TheBlackBookMark

Rating: A Must Read

Weaving heartache with humor, pain, and prestige, Alek Wek provocatively details the hard fought and well earned success story of her life-so far.

Beginnning in the high powered fashion world, Wek speaks of her success and failures without guile or bitterness.  No where do you feel sorry for "the African girl" despite a 12 year battle with severe eczema, only admiration and even a little fear at the sheer strength that propelled her through so much adversity.

Through bombings, family conflict, the perils of the bush and malaria, she guides us through the everyday life she experienced in Sudan, a land forbidden to so many. The impoverished, but idyllic existence of Wek's family gradually is encroached upon by the relentless destructive power of the Sudanese armies in the war to stave off the imposition of sharia law by the Islamic north.

How Wek is able to blilthely maneuver through the complexities of an ethnic war, Dinka culture and the perceptions of the Western world testifies to her amazing storytelling ability-truthful, unpretty, and direct.

Unashamed and unapologetic, she details her roots and her struggles in Africa, England, and the U.S. Without pretentiousness or a bit of nouveau celebrite, she unmasks the always ugly and still rampant racism in modeling while skillfully infusing the mundane aspects of her life, like going to school or applying for a mortgage, with humor. 

Wek debriefs the reader succinctly on what her real life is like-leaving us to either pick up the pieces of our scattered illusions about supermodels or to leave them-and her-alone.

Most of us have the privilege of isolating ourselves in one culture, or perhaps stride a couple of nationalities. But Wek carries the scars of a displaced people and embodies English grit and pure American ingenuity all in one package.

This is absolutely one of the most fascinating memoirs I've read. Poignant, her message rings loud and clear-don't forget Sudan. She doesn't pretend to have any answers for Sudan's seemingly interminable warring, nor for her own personal struggles, nor does she ask too many questions-she's lived it, she's made it but that is still not enough.

Congratulations Ms. Wek.

-Editor

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Somalian model's often graphic reflections on growing up as a nomad, enduring female circumsion, and her life as a supermodel. BUY NOW!

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