the library has initiated a tough fine: if anyone fails to return a book, the bookmobile will stop coming.

      Talk about a clash of cultures! What use is reading Tom Sawyer, or a how-to book on raising children to these people? They don’t understand the references, can’t imagine who someone would paint a fence, and have no place to buy ANY formula (let alone a variety of formulas). These are the arguments that the local African officials make, trying to dissuade Fi from persisting in taking the caravan of camels to the villages. And yet, the reality is that there are stories that inspire and piqué interest. Some of the residents see good in learning to read and dream of going to the city to further their education. Of course, others are certain that the drought is a punishment for their reaching beyond their borders, or allowing the bookmobile to come to them in the first place.

      That clash of cultures was what was most interesting to me in the book. But Hamilton also includes a couple of relationships that become somewhat entangled in the story. This took the book in a direction I wasn’t expecting and found somewhat dissatisfying.
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed the theme, the depictions of village life and rituals, and the author's cast of characters overall. (Warning spoiler alert coming!) However, when it was all over and I paused to consider my review I was left feeling the same way Fi was when she went to reconnect with Matani--that I didn't get the opportunity to know these fictional friends well enough or long enough. Still it was worth the read and I'd certainly recommend it to anyone considering humanitarian work in any Third World nation, especially Africa.
    • 1/5
      Hmnnnn.....where to begin? I had heard good things about this book. Usually my international book group doesn't fail me, but this time it did....badly.

      So where to start with this mess of a novel? Shall we talk about the author's muddled message---the program is pretty much seen as failure, yet she plugs it enthusiastically in her epilogue? Or how about the trite and unbelievable "love story"? How about the arrogance of entering into people's minds that the author cannot even begin to understand? How about the author's disconcerting admission that she had pretty much finished the novel before she went to Kenya for a few more details--- a bit of local color don't cha know--without changing the fabric of her story ? Just stretch your preconceived plot on the bed of political correctness--it's all good! And let's not forget the author's too-cooler--than --you- explanation of why she wrote the book in the first place. Appallingly superficial, a cheat designed to give the reader the smug feeling that they can understand an "exotic land"--it gives a bad name to novels calculatingly presented as book group fodder.
    • 3/5
      Great idea, not very well executed.
    • 3/5
      This was a title I spotted and just couldn't resist. tells of a mobile library in Kenya that sets out to bring books to the remote tribes, to increase their literacy rates and educate them. Fi is the very white new yorker who is on sabatical to lead the mission and she is full if idealist zeal. Told a chapter at a time by the main protagonists, she meets the teacher, who has been away to the city but returned to the village, a promising student who wishes to leave to become a teacher, her grandmother who wants to see her grand daughter's life turn out differently from her own, and a boy who is hidden from the rest of the village by virtue of terrible scars inflicted in a hyena attack as a toddler. They have different reasons to embrace and fear the coming of the books. the elders think that the books will destroy the tribes traditions and heritage - the young will learn from books and not from their heritage. some of the young think that leaving the tribe would be a good thing, and that traditions should be challenged. there are as many views, for an against, as there are people involved - and they all have a different set of reasons. It wasn't entirely the light and fluffy story that the title might lead you to believe, but it was a fun read. The ending took me entirely by surprise.
    • 3/5
      This is a novel about an American woman who goes to Kenya to help operate a mobile library, carried by camels, that goes to small villages. A Kenyan librarian is in charge, so it's not entirely clear why they need a foreign librarian who speaks very little Swahili and none of the tribal languages to help. The story focuses on one village, where one of the villagers has been educated in the city and is trying to teach the children to read. Not all the villagers are pleased about the bookmobile, and I think the book does a good job of showing the mixed reactions to and unintended consequences of Western aid projects. But the story, while engaging, is pretty unrealistic on the whole. I also thought it would be more about the bookmobile and less about the characters' relationships. Apparently the camel bookmobile really exists; maybe a nonfiction account would have been more interesting.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      4.5 stars.Fiona is a librarian in New York, but she has decided to travel to Kenya to help set up a bookmobile, traveling by camel to small villages. One of the villages, Mididima, has an interesting group of people, some of whom are opposed to the library coming. They don’t think they or their children need to learn to read, as they’ve gotten by as they have for generations. One girl (and her grandmother) are thrilled to have the library and to be able to borrow the books; there is also a boy with a scar on his face who seems to enjoy the books. There is a teacher, who is in support of the library, and his wife, who is very much against it (but at the same time is little bit torn about it).It was really, really good. Each chapter was told from different characters’ viewpoints. I think the book did a really good job of describing the feelings of the people who opposed the bookmobile and why. Close to the end, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the ending, but ultimately, I did - I think the way it was tied up was very fitting and appropriate.
