Footfalls in Memory : Reflections from Solitude

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In 1987, Waite, a diplomat, humanitarian and hostage negotiator, was himself taken captive in Lebanon while trying to negotiate the release of hostages on behalf of the Church of England. He was held in Lebanon for 1760 days. Following his release, he wrote Taken on Trust, a memoir of his experience. His new book is an anecdotal account of the method that Waite used to endure his captivity. A voracious reader, Waite was not allowed to read during his first year as a hostage. He spent much of that time writing his autobiography in his head. As he was forced to depend increasingly on his memory, Waite "traveled back across the years to recall the books I had read during my life." At the end of his first year in captivity, Waite's captors began to honor his request for books, bringing him titles ranging from Diseases of the Middle Ear to Dr. Spock's book on raising babies. In these reflections, Waite records passages from the books he remembered from his past and the ones he was given to read during his captivity, and he recalls those he wished to be able to read during that time. Waite's autobiography through reading makes clear not only his own will to survive a torturous period in his life but also the power of the written wordwhether Joyce or the Gospel of Johnto shape life and provide a powerful form of consolation. (Oct.)

Library Journal

In Taken on Trust (Harcourt, 1993), Waite wrote about his experiences as a hostage in Beirut, Lebanon, in the late 1980s. During his four years of solitary confinement, one of his few pleasures was reading the books his guards occasionally brought him, e.g., The Brothers Karamazov, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Koran. Here he provides commentary and excerpts from the assortment of works he received, from those he remembered when he had nothing to read and from those he wished he had been given. Because each book filled a hunger for companionship and ideas, these selections have a significance for Waite that they do not necessarily have for others. They are generally brief, taken out of context, and thematically unrelated. The author's accompanying prefaces provide only short comments about the excerpts. A marginal purchase.Ilse Heidmann, San Marcos, Tex.

Kirkus Reviews

Waite, who was taken hostage in Beirut in 1987 while negotiating the release of other Western hostages, spent 1,760 days in captivity. For the first year, Waite, a great reader, was allowed no books. Gradually his captors relented, and Footfalls in Memory offers an anthology of brief excerpts drawn from books that provided solace for Waite during his confinement (ranging from Anna Sewell's Black Beauty to the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius and Herman Hesse's Magister Ludi). These are accompanied by his reflections on the ways in which books have influenced his life and the manner in which they helped him to survive his dreadful circumstances. Some of the books he includes were actually given to him during his captivity; others, he notes, he drew pleasure from by recollecting them during his imprisonment. In other hands such a work might seem a curious indulgence, but Waite's frankness and faith make this slender book surprisingly moving.