by Mary Pipher
|
| List Price: | $14.00 |
| Amazon Price: | $12.60 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
| You Save: | $1.40 (10%) |
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $4.55 |
| Availablitiy: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
 |
|
Product Description
Over the past decade, Mary Pipher has been a great source of wisdom, helping us to better understand our family members. Now she connects us with the newest members of the American family--refugees. In cities all over the country, refugees arrive daily. Lost Boys from Sudan, survivors from Kosovo, families fleeing Afghanistan and Vietnam: they come with nothing but the desire to experience the American dream. Their endurance in the face of tragedy and their ability to hold on to the virtues of family, love, and joy are a lesson for Americans. Their stories will make you laugh and weep--and give you a deeper understanding of the wider world in which we live.
The Middle of Everywhere moves beyond the headlines into the homes of refugees from around the world. Working as a cultural broker, teacher, and therapist, Mary Pipher has once again opened our eyes--and our hearts--to those with whom we share the future.
Amazon.com
Though Lincoln, Nebraska, seems a strange gathering place for refugees from all corners of the globe, it is the setting for Mary Pipher's The Middle of Everywhere, an ardent, anecdotal, and at times moving study of some new arrivals to the United States. Pipher emphasizes the resiliency of the refugees--from Laos, Bosnia, Northern Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, and the former Soviet Union--whose homeland tales of death, privation, torture, and multi-pronged persecution vary only in the details. In America the refugees must learn a new language and pick their way among the temptations and wonders of a complex land. Does a Publishers Clearing House notice mean one is a millionaire? What is aluminum foil? Is an overdue library book a jailable offense? Pipher visits classrooms and homes and offers extended portraits of a female family of Kurds and a bewildered clan of Sudanese, as well as snapshots of many other refugees. She is a harsh critic of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and an advocate of "cultural brokers"--the social adjustment equivalent of practical nurses. --H. O'Billovich
Customers who bought this item also bought
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Information , 2008-02-28
A lot of practical information about helping those new to the US, mixed with compelling stories of every-day experiences.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Can't get this book out of my head, 2008-02-18
One of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking books I've read in a long while. It will enlighten you more about America than about the immigrants who are trying to build a life here.
I could relate to these stories also on another level. We are trying to help our autistic child, 23, fit into society, learn its social cues, get a job, even learn about humor, sarcasm and kidding. For him, it is as difficult to learn as for these refugees.
There are few books that I keep thinking about for days after reading, this is one of those rare ones.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
America redefined, 2007-02-14
I was working with a church group on mentoring Somalian refugees into mainstream America down south. This book fell into my hands as a blessing to understand how and why I am doing what I am doing. Pipher delves into the heart of the life of poor refugees (and to some extent immigrants too) who are given 'shelter' from their war or crisis torn homelands into a strange and completely different country. She looks into their past/present and possible futures with great love, compassion and above all a deep and sincere desire for America to be the real home of these people so separated from lands of their birth. I would give her five stars for that alone - the vast majority of americans i meet and whites in particularl live in an Utopian world where refugees and any other form of 'trouble' from the rest of the world is considered 'invasive' - the best they can come to is patronize, rarely any understanding. If not for churches and other immigrants life would be hell in more ways than one for these people. Pipher writes eloquently in the last few pages on using therapy (again a very american thing) in dealing with trauma, with both its pluses and minuses, and also on her own growth and healing from the lives of the many courageous souls she met in this process. My hope and prayers are for more people like her, and a more open minded America in times to come.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A must read for all!!!, 2006-03-01
At first I was apprehensive about reading this book. It was a required reading for a class. Once I started, I realized how wrong I was!!!
This is a great book. It brought to light how hard it is for refugees in America. I was also intrigued by the fact that Lincoln, NE is a major refugee hub.
I am a teacher, and I come into contact with Hmong students all of the time. This book remided me that they are not like us and everything I need to be aware of.
I have recommeded this book to everyone!!! I could not put it down!!!
18 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
 The Muddle of Everywhere, 2004-04-26
For those who still believe that the forced (We voted on this WHEN?) conversion of the America into a "multicultural," ever-less-European caldron of aggravated grievances and simmering sensibilities remains limited to places like Los Angeles and New York, they should read clinical psychologist Mary Pipher's glowing account of the "transformation" of Lincoln, Nebraska. Lincoln is Pipher's hometown, one of the quiet American towns targeted by the U.S Office of Refugee Resettlement as a "preferred community for newly arrived refugees."
