35 pages • 1 hour read
Strength in What Remains
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Introduction-Chapter 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: "Flights"
Introduction Summary: “Burundi, June 2006”
The Introduction begins in the present (2006) with the author, Tracy Kidder, travelling in Burundi in the company of Deogratias (Deo), the Burundian man whose story the book chronicles. They are in the shadow of the Ganza Mountain, near Deo’s home. Kidder notes this is a landlocked, poor, agrarian country. They are on the way to Deo’s home, Butanza (Kidder has changed the real name to protect Deo’s relatives). Deo points out a place in the mountains where his friend, Clovis once became fatally sick. He also insists that Clovis cannot be mentioned in Butanza; he explains there is a word, gusimbura, which means haunting people with the past. Unlike in America where people seek the past, in Burundi, they try to forget.
Chapter 1 Summary: “Bujumbura – New York, May 1994”
The narrative retreats 12 years from the Introduction to the end of one phase in Deo’s nightmare. Although this book chronicles Deo’s story from fleeing genocide to achieving a successful and meaningful life, it begins with him in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura on the verge of escaping his war-torn country. Now, readers do not know how Deo has arrived at this moment; he is boarding a plane to leave Burundi. He is not entirely jubilant, since there are rumors that planes have been shot down, including that of the president of neighboring Rwanda.
En route to New York, Deo lands in Entebbe, Uganda; he has secured a visa and tickets with the help of his wealthy friend Jean—a colleague from medical school. For his part, Deo only knows as much of the world as he learned in his colonial-influenced primary school, which is that the former colonial powers France and Belgium are the important places on the map.
From Entebbe, Deo takes a complicated route to the US, stopping in Cairo, Moscow, and Ireland on his way. In New York he must pass through immigration, where his lack of English is problematic since he speaks French. Though he only has $200 and no real resources or place of residence, he passes through. A French-speaking Senegalese immigration agent, Muhammad, agrees to help Deo begin to find his way in New York. Muhammad takes him to a vacant building where he personally sleeps on the floor; he recommends that Deo do the same to save money.
Deo spends most of his first day riding the subway, trying to learn the routes and some of the locations the subway frequents.
Chapter 2 Summary: “New York City, 1994”
Living in the abandoned building on Malcolm X Boulevard is a bizarre experience for Deo. Not only does he not yet speak English, but the world around him seems a surprising mix of industriousness and waste. Among other difficult experiences, white police—enraged because he cannot understand and react to their commands as they search him for drugs—harass him.
Before long, Muhammad helps Deo find a job at Gristedes, a chain supermarket where he delivers groceries for 12 hours per day, six days a week, for only $15 per day. He buys a pocket translation dictionary to try to develop English vocabulary. Deo takes groceries to high rise buildings where he hopes for tips to supplement his income. While at certain addresses the customers do not tip, at others, doormen steal the tips.
His manager Goss (a pseudonym) is cruel and uses a pole to prod his employees to work harder or to get their attention. He learns from other African employees that Goss jokes that people from Deo’s part of the world are fighting to eat each other. These friends also let Deo know that to survive he will have to be more aggressive about tips—a necessity that goes against his better instincts as he has been turning down tips. Considering his fall from medical student to delivery boy, at moments, Deo wishes for death.
Deo becomes painfully aware of the line dividing “New Yorkers” from outsiders. He has positive discoveries, though, such as finding Central Park. He also improves his vocabulary using a phonetic dictionary from Barnes & Noble. Deo keeps in touch with Burundi using public phones operated as part of a black or gray market he does not comprehend (nor does he want to know). He makes phone contact with Claude, a friend from medical school, who can keep him updated on events in Burundi where conflict still rages.
Deo lives on milk, bread, and cookies. He is constantly suffering from hunger. He is surprised by the thin figures of wealthy women he sees, as this would denote poverty in Burundi. In addition to hunger, he suffers from nightmares. To make things worse, Muhammad returns to Senegal, leaving Deo friendless. He moves to another building but is robbed of a week’s pay. He also sees a dead body on the sidewalk outside and makes the decision to move into Central Park.
Introduction-Chapter 2 Analysis
The Introduction is useful because it sets up the relationship between the central character and the author. Clearly, Deo has met and told his tale to Kidder, who now relates it to the reader. The Introduction also lays the foundation for the notion of gusimbura, a verb that has the negative meaning of recalling a deceased loved one in someone’s memory, so that they are forced to relive their pain and loss once again. This concept is a reminder of the difference between the Western readers’ culture and Deo’s culture: while the former is interested in learning more about these atrocities, the latter is committed to forgetting the evil past.
The title of Part 1, “Flights,” is a pun operating on the many “flights” Deo takes: not only from Burundi, but from place to place within New York City. Chapters 1 and 2 are effective because even though they pass over the central tragedy of Deo’s life, they establish the contrast of life immediately before and after he fled Burundi. Part 1 introduces the theme of journeying, and Deo’s journey and its aftermath reveal that the entire process is traumatic—even once someone reaches America.
The line between “New Yorker” and outsider is particularly important for Deo at this point. While he is an educated medical student, his status as a French-speaking outsider makes it impossible for him to encounter people of a similar status in the US. On the other hand, there is a measure of cooperation between immigrants, such as the Senegalese group among which Muhammad lives. But this cooperation is limited by the meager amount of resources these groups have. It is enlightening and unsettling for the reader to see New York, and America, from this outside perspective. It is perhaps reassuring to see that Deo rather easily gains admittance to the US, but Kidder points out that since 1994, things have become much more “secure” and difficult at the American border.
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