tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13887113077566872862024-03-13T12:25:54.388+00:00CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW"About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgement."
- Josh Billings
Of course I plagiarize. It is the privilege of the appreciative man. ~Oscar WildeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-78653741210884372512018-04-11T23:31:00.000+01:002018-04-12T08:10:22.232+01:00“Are You Not A Nigerian?” By Bayo Olupohunda<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6Z1dYGeTN3U/Ws6McawXYuI/AAAAAAAABA4/fULsilVwNzEkG-c6P7zMCM769PkygQGLQCLcBGAs/s1600/cover%2Bpage_are%2Byou%2Bnot%2Ba%2Bnigerian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="320" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6Z1dYGeTN3U/Ws6McawXYuI/AAAAAAAABA4/fULsilVwNzEkG-c6P7zMCM769PkygQGLQCLcBGAs/s320/cover%2Bpage_are%2Byou%2Bnot%2Ba%2Bnigerian.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
©<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.josephomotayo.blogspot.com/">Joseph Omotayo</a></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Nigeria is a country of momentary
happiness with gloomy footnotes. Bayo Olupohunda’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Are You Not A Nigerian?</i></b>
captures the depth of the Nigerian narrative; an ambiguous tale of a country
abutting on the shared borders of bleak hope and resignation. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Are
You Not A Nigerian?</i></b> is a collection of about 80 essays. These are
essays that had been written at various times; essay that attempt to ascribe meanings
to the hodge-podges that Nigerians face. Nonfictions are often the closest
genre to seeking closure. Stripped of euphemisms, everything jabs as they
should. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Are You Not A Nigerian?</i></b> is a collection of everything that is wrong
with this country, with us, and every other thing that defines us. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
With an unpretentious simplicity,
Bayo Olupohunda addresses sundry issues. Those issues range from the personal
to the political. This is perhaps the reason why everybody should write, even
if it is a tweet; documenting experiences adds to our total social constructs
as humans. And there is really no humanity without that documented constructs.
When you look at <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Are You Not A Nigerian?</i></b> for instance, you see where we have
been as a nation and why some futures may not be possible if we continue
perpetuating our typical selves. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The Nigerian narrative could be
quite a bore. There is nothing that has not be said. Everything in Nigeria has
a literature on it. However, one of the objectives of literature is to constantly
probe the human condition, and until Nigeria goes extinct, it will always be a
material for writing. Knowing how tepid collections of essays like this could be
if not well handled, Bayo Olupohunda souses everything that is wrong with this
country in interesting personal notes. There is a limitation to the Nigerian
narrative as a tale of a dysfunctional political entity; this is because nothing
shocks anymore. Our evils are not even creative enough to entertain, they are just
cyclical – the Nigerian government is bad; we have thieving politicians;
nothing works except the individual; the whole system is simply fucked. We all
know all those already. About the only thing that works in Nigeria is the individual’s
attempt at bracing the Nigerian odds. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Also, there seems to be a pattern
to this collection. This book moves in a climax. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Are You Not A Nigerian?</i></b>
builds tension like a fictional piece. It moves from the personal and the domestic
to things that are very political. The book opens with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Encounter With A Blackberry Babe”</i>, a luscious tale of a bad date.
In there, Bayo Olupohunda attacks Nigerians’ impulsive consumption flair. The
writer does not even spare his dates. This is personal. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Encounter With A Blackberry Babe”</i> narrates a date gone wrong
because the girl will not take her eyes off her phone. This is the madness
technology has created. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 45.0pt; margin-right: 63.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“What’s your BB pin? she asked, raising her BlackBerry screen-glazed
eyes. Her fake Yankee accent was drowned by rancorous voices and the din of
heavy metal music blaring from the Hi-fi speakers of the high-end nightclub in
the heart of Victoria Island, Lagos….</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 45.0pt; margin-right: 63.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I don’t use a BlackBerry,” I said, quick and brusque.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 45.0pt; margin-right: 63.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“How would you not have a Blackberry in this day and age?” The shock in
her eyes said words her mouth did not speak.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 45.0pt; margin-right: 63.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Then, she seemed to switch off completely. She became even more distant.
For the rest of that evening, when we somehow managed to find something to talk
about, she would look past me, as if addressing a phantom.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I Am A Woman Wrapper”</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Nollywood’s
Violence Against Women”</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Women
and Rape Culture”</i>, Bayo Olupohunda runs a poignant commentary on the
condition of being a woman in this country. To be othered as a woman is hard
enough, to be othered as a woman in Nigeria is worse: you are unclassified; you
are not even at the periphery, no agency, no existence, no voice, you are
nowhere. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Lamentations of a Battered
Husband”</i>, Bayo Olupohunda however flips the script. Domestic violence is
not always man on woman, it could be otherwise too. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Lamentations of a Battered Husband”</i> tells the rare ordeal of a man
at the mercy of his wife. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Ebola in Obalende”</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Losing
my Appendix”</i> both portray a society that has lost its humanity and its health
care system. In both moving narratives are individual’s laudable attempts at
redemption. There is an essay for everything in this book. This collection is
that definitive. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The eponymous essay, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Are
You Not A Nigerian?</i></b>, paints the condition of this nation is its very
bleakness. There are two things that kill faster in this country – diseases and
the Police. The latter is deadlier. This collection is journal for constant remembrance.