One of the difficult problems Pipher had growing up in Nebraska was that her "state's identity over the last 150 years has been mainly European." As a child Mary would wistfully play the "globe game," spinning a world globe, pointing her finger at some random spot, and imagining what wonders she would encounter there. Later she was increasingly torn: Travel to some exotic locale, or remain in monotonous old Lincoln, which many derided as "the middle of nowhere." But now, thanks to her government's refugee-immigration policies, the fun globe game has come to Mary Pipher!
Today, Pipher admits, when long-time residents of Lincoln drive down their quiet streets and see the same houses and trees, they are unaware that their town is becoming drastically altered. We will soon have a "brown Nebraska," and this is "happening nationwide," rejoices the "Irish-English" Mary Pipher. For, "We are becoming a richer curry of peoples."
Now Pipher looks at sections of her once dreary hometown and is happily reminded of the exciting colorfulness of "East Harlem" or "Bangkok." And, luckily for her, "where cultures collide [as in Iraq?] is the best vantage point for observing human resilience." Pipher has "always loved Culture and Personality studies and now," she writes, "I can be an anthropologist in my own town." Yes, at last, Pipher can visit the public schools in Lincoln and find "children from fifty different nationalities who speak thirty-two languages."
Someone might easily write another, equally voluminous book, a handy companion to this one, entitled "The Incredibly Obvious Things that Never Occur to Dr. Mary Pipher."
Pipher interviews three refugee Muslim brothers who are in tears describing how terribly American men treat American women, a sort of "mirror image" of how American men view Muslim men's treatment of Muslim women. Yes, it is undoubtedly painful for immigrants to live in a culture they see as sinful. What is completely lost on Pipher is that this is exactly why it has made sense historically for people of drastically different cultures to live in separate nations.
Also, one of the things that Pipher loves most about Nebraska is that it is a "vast farm and ranch state." In fact, the "state's best feature is our population density." That refugees and other immigrants continually flowing into Nebraska, many with historically high birthrates, will eventually bring staggering population growth, pollution, crime and all the other urban ills to her beloved sparsely-populated state never seems to penetrate the otherwise infinitely sensitive and psychologically nuanced mind of Mary Pipher.
Different refugees, we read, prefer to live among themselves, since they can help each other cope. Sometimes interviewing refugees can be tricky. There are "highly charged political and personal questions" and "Religion and politics are danger zones." In fact, "Everything is more complex than it seems." Gosh, no kiddin, Mare?
So what will happen when large sections of America are splintered among these very different cultures, and they all start contending for power over these "highly-charged" issues? Another question left unconsidered by Dr. Pipher.
Sometimes these lapses in cognition are so extreme that it is difficult to see them as innocent. "Globalization will change everything forever." Racially and culturally the world is becoming a cozy "bowl of salt and pepper." Oh really? Is China becoming less ethnically Chinese? Mexico less Hispanic? Why is this "salt and pepper" paradise only thought to be beneficial for traditionally white nations? Don't ask. On this question too, sorry, the Doctor cannot see you now.
One of the strengths of this book, however, is its humor, no matter how unintended. What we are witnessing today is the slow "unfurling" of the "unity of mankind." [Okay, I'll try to remember that when I'm watching the nightly TV body count.] Now it is time for us to "see our common humanity and blow each other a kiss of welcome."
It is tempting to laugh at these things, but it is always chilling to see how easily pious, high-minded utopianism can slither down into evil consequences.
Pipher writes that some Nebraskans just want to be "left alone." But, No way, says the compassionate grandmotherly psychotherapist, because now "nobody gets to be left alone," which is the "great lesson" of 9/11. "Either we all are safe or none of us is safe." How sweet.
Besides, Americans are so "protected" that they know almost nothing about the rest of the world. Pipher tells us that some refugees are unaware that the word is round, or can't find the United States on a world map, but Americans are suppose to feel like insensitive dolts because they don't know, for example, that they "should not touch a Vietnamese child on the head." In a world of hundreds of cultures? What a double standard!
Even Pipher concedes that refugees "range from saints to psychopaths." But why should we take in psychopaths? Because--forget about Washington, Jefferson, or the moon landing--"the central fact for American identity is that we take people in."
Tragically, the very thing that Lincoln, Nebraska was accused of being, it was not, but is now becoming. It was once the middle of a strong and cherished culture. It was at the very heart of somewhere. Now Pipher almost swoons when she describes the colorful "diversity" of a downtown park, with women in hijabs next to women in tank tops, and so on. But a nation is not a costume ball, nor is it a bizarre anthropological experiment. Only now is Lincoln becoming "the middle of nowhere."
Price is accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of this product.
|
Store Categories
|