    • 4/5
      Young and idealistic, Fiona Sweeney leaves her simple life in New York City to join a project to bring books to tribal Kenya. Along with a stern Kenyan librarian, she leads the Camel Bookmobile, which brings books (mostly illogical ones) to semi nomadic tribes. The story is about a handful of people in one tribe, Mididima, and Fiona. Each chapter is told from the perspective of different people in the tale. The American, the teacher, the teacher's wife, the librarian, the girl, the grandmother, the drum maker, and scar boy.This is a book that will stick with you for a while, making you think about, and maybe even question some beliefs that you hold about differing cultures, the value of books and education, and relationships.(Spoiler warning!) The book is realistic. Sometimes harshly so. Towards the end, I started to get my hopes up that a moderately happy ending would arrive for at least a few of the characters, but realism held sway.
    • 2/5
      Acquired via BookCrossing 26 Sept 2010 - at a meetupI'm not entirely sure, still, what I thought of this book. The premise, telling the story of a camel-borne mobile library in Kenya, was good and interesting; when I picked it up, I wished aloud that it was a non-fiction book and was reassured that it was based on fact. It was based on fact, in that there is a camel bookmobile project in Kenya, but I really felt that the tales of village life that filled most of the book seemed inauthentic and a bit worrying. I have no problem with people writing about cultures other than their own, of course I don't have a problem with that, but inventing the culture and mores of a very remote semi-nomadic community without, it seems, having spent time in such a community, seems riddled with worry to me. Some of the plot points seemed extremely unlikely (not that I know much about such communities myself, but I have read a fair bit about similar places) and it was a shame that the useful points about the uses of literacy, the battle between tradition and modernity, the city and the land etc., seemed subsumed in the slightly silly (at times) plot, and in fact in the personal relationships between the characters. Yes, the political is personal, and yes, some characters changed their attitudes as the plot moved on, but it seemed a bit stilted and ... well, I'd have enjoyed it more if it had been non-fiction!
    • 3/5
      I have to agree with previous reviews, that while I enjoyed the story as I read it, much I felt wasn't very believable. I, too was happy with the ending of the story. To have it end differently would have completely undermined anything the author was trying to say and move it completely into the realm of fantasy for me. I liked how the story made me consider what effect books had on the educational process of a culture in which literacy is looked on with some suspicion.
    • 3/5
      Owned and signed: It was a quick read. The underlying meaning of literacy in this book was great but the book was kind of a bumpy read and the plot wasn't very deep.I had the opportunity to see Masha Hamilton speak about this book and was totally impressed by her. I totally appreciate the book better now that I learned more about the story behind the story. The true camel bookmobile is really an inspiration.
    • 3/5
      This is one of those books that can only be called 'alright.' It's perfectly readable, but promptly forgotten when you've finished.The only thing that bothered me is the complete lack of realism. Certain things happen that could not possibly be entertained as realistic, and don't even come across as normal in the book. It's supposed to be semi-serious but this particular event seems out of place and unnecessary,The characters are likeable and all have their own distinct personalities. It does seem a little strange that so many of them can magically speak English!I don't like the ending, but it is a very powerful one and possibly the only part of the book that is vaguely realistic.It's worth a read, but don't go out of your way to do so.