You should read this book. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-52905838922035328042016-08-07T17:23:00.000+01:002016-08-10T17:49:41.926+01:00Fishing the Women in "The Fishermen"<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zucxYqPbiek/Vnl7PtJdrOI/AAAAAAAAAzE/tZtwn0UTxYw/s320/Fishermen-new_140915.jpeg" width="199" /> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In this review of Chigozie Obioma’s The Fishermen, Ada Chioma Ezeano
does an interesting feminist reading of the book. Finally, there is a response
to the question for a feminist reading of the text raised in our <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-fishermen-by-chigozie-obioma.html" target="_blank">earlier review of the book</a>. In this review, Ada Chioma Ezeano is thorough. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">For a complete reading, read our earlier review of the book <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-fishermen-by-chigozie-obioma.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Enjoy!</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
****</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Ikenna, Boja, Obembe and Benjamin
are fishermen who only discover their adventurous skills when the chief
ventricle of their home leaves the home in Akure because his employer, the
Central Bank of Nigeria, transfers him to Yola. Prior to this transfer, the
Agwus fear no evil; the boys only fear their father who guerdons their skins
for even insignificant wrongs. In <i>The Fishermen</i>, Obioma raises a prophecy that
looks into the politics of gender while fictionalizing the society’s obtainable
stories about the dependent woman.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The book hinges its story on the
shoulders of Adaku Agwu, the mindless mother that leaves her sons to wander
away because her husband is away, and in bits, chronicles about the gossipy
hawker, Iya Iyabo, who can only raise malnourished sons because her husband is
dead, about the woman who sleeps with a mad man because her husband is dead,
and then about Abulu’s mother who raised a mad son, and a thieving son and a harlot
because her husband is away. All these women are evidences that there are
negative effects of having women depend solely on the man.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Chigozie Obioma’s story is a well
told story that depicts the dullness of the other gender in the 1990s, just
around when MKO Abiola’s raised hopes of presiding Nigeria gets annulled in
1993. It delineates the accumulated silence and passivity of the women and the
dire consequences of this inordinate virtue on the society. It is studded with
necessary pulchritudinous words and aims at leaving the reader with ultimate
satisfaction. He weaves a resplendent story that reveals the adventurous
spirits of boys, the dependent traits in women and the heroic genes in men. The
gamut of his oeuvre lies in the grand depiction of the deception garnered for
the women by the society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also shows
the consequences of raising a girl-child to become nothing but a pride to her
groom, the beautiful bride who drops her pride to groom her groom. In the African
society, a girl-child that cooks all is preferred to the one that knows
all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Adaku’s performative identity
reveals her to be a helpless dependent female. She is simply a helpmate who
upholds the irrational binary often invoked in regard to women. Under her nose,
her first four boys break free to become what they should not be. And breaking
free means shattering windows, hitting the crippled, skipping school, fishing
fish and then the apocalyptic prophecy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Adaku didn’t see that the gradual disappearance of Eme Agwu from the
home caused an ebbing of her sons’ uptight discipline. And as a ‘falconer’ she
stands on the hills to watch her sons die a slow death. ‘She is only fully
realised in the presence of (her husband). Her maternal vigilance falls apart
with his (Eme Agwu) momentarily absence.’ </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Another remarkable thing about
Adaku is that she tells a plethora of embarrassing stories while her husband
discusses politics and banking. Her husband is a banker while Adaku runs a
fresh food store in the open market, and only tsked when her husband ordered
her to quit going to the market on Saturdays. He changed her closing time from
7pm to 5pm. Still, she only tsked. Never mind that this is the same man who
ignored his wife when she repeatedly reminded him of the consequences of
leaving his growing boys for her alone.<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
All the women depicted in The
Fishermen needed the umbrella of a man to be. And when there is no man, the
women, like Iya Iyabo, whose husband, Yusuf, died in the war in Sierra Leone,
swim in the seas of endless needs. She perfectly raised two malnourished sons
while hawking groundnut and stories.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
There is Aderonke who kills her
husband, Biyi. Aderonke is another woman who depicts the passivity of women in
the society. Here is a woman who depends on her drunken husband for money. Her
child, Onyiladun, is sick, and instead of finding alternative means of
procuring drugs for her sick child, she prefers to sit and wait for the drunk
man to come home and bring the money as a man. But Biyi brings on something
else. He beats her and her sick child, and to save her sick child as a mother,
she commits murder. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The mad man, Abulu, has a mother
who remains nameless. Abulu’s father embarks on a journey and does not return,
and there are three children to raise. However, can she cope without a man? Her
daughter leaves home to become a harlot. Her sons become thieves. And she
mindlessly stirs the insane one with the sight of her nakedness, and he rapes
her. In her motherly presence, her son’s madness detonates after killing her
brother. She couldn’t help because her husband isn’t there to help. If only she
is conditioned to be independent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
If only all the women in the book
are conditioned to be independent…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>The Fishermen</i> is indeed one book
whose footstep can cause a stampede. Obioma reminds the society, once again, of
what is at stake if the society keeps raising girls to depend on the men in
their lives, if the girl-child is expected to be nothing but a man’s daughter
or a man’s wife. The narrative does not fail to deeply highlight the
consequences of an unequal system for both genders. In fact, it mirrors
Adichie’s statement that ‘Gender as it functions today is a grave injustice.’
