FICTION

A Marker To Measure Drift

by Alexander Maksik
Knopf. Jul. 2013. 240p. ISBN 9780307962577. $24.95. F
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Civil war leaves a young Liberian woman named Jacqueline homeless and deprived of her privilege as the daughter of one of African warlord Charles Taylor's ministers. Drifting between memories that look very much like madness and wary resourcefulness, she wanders among the tourists and vacationers on a Greek island in self-imposed exile, distracting herself from the thoughts of her catastrophic loss. Her world is reduced to locating food, water, and shelter; acts of kindness from strangers keep her going, while her memories threaten to undo her. After his praised novel You Deserve Nothing, Maksik returns with a vivid depiction of disillusionment, shock, and resilience following a civil war that killed more than 150,000 people and dispersed refugees like Jacqueline throughout the region.
VERDICT A work that sheds light on a setting great in both its beauty and violence. Without being at all imitative, this title may remind readers of Chris Cleave's Little Bee in craft and the exploration of terrible brutality and the effort it takes to survive. [See Prepub Alert, 2/4/13].
Reviewed by Gwen Vredevoogd, Marymount Univ. Libs., Marshall, VA , Jun 15, 2013
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