Tim Bascom

RUNNING TO THE FIRE, by Tim Bascom.
The subtitle of this memoir is a mouthful; unfortunately it promises more than it delivers - "An American Missionary Comes of Age in Revolutionary Ethiopia." Because Tim Bascom was not a missionary. He was the adolescent son of Evangelical missionaries. And even though he characterizes himself as a 'volunteer' for "this heart-splitting tour of duty," I got the distinct impression that he and his younger brother were simply carried along as part of the family with not a lot of say in where they were going. And because of the increasingly hostile atmosphere created by the ongoing Marxist revolution, that "tour of duty" only lasted seven or eight months, before all the missionary types were evacuated from Addis Ababa and the outlying missions.

It was a struggle for me to even finish this overly melodramatic, often sentimentalized look at a couple years in the life of teenage Tim Bascom. Because it did seem that his story was, in the end, much ado about nothing much, at least for him. I suspect his parents and their adult peers may have been in some real danger at times, but Bascom and his fellow dependents, or "missionary kids" - MK's - as they called themselves, were for the most part cloistered away in schools and dormitories of walled compounds and had very little contact with the natives and the sporadic ongoing shooting and violence that was, I have no doubt, gripping Ethiopia in those years (the 1970s). And I couldn't help but wonder, if the parents really were concerned for their children's safety, why didn't they leave them at home, back in the U.S.

Bascom makes several not-so-veiled attempts to liken the missionary work his parents - and he himself - were engaged in to military tours, that they are 'soldiers' of a sort - all that "Onward Christian Soldiers" singing. A comparison I found ludicrous, and perhaps even a bit insulting to genuine soldiers. Because although there is much self-conscious dramatic posturing about the danger that surrounded him - what could, or might, happen at any moment - very little ever actually does happen to him, as he goes about his daily routines of classes, hunting birds with a slingshot, listening to western pop music and mooning over girls. And he also makes way too much of his teenage infatuation over one girl, even to comparing them to Romeo and Juliet.

And then there are the alternate short chapters where the adult fifty-ish Bascom reflects back from his current comfortable life as an Iowa college professor, with his "white leather couch" in a comfortable brick home with manicured lawn. These sections seemed a bit too smug and knowing, and also served to slow the forward motion of the narrative.

The truth is, although Bascom is a decent enough writer, his subject would have been better suited to a magazine piece.There was simply not enough that happened to him in those short seven or eight months to warrant a whole book. I really wanted to like this book, but in the end I didn't, and found it to be more annoying than anything else. Maybe his fellow MK's will identify with it. I could not. (two and three-quarter stars)… (mehr)

Tim Bascomb is the son of American missionaries, and, as a result, spent much of his childhood in Ethiopia in the 1960's.

Like the children of many former missionaries, he had to adapt and make adjustments to Western culture on his return to the United States. Unlike many that I've read about, he seems to have done a good job of adapting.

I also really like that he seems to be particularly clear-sighted about religion and about his past experiences. His views, on the whole seem very balanced, IMO.

This was a very good memoir.… (mehr)