... abounds with stories like that of Rahila, the suicide bombing school dropout. Quietly listening, Searcey takes down the details of their everyday experience — including details the authorities around her might prefer were not made public. In doing so, she reveals herself to be, even today, one of the “disobedient women,” bearing witness to so many ordinary lives tossed and turned by other people’s whims.
In Pursuit of Disobedient Women is Searcey’s captivating, straight-ahead memoir of their three years in Dakar, Senegal. There is plenty here about family ... But while her family life is part of the narrative, what Searcey really wants to talk about are the stories of the people who live there. And my gosh, they are fascinating ... Searcey’s writing is plain and unvarnished; she pretties nothing up. A journalist’s journalist, she lets the details and characters provide the drama and plays down her own role, giving enormous credit to the local journalists and translators who work with her ... Frankly, all of the stories she tells seem astounding to me. Searcey gravitates toward stories about women, and the women she interviewed have endured almost unfathomable trauma and yet tell their stories bravely ... What is astounding is the poise and fortitude that these women exhibit in telling their stories to a Western journalist. Also astounding is how many of these tales Searcey was able to absorb over three years.
Searcey is a powerful writer who is aware of her privilege and honest about her mistakes. Her personal story relates the sacrifices she made as a journalist while also trying to keep the family unit together ... Recommended for readers who enjoyed the memoirs of journalists and writers Marie Colvin, Clarissa Ward, Martha Gellhorn, and Anne Garrels, and anyone wishing to learn more about social and political life in West Africa.
Throughout her reporting across the region, Searcey met women with unbelievable resilience: women divorcing husbands who would not let them work, women excelling in male-dominated industries, women escaping from terrorist camps. Well-written and illuminating, Searcey’s memoir introduces readers to life in contemporary West Africa and the work of overseas reporting.
...[a] revealing, sometimes heartbreaking memoir ... Here are tales of violence and heroism as women and girls were kidnapped by the militant group Boko Haram, raped and/or forced to marry older militants, and ordered to serve as suicide bombers. With tremendous courage and a strong will to live, these women disobeyed orders; remarkably, they are able to talk about the many seemingly insurmountable obstacles they have faced ... The author demonstrates her journalistic skills by providing ample pertinent details to flesh out each chapter, centered around a different interviewee. As a mother and woman, she gives an honest account of her personal experiences. The combination is powerful and moving and brings much-needed attention to the plight of these women ... Empathetic, compelling narratives from a part of the world too often overlooked
Journalist Searcey trades the subway for the sub-Sahara in this intense account of balancing work and family as West Africa bureau chief for the New York Times from 2015 to 2019 ... Searcey is a straightforward narrator, especially as she describes turning down the Paris bureau chief position in order to return her family to the U.S ... Readers will enjoy this earnest look at life as a newspaper bureau chief.