And Obioma has demonstrated that gender, if unchecked and uncorrected, will
pose great dangers to the society.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-75482777131505311032016-02-08T20:50:00.002+00:002016-02-08T20:50:47.045+00:00"On the Bank of the River" by Ifeoluwa Adeniyi<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--uSFg-79-_Y/Vrj_kAN-UKI/AAAAAAAAA0Y/6r-oPEQVLis/s1600/book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--uSFg-79-_Y/Vrj_kAN-UKI/AAAAAAAAA0Y/6r-oPEQVLis/s1600/book.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">by <a href="http://ayoyebanji.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Oyebanji Ayodele</a></span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://ayoyebanji.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"> </a></span></i></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On the Bank of the
River</span></i></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
is a mesh of narratives. Enitan’s story hatches other stories, weightier
stories. And characters in their different shades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though the story, for me, didn't start up
with the desired pace, I find consolation in the fact that I pressed on. And I
did get to that point where putting the book down became a huge challenge. This
anticipation, you should note, is not because there is a tinge of novelty in
the plot. NO!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It gets to a stage in the
build up of the plot where you can without mincing words link some loose ends
in the story. It is a love story. But not just a love story; the intricacies
therein are nothing short of magical. You should read this book for its
dissimilarity with Africa Magic.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Love could look so
simplistic, so ordinary until it is subjected to the crucible of life's
complexities. Love is not love until the dross finally comes off the face of
the silver. Until you have fought with every will within to assert who or what
your heart really wants to follow. That doesn't mean situations you would
rather have stuff in the ass of any of the world's malcontents won't rear their
horned Grendel's heads. Matters of the heart are really complex. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On the bank of a
river, we find the concept of home play out as both young and old in Obade
ascribe a considerable amount of value to the river in their village. It
doesn't just serve a recreative purpose; it is a home. A home transcends piles
and piles of blocks set on some firm base. It's a place of solace, a place
where every arm around, visible or non-visible pulls you into the warmth of
reassuring embraces. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On the Bank of the
River</i> has shown that home could be anything. Anybody. Anywhere. For Enitan,
the concept of home can only be linked to her auntie, Jibike, as well as the
river.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Enitan. She could
have passed as the centre of the plot. She isn't. Her life is only a platform
for which the complexity of humanity can be put on display. Enitan is the
present that leads us back to the past. We don't know who Enitan is until her
past, before her birth, is unravelled. Enitan is the reason we meet the like of
Adeoye, a promising young doctor, Asake, and her sister, Jibike, Mama Yeye,
their aunt and their recessive father figure. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On the Bank of the
River</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">is narrated in snips of
alternating times. You have references being made to the Nigeria of the 70s and
90s. In fact, a couple of chapters are years. The temporal setting of this
novel is sensitive to the socio-political situation of the country at such
times. The military rule in the country in the 90s does not escape mention in
the novel. This reminds me of Chinua Achebe's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Anthills of the Savannah</i> and the treatment meted out to journalists
therein. It's the same thing in Adeniyi's book. Paul and Nomenclature (Adeoye)
are both victims of this. You remember Achebe's Ikem and Chris? Beatrice? If
you haven't met these guys, fix a date with them, you really need to.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Resistance does not
necessarily have to be a grand thing. It starts from the seeming trivial things.
There is a bit of racism that reflects in the relationship between Adeoye, his
uncle's wife, Angela and the trio of Root, Stem and Xylem. Having to call
humans Root, Stem and Xylem is a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thingification</i>
of their persons. Significance is attached to this naming act considering the
source it comes from: Angela. Angela, Adeoye's uncle's wife is white and
earlier in the novel we see her argue vehemently with Adeoye on issues of race
and colonialism. However, a little but significant instance of resistance in
the novel passes a message across:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">'''Xylem?'' Adeoye repeated the name, and then said it
again, remembering his elementary biology.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''Yes.''</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''That is out of the ordinary.''</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Angela replied, ''I just love 'xylem' as a word, that's why.
