Auma's Long Run by Eucabeth Odhiambo (review)

Auma Onyango understands that she has a relatively easy life in her Kenyan village; her father's work in the city may keep him from home more than she'd like, but the extra money allows her and her siblings to stay in school when many children are forced to drop out to work. Moreover, her own prowess in the classroom and speed on the track team virtually ensure her a high school scholarship for next year. When her father returns unexpectedly and begins to waste away from what seems to be the same unidentified malady that's claiming adult lives throughout her region, her future turns precarious. Her father dies and soon thereafter her mother does as well, seemingly from the same disease, so Auma has to face two very hard truths—that her father's infidelity has cost his wife her life and his family their security, and that her own dream of becoming a doctor is growing dim. Odhiambo's heartbreaking tale of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s weaves the many threads of the disease's course into one accessible cloth. Medical misunderstanding about the disease itself (which Auma knows is as profound in Western nations as in her own) combines with superstition to leave sufferers xand their families in the dark. Sexual favors exchanged for male protection help spread the disease, and personal rifts and gossip among neighbors pour accelerant on the suffering. At the novel's end, Auma is down but she's not out, and although her aspirations are on hold, she has built a strong foundation on which to resume her studies and to assure her grandmother's and siblings' well-being. The author's closing note sheds light on how her own experiences and research in Kenya during this period helped her develop Auma's story. EB