Book review: Are We There Yet? by Rosie Whitehouse
Are We There Yet?
War reporting is the most hazardous and exciting genres of journalism, but how does it feel to be one of the family members left behind? In this rollicking tale of family life on the edge, Rosie Whitehouse provides answers to this question from her own point of view and those of her five children, especially the elder three, Ben, Esti and Ray.
Married to war correspondent Tim Judah, Rosie deftly balances anecdotes of anxious waits by the phone with funny passages about hiding vomit-stained sheets in hotel wardrobes and misunderstandings regarding orange peel.
Life in New Europe during the troubles in the Balkans is given a fresh perspective thanks to the children’s interpretation of events, and throughout the book Rosie’s love of her children and husband shine through. Each child has a distinct personality from babyhood that offers a wealth of sides to the story, as Rosie occasionally struggles with cultural differences that the children take for granted.
The horror of war comes through in passages when the family wait for news from Tim, most vividly shown in a passage in which Ben sees newspaper headlines blaring “Journalists killed in Afghanistan.”
This is also an account of a career woman’s choice to focus on her children and to take them to every place she needed to be. Rosie’s approach to parenting is admirably unflinching in the most difficult of circumstances, with the result that they have grown up understanding more about the world than most adults. As she says about Ben on the final page “Not everyone might agree with what I have done but at last it has prepared him for life.”
Despite a few annoying typos, Are We There Yet? is a gripping read, with the warmth of family life offsetting the brutality of wartime and bringing huge events down to a purely human level.
Are We There Yet? Travels with my frontline family
To submit a review of a book, course, film, magazine or website, please email judy@EssentialWriters.com
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