But I never call him that because he hates it.'</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''How was he able to get away from that?''</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''<u>When a man makes bold enough to say no, you cannot
force a name down his throat...''</u>' </span></i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[Emphasis
mine]</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(203-204)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In a generation that
is trying all it can to go back to its roots, what Ifeoluwa Adeniyi does with
language is laudable. I appreciate that the diction amply reflects her culture.
She flexes her cultural muscle well in the book. My only issue with this feat
is the italicization of indigenous words. African literature ought to have
risen beyond this, I think. We should not ascribe triviality to such things as
this. Let's put our cultures on display. It isn't wrong for a reader who
doesn't understand what a word means to consult the gods of cyberspace. If we
must italicize every indigenous word that features in our works, then the
indigenous names too ought to be captured, slant. It must be said, by the way,
that Adeniyi's language brings delight. I watch out for language a lot and she
does not fail to deliver. Here are some:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Whilst the moon glowed and the cool breeze took its toll on
the flesh, Asake began to dance. That artistic wriggling warmed them all into a
submission that made them still. Her body movements twisted with her back going
back and forth in an endless rhythm. She controlled the beat with her body
movements, tapping the ground with her legs as she danced. When she bent down
in style, she stood up by shaking her buttocks to the rhythm of the song...At a
particular point when she bent down, she danced round in that stance with an
equal grace as though she was standing up...” (70)</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And this:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“This woman who was not her mother made her smile and she
knew her own mother could not even make her smile on the memories they shared,
were she to die. After long episodes of memory-orchestrated smiles, Enitan let
the torrents flow in a stream that if possible would bring the dead to life.
The torrents were necessary to wash away the grief. The grief was necessary to
sink in the reality. The reality was most important to live life again.” </span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(106-107)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And I love the
innuendo here:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> '<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">'What do you mean by fresh and dry pepper?'' Nomenclature asked Jibike.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''The legal wives are the fresh ones now and the concubines
are the dry ones,'' she replied.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Paul chuckled. ''Fresh pepper o., dry pepper o, they are
both pepper. Maybe you should consider the properties of dried pepper that make
it irresistible to men. First it is easy to use, no unnecessary rule, no time
limits. they are also readily available. They could be more peppery, you only
need to look around for a good one. You know what I mean?'' Jibike's husband
collapsed in laughter at what Paul had said...</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''The flavour the fresh one gives you is better. it has a
good taste, a holy taste''... (239)</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I don't have a doubt
Ifeoluwa Adeniyi's next book is going to be definitely better. While I wait for
that, I'll read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On the Bank of the River</i>
again. You should have a first read if you haven't.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-34038294196844593132016-01-16T06:12:00.002+00:002016-01-16T18:10:53.172+00:00 "Shadow Self" by Paula Marais<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_0kujDsZ92U/Vpng0BctgbI/AAAAAAAAA0M/fCzzzw3q0JE/s1600/Shadow%2BSelf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_0kujDsZ92U/Vpng0BctgbI/AAAAAAAAA0M/fCzzzw3q0JE/s400/Shadow%2BSelf.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">by <a href="https://draft.blogger.com/ayoyebanji.blogspot.com">Oyebanji Ayodele</a></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Shadow Self</span></i></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> is a good book.
Somehow, I feel like saying that is an understatement. But what else can one
say about a book one really loves? Each page you flip is an invitation to
encounter creativity that delights. Sentences jump at you, sometimes they
tickle you. And you find yourself helpless in their grip, laughing, at times
shedding tears and wishing that something would make you remain in their world.