    • 3/5
      I am not really sure where to start. I really enjoyed the writing style -- very gentle and able to grab my attention. I love the story it's self -- as a novel. (Which, thank goodness it is!) But I am unsure of the whole message of the book. I was actually a bit glad in the end -- it went to show that everything doesn't always turn out the way you expect it to. Nothing is perfect. I would hardly think that something like this would ever really be a true story -- because how could an American really understand the minds of this culture? It was a bit too romanticized for me. I liked the quote at the end of the book: " Do they want to be part of a 'larger world'? And who should be teaching whom?"
    • 2/5
      A gentle, well-told story, obviously inspired by "Things Fall Apart". Her use of language and colloquial expressions is really nice and makes the narrative style all the more rich. Wasn't sure about the ending! But good.
    • 1/5
      Hmnnnn.....where to begin? I had heard good things about this book. Usually my international book group doesn't fail me......but this time it did....badly.As I said....where to start with this mess of a novel? Shall we talk about the author's muddled message---the program is pretty much seen as failure, yet she plugs it enthusiastically in her epilogue .Or how about the trite and unbelievable "love story"?How about the arrogance of entering into people's minds that the author cannot even begin to understand? How about the author's disconcerting admission that she had pretty much finished the novel before she went to Kenya for a few more details--- a bit of local color don't cha know--without changing the fabric of her story ? Just stretch your preconceived plot on the bed of political correctness--it's all good! And let's not forget the author's too-cooler--than --you- explanation of why she wrote the book in the first place. Appallingly superficial, a cheat designed to give the reader the smug feeling that they can understand an "exotic land"--it gives a bad name to novels calculatingly presented as book group fodder.
    • 4/5
      Certain books are allowed to be less than perfect. For example, any book about librarians or book collecting or even writing is such a welcome publishing event that I give it some slack; just the mere fact that someone decided to choose these as subjects is enough to allow the author some latitude. The Camel Bookmobile, consequently, I have let the belt out a couple of notches. The writing is acceptable. The characters shimmy up against stereotype here and there. The author lets the genuine details appear now and then and the book shines. I worried through the first few chapters, concerned the author was trying to make a point, change the world, but she got bigger as the novel moved along and showed both the dark and the light. The chief librarian seemed thin throughout; surely time in England would have developed his character a bit more? I ended up deciding to like the book, despite its small flaws. It is, after all, the story of the power of words on lives.
    • 4/5
      Some good librarian escapism. Masha Hamilton has a beautiful writing style and paints pretty scenery. I didn't like this one as much as her Staircase of a Thousand Steps, the voice of the villagers just seemed to to lack authenticity. But overall it was a diverting summer read.
    • 4/5
      I discovered this novel while researching the National Kenya Library Service. It was a quick read and I enjoyed my "visit" to Kenya. Transplanted Fiona has a passion for books (and perhaps her Western values). Kanika and Matani are two Kenyans who seem to particularly bond with her.
    • 4/5
      Fiona Sweeney, a 36-year-old librarian looking for meaning in life, leaves the Bronx for Kenya to establish a mobile library serving remote desert villages like Mididima. She finds eager patrons in Kanika, a brave girl raised by her steely grandmother who harbors a secret desire to become a teacher, and Matani, the mild-mannered teacher who supports Fi’s mission. However, Matani’s wife and other community members oppose Western “knowledge” as a threat to traditional wisdom. Tensions flare when Scar Boy, a youth shunned for his deformities, refuses to return his library books. The future of the camel bookmobile and Mididima itself are at risk. Hamilton captures the quiet beauty and underlying danger of the African desert while exploring her story through the unique views of each character.
    • 4/5
      A great story, encircling the American, the Librarian, the Teacher, the Grandmother, the Girl, Scar Boy & his family, and the rest. Everyone is trying to do what is best, but no one really wins or loses here. A quick and very interesting read.
