Dear Exile:
The True Story of Two Friends Separated (For a Year) by an Ocean
by Hilary Liftin & Kate Montgomery
Overview
From the Publisher
A funny and moving story told through the letters of two women nurturing a friendship as they are separated by distance, experience, and time.
Close friends and former college roommates, Hilary Liftin and Kate Montgomery promised to write when Kate's Peace Corps assignment took her to Africa. Over the course of a single year, they exchanged an offbeat and moving series of letters from rural Kenya to New York City and back again.
Kate, an idealistic teacher, meets unexpected realities ranging from poisonous snakes and vengeful cows to more serious hazards: a lack of money for education; a student body in revolt. Hilary, braving the singles scene in Manhattan, confronts her own realities, from unworthy suitors to job anxiety and first apartment woes.
Their correspondence tells--with humor, warmth, and vivid personal detail--the story of two young women navigating their twenties in very different ways, and of the very special friendships we are sometimes lucky enough to find.
My thoughts
I loved this book from the moment I opened the cover! I grew up having penpals and so I have a bias for this type of relationship, but often times when books are comprised of letters, they are just mediocre to OK. This book is the exception. The letters are full of humor and tenderness and ribbing and friendship.
I have to admit that I have a bit of both girls in me. I have wished so many times that I'd have joined the Peace corps and done something so incredibly giving in my life. And having grown up in rural America, I LOVE my visits to big cities -- it's such a different life!
The lives lived by these two dear friends capture two of my fantasy lives. How could I help but not love it?!
Favorite Passage
It's amazing the different meals Mama Abdu taught me to cook out of just flour and water (and some lard): a hot, liquidy, Cream of Wheat thing for breakfast called uji, a congealed lump like polenta (or Play-Doh) for lunch called ugali, and a flattened fried patty for dinner, called chapati. I felt like I was watching an informercial for flour.