Imagine this:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''And what else could I do? My matric was so poor there was
no way I was going to university, not that I was interested. In class at school
I had dreamt about travelling - Galapagos, Antarctica and Route 66. And when I
wasn't doing that, I was thinking about Rajit and his naked body against mine
in the back of his father's Honda Ballade. (It's amazing what you can get up to
right under your parents' noses). I'd had no inclination at all to read my set
works, and no patience with studying. History was dull, maths was
incomprehensible, Afrikaans was tedious and I enjoyed the biology I was
learning with Rajit a lot more than fungal spores and the life cycles of
amphibians. Geography was my only saving grace.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But I was map reading my way out of there when I hit a dead
end.''</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
(34-35)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Paula Marais is a
gifted writer. The poetry and drama in her prose blows the reader away almost
all the time. One can tell from the experience of reading <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shadow Self</i></b> that she will
do well as a dramatist. Her characters' conversations are so racy one cannot
just have enough of them. I love this:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''Are you out of your
mind? Having Joe almost killed me. How can you be so selfish? If you really
loved me you'd go for the snip and the subject will be closed.''</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And I don't know why
I couldn't just accept that and let it drop.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''It won't
necessarily happen again, what you went through, I mean,'' I persisted. ''This
time we'd be prepared.''</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thea's eyes blazed. ''I'm
done with babies, Clay. Done. I'm done with night terrors, done with nappies,
done with engorged boobs, and having to give up my life and my career for
somebody else. I am making something of my life now. I'm happy. Why can't you
be?''</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''It's just - ''</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''Just nothing. I
love you, Clay. Passionately. I'd do just about anything for you, but I'm sorry
- I can't go down that road again. It's taken all this time for me to find
myself. If you have more love to give, get a dog, go work in an orphanage. I
don't care, but I'm not having another baby suck the life out of me like a
leech.''</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''Wow,'' I said. ''A
leech...A dog?''</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''Well, you know what
I mean.''</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''A dog. Seriously?''</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''Okay, so you're not
a dog lover. Get a rabbit. A cat. Or volunteer at the Red Cross...''</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> (230)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Shadow Self</span></i></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> has a dark plot. Its
characters are constantly in a maze of messy situations. They are real. So real
the reader finds himself in their every move. As they try to negotiate their
escape route out of one trouble, they find themselves getting neck deep in
another messy creek. No rest. You will almost cry for them, that's if you are
strong-hearted. I am not; my eyes spat some water.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Shadow Self</b> </span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tells the story of Thea Middleton. Thea, at the beginning of
the story, is cast in the light of an adopted kid. One finds out she isn't
eventually. Thea, unlike her cancerous brother, Robbie, does not get the kind
of attention she needs from her parents and thus tries to seek validation off
the four walls of her family. She falls in love with Rajit, an Indian guy her
parents disapprove of on the ground of racial disparities. Her pregnancy (of
course, Rajit's the culprit) marks the start of her predicament. Refusing to
leave Rajit and also to abort the baby earns her her mum's disownment. Her
marriage to Rajit is far, too far from her expectation. So much parental
intervention to struggle with and cultural chasms to bridge. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is abuse too.
Paula Marais so crafts Thea's abuse in such a way that it isn't overtly stated
but she tasks her reader to dig stuff out of her words though I wish she would
have been more direct; abuse ought not to be masked. NO. Thea's second marriage
shows the prospects of success until she has Clay's first child, Joe. And the
struggle heightens. Postpartum disorder and a gruesome murder feature. And
selves become their own shadows. Nobody goes through postpartum disorder and
remains the same. The experience is just excruciating, even for a reader,
especially one like me whose first encounter with postpartum disorder is in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shadow
Self</i></b>:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''But her face was redder and redder and she was opening her
mouth like a suffocating fish. Then without any warning, she fell forward.. She
landed on the linoleum floor. The chair crashed on top of her ankle. Thea
yelped, then began to caterpillar along the floor to a corner, as I watched,
horrified. When she reached the wall, she slithered upwards, banging her head
against the plaster...</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">...she kept on banging her head on the rough wall, like a
tantruming toddler. Over and over again. She was already bleeding from her
forehead, her nose. Even her ear lobe was scraped from the uneven wall. And all
the time these otherworldly noises coming from her throat. like a wolf
baying...'' (214)</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Shadow Self</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">explores motherhood and in fact, a couple of other things
about femininity. Motherhood and its many shades catch my attention. Thea's
perspective about motherhood differs from her mother's and they are both
altogether disparate from Asmita Ayaa's (Raj's mother). Thea's, though funny,
will give one a jolt anytime. She's the woman that hates to have babies (she
loves having her husband's full love instead) and she passes same to her
daughter. Her postpartum disorder only catalysed Sanusha's inherited view.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sanusha. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shadow
Self</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>is about a woman, Thea,
one in whose story other women find their voices. Of these women, Sanusha is my
favourite character. Gawd! I love Sanusha! <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shadow Self</i></b> is a bulky book but
Sanusha gets me chortling all the time. I love child narration and I like that
Paula's eclectic narrative technique doesn't exempt Sanusha's side to every
slice of the tale. Sanusha reminds me of Lola Ogunwole in Sade Adeniran's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com.ng/2012/02/imagine-this-by-sade-adeniran.html">Imagine
This</a>.</i> Though a couple of things serve as parallels in the lives of
Sanusha and her mum, she is different. She doesn't give a heck what others say
about her; she is independent and not in dire search for approval. Very perceptive,
Sanusha sees through other characters' lives and makes judgements, her own way.
She grows through the plot but the vivacity in her narrations matures with her.
