CRITICAL BOOK REVIEW

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Strength In What Remains Analysis

Sydney Sander
Portland State University

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The author of this narrative Strength in What Remains is Tracy Kidder and this is a
memoir of Deos life and story. This book was published in New York, at the Random House
publishing company in 2009. The book is 277 pages and the cost was $8.77.
We all fear to be alone. Some fear they will always be alone. Loneliness is a path weve
all taken at some point in ones life and will come across again sometime. This isnt necessarily a
bad thing, though the perspective changes depending on the person and their view on life,
essentially. We all could not live in isolation successfully, because an extreme amount of sadness
and loneliness would take over, thus not being happy. A society usually determines a persons
acceptance into feeling isolated or able. Just because someone is lonely doesnt necessarily mean
they are alone. One could be in a sea of people and not feel accepted because of a differ in
attitudes or a differ in acceptance from other people. Even the concept of relating to one another
can be lost just by not communicating. This was a common theme in the narrative Strength in
What Remains because Deo is left alone often. This may be because of his ability to
communicate with people, racial class, social class, or physical appearance. Often, the feeling of
loneliness leads to inner depression because that person has no where to look and no one to seek.
Deo felt isolated simply because no one took the time out of their day to relate to him or even
attempt to communicate. But once that even took place, his perspective and his world changed.
To succeed, you need to be resilient and face obstacles. When Deo came to America he
didnt know what to expect. America was a different world to him, so there were multiple culture
shocks. The way people addressed each other, conversations, attitudes towards things, are
differed entirely compared to his culture and well-being. On top of being racially and socially

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discriminated, his language barrier is one of the bigger causes of his state of isolation. People in
his society didnt want to make connections with homeless, unintelligent, black people which
was what he was seen as. A society determines ones state of isolation. In Deos journey, the
reader witness his stages of isolation and his pathway back to success.
Deo has experienced multiple challenges in his life. Challenges most people dont even
have the chance to encounter. He escapes a mass genocide, successfully flies into the United
State, and still manages to survive; to name a few. A majority of the plot is the reader soaking in
his experience in New York and him adapting to a lifestyle. We witness the hardships Deo has
faced in the past and the present. Some of the main occurrences that happen is we see how Deo
relates living in Burundi to living in New York. The author is contrasting and comparing his
background/experiences to those happening in New York. Since this is essentially a one man
story, Kidder highlights the fact that Deo feels alone a lot of the time. He has no one to confide to
and no one to seek help from.
He did get help coming to the United States though. A friend of his from medical school,
Muhammed, helped him attain the apartment he stayed in for a while. He also helped educate
him on the subway system and helped him get his first job in New York. Although it may seem
like Muhammed was being a great friend in helping him get on his feet, the way Kidder
addressed it, it made him seem like Deo was a nuisance to Muhammed. Even though he had
Muhammad some of the time, his loneliness was still present. This was because he had to learn
to adapt basically by himself. He himself took the effort into buying an english dictionary and
learning what words he knew would further himself. The language barrier is the true source of

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why he was isolated. The hardships he endeavored in New York did not make the language
barrier feet any easier.
While in New York, he encountered many changes. While first driving to Muhammeds
apartment, he noticed how different his culture was from Americas. He was noticing all the
obese people, the writings on the walls, and how people dressed. He was internally comparing
people from here to people from Burundi. Knowing he was different from all the people he was
around, subconsciously was making him feel alone. He is already at the stage of feeling different
and out of place. This stage advances as soon as he starts working at the grocer as a delivery boy.
He delivers food to a number of people yet still feels as if he cant communicate with any of
them. An example of the language barrier problem is he was continually saying Hi to all of the
customers. He found out later that he had been saying it wrong the whole time, explaining the
weird looks he was receiving. This is another factor argued by Kidder that he cant relate to
others, therefore not being able to communicate and feeling isolated. Later in the book, whilst
Deo is in Medical school, his life has gotten better. Hes gotten an education and has gained
friends in the process. Although when he is sitting in class one day, he receives a note from a
fellow classmate. Its a threatening letter acknowledging that he knows Deo is a Tutsi and the
other student is a Hutu. The letter is threatening because he mentions wiping out all of his kind
(Kidder, 2009, p. 97). After all he has been through and all his progress, the feeling of loneliness
surpasses him once again.
After roughly 6 months of delivering groceries and adapting with his broken english, he
meets Sharon. He was delivering groceries to the church she was at and noticed he spoke french.
This led to the two having a conversation and thus starting Deos transition from isolation to a

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better lifestyle. Once his life starts transitioning, he feels less alone and more appreciated. Sharon
is helping him make connections, gives him clothes, and indirectly helped him find a new place
to live.
Kidders writing style isnt as direct as expected. He doesnt write in chronological order
so the reader needs to be in tune with what time period it is and what is going on. Kidders
transitions are also not as clear as one would hope. One example includes Sharon introducing
Deo to Sharons doctor, which then jumps to Deo going out to dinner with some unacquainted
people.
Kidder uses multiple themes in this narrative, but none of them are expressed outright. To
analyze the themes he uses, the reader has to read between the lines. The theme of isolation is
blatantly obvious, but Kidder never expresses it. The theme of Deo going through hardships is
shown and explained but Kidder never mentions upfront that Deo has gone through many
hardships. He hides the themes and lets the reader annotate them for themselves. This lets them
get an individual meaning out for themselves.
Deos story goes from bad to good. Starting off alone, homeless, and struggling to
survive. He ended his hardships by successfully becoming a doctor and ending up in Burundi
helping his own society. Throughout the narrative he was surrounded by people, yet he always
felt alone. Living in New York by himself gave him time to reflect on himself and on his life. He
didnt choose to want to become isolated though, the society around him chose. It was not until
he had met Sharon his loneliness decreased. From this point on he always had Sharon checking
up on him, was being invited to dinner by Sharons friends, and was being cared for by a number
of people. Deo was given a mattress by his new acquaintances, Nancy and Charles. The mattress

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was stolen in central park only after 4 days. Later when Deo is on the phone with Charles, this
became a turning point in the narrative when Deo asked What should I do with the mattress you
gave me? and Charles said leave it (Kidder, 2009, p. 68).

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References:
Kidder, T. (2009). Strength in What Remains. New York: Random House.