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A poignant memoir of tragedy, forgiveness, and transcendence told with unflinching honesty and gentle humor

Helene Cooper is "Congo," a descendant of two Liberian dynasties -- traced back to the first ship of freemen that set sail from New York in 1820 to found Monrovia. Helene grew up at Sugar Beach, a twenty-two room mansion by the sea in a childhood filled with servants, flashy cars, a villa in Spain, and a farmhouse up country. It was also an African childhood, filled with knock foot games and hot pepper soup, heartmen and neegee. When Helene was eight, the Coopers took in a foster child, a Bassa girl named Eunice.

For years the Cooper daughters -- Helene, her sister Marlene, and Eunice -- blissfully enjoyed the trappings of wealth and advantage. But on April 12, 1980 a group of soldiers staged a coup d'etat, assassinating Liberian President William Tolbert and executing his cabinet. The Coopers and the entire Congo class were now the hunted, being imprisoned, shot, tortured, and raped. Helene, Marlene, and their mother fled Sugar Beach for America. They left Eunice behind.

A world away, Helene tried to assimilate as an American and discovered her passion in journalism, eventually becoming a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. She reported from every part of the globe -- except Africa -- as Liberia descended into war-torn, third-world hell. In 2003, a near-death experience in Iraq convinced Helene that Liberia -- and Eunice -- could wait no longer. At once a deeply personal memoir and an examination of a violent and stratified country to which her own family is inextricably linked, The House At Sugar Beach is the story of Helene Cooper's long voyage home.

Average Customer Rating:

Coming Full Circle: From America to Africa and Back Again

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Covering the Middle East War in 2003, correspondent Helene Cooper had memories of another war; the war that tore her away from the place of her birth, Liberia. In The House on Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood Cooper wrote a gripping memoir that is not only a family history, but a social, cultural and historical account of this country. Cooper is a direct descendant of the first black Americans who migrated to Liberia in the 1820s to establish a haven for freed blacks. Elijah Johnson, her maternal ancestor and Randolph Cooper, her paternal ancestor, were pioneers in the Back to Africa movement with help from the British government to start over in West Africa. Within a few years, the new settlers succeeded in not only building a new community, but became the ruling class with all of the privileges and advantages that came with it. A class divide emerged and the newcomers were deemed "Congo" while the natives were called "Natives" or the derogatory term "Country." Cooper's family lived in a twenty-two room mansion by the sea called Sugar Beach replete with servants and a privileged life that included private schools and a summer home in Spain. Her father was a government official and many other family members had positions of power in the cabinet. When Cooper was nine years-old, her family took in a girl from the Bassa tribe to be a companion to Cooper and her younger sister, Marlene. It was common practice for Congo people to "adopt" Native children; the Congo family got help and the Native child was taken out of impoverished conditions and given an education. Eunice was an integral part of the family for the most part but when a coup occurred in 1982, Cooper's family fled Liberia, leaving Eunice behind. The Natives, after years of oppression and unable to rise above their station in life, decided to take matters in their own hands, wrestling power away from the Congo elite. Cooper's acclimation to the United States was a culture shock and like many immigrants, her family's lifestyle drastically changed. Her family first moved to Tennessee where she had difficulty making friends. It was in college that she came into her own and eventually became a journalist working for several prominent newspapers including The Washington Journal and The New York Times. It was over twenty years before Cooper set foot on Liberian soil and reunited with her long lost sister, Eunice. This was a powerful story, one that was an education for me and members of my online and local book club members. Most of us remember the media reporting on the war in Liberia and the reigns of presidents Tolbert and Charles Taylor but felt disconnected to the turmoil that was occurring. This book brought to life the cultural aspects, including intra-racial and class divisions, the oppression of the Native people, and a keen awareness of the analogy of American slavery of Africans juxtaposed against the oppression of Native Africans by freed Black Americans. The political and historical aspects of this memoir are a great addition to the growing number of African childhood war stories that have graced the literary arena in the last few years. 4.5 rating

An Amazing Book!!

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I loved this book so much! I was embarrassed by my lack of knowledge about Liberia, and this book promted me to learn more. It is amazing though how much the book read like fiction. I was fascinated with the "characters" and it is hard to believe that such shocking events had actually occurred. I was so attached to the people in this book that I dreamt about them and dreamt of going to see the house at sugar beach myself. I am giving several copies as gift this christmas.

30 yr old male

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I am a 30 year old male. I got this book after an NPR review. Wow, great book, very descriptive. It paints a great picture of what it was like to be part of a country's elite. I thought I would be against the elite until I read about the coup in Monrovia and the horrible way the common man acts when he takes over. What a bunch of savages human beings really are when given a portion of power with no real possibility of consequences. Reading about the rape of the author's mother, I wanted to be there to defend her. Great read.

A good read, but lacks depth

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Though a memoir is, by definition, focused on the author's life, Cooper's work is self-centered in the extreme. She never really answers the key question -- why did she and the rest of her family abandon her foster sister for so many years? And she presents nothing more than a caricature of the lives and society of the less-privileged native Liberian people and the discrimination against them by those of her own elite and wealthy class.

Great read, fascinating biography	Customer Rating:
This woman's life story is fascinating, vividly told and really mmoves one to think about the power of our beginnings. Like many brilliant and little-known individuals, her past led her to become a great writer. Would recommend this book to anyone.