Meet her:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''There's something kind of gross about knowing your mum's
been doing it.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It's not like I don't know about the birds and the bees -
isn't that a stupid way of putting it? I've looked up sex in the Encyclopaedia
Britannica and there are pictures and everything. Not that I couldn't have
worked it out on my own. Appa brings all sorts of women home and the noises
they make at night aren't exactly soothing. But Clay's always seemed like a
nice guy and I can't imagine him and, well, all that stuff. But there's mom,
her tummy getting bigger and looking completely green as she eats whole
pineapples to stop herself from puking.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And boy, is she grumpy. I'm doing my best, but she's a pain
in the royal ass, getting me to do this, and do that, like being pregnant makes
her handicapped. I mean, in some countries in the world, women give birth in
the fields and then carry on working. So why is she always griping?'' (164).</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A happy story doesn't
make a good literature. But it takes expertise to write such an emotionally
charged story Paula Marais. way. Paula Marais' is dark, sad but you don't just want to
drop the book till you turn the last page. Though the plot seems disjointed at
the beginning, different parts of the jigsaw start coming together with each
character's account. Maximising the first person narrative technique this way
helps the flow of the story and it allows causality and suspense play out well.
However, it doesn't cover the many perspectives there are to the story. On
account of this, I feel Rajit, Thea's mum and Auntie Annie are some of the
characters that Paula Marais cheated. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Editorial slips such
as the following could have been avoided too:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''''Glad you enjoyed it.'' I wanted to hold her back
resisted the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>urged</u></b> to pull
her hand. Her face. To kiss her.''</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> [Emphasis mine] (91)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 19.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">''As the moon became clearer, I paced up and down the tiny
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<![endif]-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-17113102394547544962016-01-09T18:17:00.001+00:002016-01-09T19:20:13.626+00:00“What About Meera” by Z P Dala<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-i5BbV3iz0gw/VpE0iyZIXLI/AAAAAAAAAzs/ljUg7A2yDFU/s1600/What%2BAbout%2BMeera.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-i5BbV3iz0gw/VpE0iyZIXLI/AAAAAAAAAzs/ljUg7A2yDFU/s400/What%2BAbout%2BMeera.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.josephomotayo.blogspot.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">©Joseph Omotayo</b></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The truth is: so many things are
about Meera. Meera is almost irredeemable. Life stings her anyhow. She should
just die, the world hates her. But this Meera is strong. Through life's grit and grime, she ekes out a tawdry survival. Though somewhat distracting from the
onset, this book intriguingly navigates the sorrow that is Meera. In biting
more than necessary, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What About Meera</i></b> tries the reader’s
patience. It packs so much together to bore. It is a Wikipedia and fiction all
in one. I will later tell you why. With a troubled Meera, the reader comes in
contact with other interesting issues. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What About Meera</i></b> seems like a
descant on the many issues it labours to exhaustively deal with. The woeful
result is the simplistic way many of them are left in. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
With a cyclical plot, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What
About Meera</i></b> attempts an interesting narrative of the disturbed and the willed
culpability of all. The story begins from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dublin</i>, a foreshadowing that shows significant bits of Meera’s life.
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Durban</i> follows after. Here, Meera’s
life is interestingly built and you see the ill luck that assails her, her
society and the Indians in South Africa. You are again taken to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dublin</i>. This <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dublin</i> begins the narrative in the first <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dublin</i> and continues it. At Dublin, Meera seeks refuge. The last <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Durban </i>shows the lapsing wick of
everything. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Meera’s society, class
and gender segregations are rife. This book shows how innocence is squashed and
spat out. There are tinges of Meera in everyone: the little voiceless girl, the
embattled feisty youth, the troubled wife, the broken spinster. From Durban to
Durblin, Meera is a pariah. Life in Dublin almost ensconces her. Ian is the
comforter as she whiles away her wispy life working at Home for Autistic
Children.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Amidst its many letdowns, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What
About Meera</i></b> is an interesting story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Z P Dala structures her novel in such a way that readers could pick off
interesting tidbits. The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nepalese </i>chapter
makes for a captivating short story. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Twisted Twins</i>, Z P Dala draws you into the dampened world of autism. This part
moved me. This novel is a genealogy of sorrows. Aside the lo-fi life of
Meera, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What About Meera</i></b> is a collection of troubles early Indian
descents in South Africa swarmed in. Meera is then a signpost of these many
woes; that exemplary battered person of all the calamities facing her ilk. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What About Meera</i></b> fulfills
tripodal roles: one is about the world of autism, this world rends the soul,
the world of Stewart and the twisted twins; the other is about Meera and
her numerous psycho-ills; the third, a deep-seated Indian caste
system. You will appreciate this devious caste system well if you’ve read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Arundathi Roy’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The God of Small Things </b></i>and E.M. Forster's <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Passage to India</i></b>. Those
books are good pieces on that theme. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What About Meera</i></b>’s attempt at
showing the evils of this caste system seems almost shallow. However, in Meera-Rajesh
relationship, Anusha-Vivek Patel flirty encounter and Haroon-Nisha marriage, Z
P Dala manages to weave this class discrimination around her narrative.
Underlining all social mishmashes in the book is this devious cultural
segregation. It heightens Meera’s troubles. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
This sums up the beginning of
Meera’s doom:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Young,
fresh, freshly pinched and fondled, not even nineteen years old. With a sharp
mind, soft heart and a beauty that only a father could see. She must go.” </i>(pg.