    • 5/5
      Fiona Sweeney is an American librarian with a desire to do something with her life, something that matters. Her family has always been rooted in the same New York neighborhood, but Fi isn't content to stay rooted. Instead, she decides to take a job in Kenya, helping to start a traveling library. The library takes books, by camel, to different tribes of people throughout the bush of northeastern Kenya. The people of Mididima have differing feelings about the traveling books. Matani was sent away by his father to be educated in Nairobi, and he returned to teach the children of Mididima. However, most of the people of Mididima do not share his values or appreciation for books and learning. They believe that by learning to read the stories are lost because people do not make an effort to keep them in their brains to retell them orally. The elders know that the paper can be destroyed, but if the story is in one's brain, it cannot go away, it cannot be lost.Many of the people of Mididima want the library to stop coming altogether. And when Taban, a.k.a. Scar Boy, does not return his library books, an action that is strictly forbidden, chaos erupts in the community.I fell in love with The Camel Bookmobile on page one, paragraph one.One of the strengths of this novel is Hamilton's efforts to take the reader inside the minds of the characters, all of the characters. The point of view changes by chapter, alternating between Fi, various people of Mididima, and the Kenyan librarian. The reader is able to experience the plot from different age perspectives, different cultural perspectives, different gender perspectives. The mesh of these perspectives illustrates the mammoth complexity of cultural change. Fi travels to Kenya with the best of intentions, but what Fi doesn't realize is that she is seeing everything through the eyes of Western culture. And likewise, the people of Mididima who are dead set against literacy see things through the eyes of their own culture. And when Nature begins to tell them that their way of life cannot be sustained much longer, their response is not to learn a new way of living but rather to move to another geographic location that will support their present way of life. The novel is almost a tennis match, volleying back and forth between the two cultures. But then there are times when the cultures mesh and the similarities between fellow members of the human race emerge.The themes of this novel are powerful, and they raise questions that don't have right or wrong answers. Themes of this magnitude demand three-dimensional characters with strengths and flaws; characters who are forever and realistically altered by the events they experience. Hamilton doesn't disappoint on this front. The silent and most powerful character is Nature. Hamilton manages to brilliantly blend the setting into character in this novel. The beautiful Kenyan bush is also a remorseless killer and it plays as much a role in the community as any of the human characters do.I can't imagine reading this book and not being more aware of how we view cultures that differ from our own. The Camel Bookmobile is a stunning multi-layered, multi-perspective novel about tolerance, about humanity, about change. I highly recommend it.
    • 4/5
      Initially I didn't think I would like this book. The characters at first seemed more like stereotypes than like real people. Once the action shifted to the African village, the characters finally came to life. After I finished reading the novel, I learned from the back matter that the author didn't actually visit the real Camel Bookmobile until the novel was almost ready for publication. Perhaps that accounts for the initial awkwardness I felt with the characters.I think the author was successful in using the story to provoke reflection about a number of issues, rather than using the story to tell readers exactly what to think. What is the best way to provide assistance in developing countries? Are the most pressing needs physical, such as adequate food, water, and shelter, or are education and literacy more important in order to provide people with tools for improving their quality of life? How should/do individuals and charitable organizations make funding decisions—based on the needs of the recipients, or the interests of the donors? What about spiritual needs? I was left with a lingering sadness for people who believe that they have done something to cause the bad things, like drought and famine, that happen to their society.
    • 3/5
      Based on true events, author Hamilton creates fiction in a place where we can taste the dust, swelter under the sun, know the people -- and care about them. Looking for adventure, American librarian Fiona Sweeney travels to northeast Kenya to travel by camel "bookmobile," bringing books to nomadic peoples caught between the tug of tradition and the pull of the outside world. Kanika and Scar Boy and their teacher, Matani, know that opportunities await through books and learning while others of the village, including Matani's wife, believe they'll survive clinging to old ways.
    • 4/5
      This somewhat romanticised story took its inspiration from a real travelling camel bookmobile which was set up by the Kenyan government to promote literacy in the most remote rural areas of the country using a penalty that if any villager lost or damaged a book then the travelling library would no longer visit this village. The story follows Fi, an American librarian who wants to take some risks with her life and do something meaningful and so volunteers to work for this project which is capturing the imagination of the American media. Before leaving she becomes obsessed with mosquitoes and malaria and she packs a battery of repellents, netting, and antimalarials. The book is broken into six sections with a plausible quote about mosquitoes at the start of each chapter, which I now learn were created by the author. It is really a book about the struggle between western education and traditional culture and values with love stories thrown in.