63)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
This book is irritatingly informative. Z P Dala tends to over-feed the reader. A part of the book reads
like a treatise on everything Indian in South Africa. The web is awash with such information. You want to know more about the Gujuratis? Google it. You
want to see how the Indians were handled during Aparthied and post-Mandela
release? Wikipedia is there. The reader does not always need fiction to know these things.
The tired way Z P Dala goes into explaining what glue does smacked me here. I was
put off. Do we really need this?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Methylated
spirits that are used to clean mirrors in rich people’s houses. Or to be drunk
by the beggar street children from the bushes near High Chaparral, known to all
at the Unit, where you can buy any drug you desire. Even methylated spirits….
The torn-clothed street boys walk to Dhanraj’s tuck-shop table to buy bottles
of it for a fraction of the cost. Methylated spirits and sniffing glue fumes
from a paper bag quells hunger for days.” </i>(pg. 226)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
If you do not know what sniffing
glue does, you need Google not a novel. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
This book captivates you at moments
like this: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“‘Wait,
just wait. Talk to me for a minute. I'm sorry it turned out that way. I was
forced to marry Kajal. My parents heard I was speaking to you, they quickly
found me a girl.'</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">'Do
you love her?' Meera asked.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">'I...
I do, now, I've learnt to love her, to love my baby boy. I'm content.'</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Well
good for you, Meera thought.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">'So
what do you want with me?' she asked.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">'Meera,
even though I am married, maybe we, I mean maybe things can still happen
between us...' Navin whispered and moved close to her, smelling her perfume.
Hotel room? In the Big City?...</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">'What?
So I'm not good enough to be your wife, but I'm good enough to be your
mistress? You disgust me...' <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“- </i>(pg.
174)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Z P Dala shows how reality stings
idealistic love here. Iqbal is indeed silly:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 40.5pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Life
was not poetry, Haroon knew. Life was divides, and hierarchy, and places where
certain people did not belong. The girl came from rich, snobbish stock – the
ones who felt above everyone else…</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 40.5pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">But
Iqbal, with a head filled with love poems, didn’t see the divide. He only saw
Rooksana’s benign, beautiful face, and knew with all certainty that she would
be his…”</i> (pg. 124-125)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Z P Dala is a promising writer. I
want to read more from her.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-74841005210276200392015-12-29T16:39:00.000+00:002015-12-29T18:31:24.216+00:00“The Story of Anna P, As Told by Herself” by Penny Busetto<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.josephomotayo.blogspot.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">©Joseph Omotayo</b></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 40.5pt; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I
wander down to Roman ruins. There is a bench and I sit down… </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 40.5pt; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
man sits down on the bench beside me, a small round man with a bald head. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 40.5pt; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">–
Ma guarda quei gatti. He points and I follow the line of his finger to where
two cats are mating.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 40.5pt; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">– Gurda
come le paice, alla gattacia. Look at how much she likes it, the filthy she-cat…</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 40.5pt; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– Anche tu gridi cosi? Do you also scream like
that? I don’t reply.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 40.5pt; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">He
takes my hand and leads me to a crowded caffe across the road where he orders a
grappa standing up at the counter. By now his arm is around my waist. He pays,
drinks, and guides me to his car parked nearby. We get inside. He pulls me to
him, already busy unbuttoning his fly, then pushes my head to his lap. I hear
him gasp as he fills my mouth.</i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Before
he is spent we are interrupted by a traffic policeman who knocks officiously on
the window and tells us to move on. The man drives a short way to a park with a
lake. From a public telephone booth he phones a friend and arranges to borrow
his apartment for the afternoon. In exchange, he says, the friend can also have
some fun.” </i>(pg. 57)</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PbdAX__pmOY/VoK0h2GUjXI/AAAAAAAAAzc/IeXY5OWtp3U/s1600/anna%2BP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PbdAX__pmOY/VoK0h2GUjXI/AAAAAAAAAzc/IeXY5OWtp3U/s400/anna%2BP.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
This is not a usual book about
abuse and the abused. This book chronicles pains in an interesting way. The
point of view switches from the first person to second person personal pronouns
to accommodate layers of horrors. It does not beg for cheap sympathy. Stories
similar to Anna P’s are often cheaply relatable, they prematurely bleed you of
strength and emotion. You don’t ask for a full narrative if your sister runs
home abused, you lurch to avenge. Such is the common response stories of abuse
glean from you. When they lack depth, they still spur you to act. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Story of Anna P, as Told by Herself</i></b> is rather deep. It does not exert
immediate response from the reader. It tasks the reader’s patience as it
plunges the reader into the grim quiddity of Anna P’s life. With an efficient
POV that runs <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in media res</i>, Penny
Busetto seems to worsen Anna P's victimhood. She pulls her about. In the
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Book of the Present</i>, I loathed Anna
P. She cuts across as dull, soft and pliable. Everything grows on her. Any
stranger could dig into her cone, anytime, anywhere <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(see. pg. 41-42)</i>. She is empty. Her utter emptiness reminds one of Michael
K in J.M Coetzee’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Life and Times of Michael K</i></b>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anna P was beginning to repulse me until I
understood her in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Book of Memory</i>.
In the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Book of Memory</i>, her story
wrenches the heart. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Book of the Future</i>
is a cul-de-sac. There, Anna P’s freedom edgily stretches her. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
When <a href="http://sugabellyrocks.com/2015/11/surviving-mustapha-audu-and-his-rape-brigade.html" target="_blank">the Sugabelly-Audu narrative broke more than a month ago</a>, we mocked her. We wished her back to her hellhole. What
kind of a girl gets serially abused and still stays in it? We rationalized and
questioned. This is one of the ways we attack the abused. This is crazy. We are
mad. There is a clear similarity between the Sugabelly-Audu saga and Anna P’s.
Psychological troubles are often generally misunderstood. We are stupidly quick
to label them unusual. This world is reeking of many unashamed predators. The
sooner we know this, the better for the emotionally tarred. Anna P’s mother is
clueless and Anna P bears the brunt. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In a simple yet assured prose,
Penny Busetto bares the most dampened part of the human soul. With a character
floating between loss and amnesia, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Story of Anna P, as Told by Herself</i></b>
investigates the extremity of sexual trauma. The life of this character
is disturbing. Anna P freely lives on the pages, she does not give a F about
the world. She does not take herself seriously. She does not wallow in the
bespoke grief life causes the abused. She lives on a routine. Her life is a
timetable. She seems not to need the world even as she yearns for it in Sabrina
and Ugo. With a sedentary teaching job, Anna P lives a terribly lonely life as
she is torn between worlds, between her past South Africa and present Italy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I
am not sure any more how I ended up here on the island. I think I came to see
the ruins and forgot to go back. The local school needed an English teacher and
I was asked to stand in until the Ministry in Rome appointed someone.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">But
that was twenty years ago…</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I am
always filled with a yearning for something I can’t put my finger on or
understand. At times the pain is so great that I wish I were a man and could
pay a woman to hold me for a few hours, to make it pass. My body longs to be
held and comforted, to know the warmth and softness of touch.” </i>(pg. ix)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I am always wary of literatures
that further stereotypical stories of places and their people. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Story of Anna P as, Told by Herself</i></b> does that bad with the Italians. Most
of the Italians appear daft. They are shown as bereft of simple civilities. In
this book, sex wafts around unashamedly in Italy. This thickens the common discourse
of Italy’s pervasive sexual bestiality. Nearly every male character in this
book is a sexual predator. This is bad. From the hotelier, Ispettore Lupo, the
stranger on the street, the random lift giver, and to Signor Cappi, everybody pines
for Anna P’s sweet pile. This book tends to a subtle but destructive
vilification of Italians. That one may consider this kind of narrative normal
shows how insidious a single narrative could be.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Also, I find Anna P’s diary
useless as she suffers amnesia. Isn’t a diary a sort of a reminder? In her <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Friday 9 November</i> entry, she writes of
buying a knife. A week after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Friday 16 November)</i>,
she laments not knowing how she comes about the knife. And I began to wonder: does
she write in scattered pages; can’t she flip through her diary to rescue
herself; what’s the point of keeping a diary if not to help memory?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Friday 9 November</b></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How much
is it? I gesture towards the knife.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">She names
the price, doubled I am sure because of what she perceives is an English
accent, the illusion of foreign wealth. I accept and draw out the money. She wraps
the knife carefully first in tissue paper, then in wedding gift wrap, white
with silver wedding bells and the words Tanti Auguri, Congratulations, repeated
over and over…” (pg. 45)</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Memory fails her here:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 22.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Friday 16 November</b></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 22.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I open my handbag and catch sight of a small parcel wrapped in
white-and-silver paper. For some reason the sight bothers me. Without removing
it from my bag I unwrap. Inside it is a knife. I touch it, running my hand
along the handle, touching the hard cold blade. I wonder where it comes from.”
(pg. 57)</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 22.5pt; text-align: justify;">
What is the
point of the diary please? This is the issue I have with the diary.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 22.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Story of Anna P as Told by
Herself</i> </b>is an interesting book. Read it.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-21412766420205012212015-12-22T16:40:00.002+00:002015-12-23T13:08:24.998+00:00“The Fishermen” by Chigozie Obioma<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="http://www.josephomotayo.blogspot.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">©Joseph Omotayo</b></a></div>
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Two things upset life for the
Agwu’s family: the temporary absence of the “Guerdon” man and a superstitious
anxiety. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Fishermen</i></b> is a witty book, it makes sorrow almost a pleasurable
thing to read. This novel is a receptacle of the gnashing ruins that nearly wipe out a
family. The tragedy here is a bleeding one. Pages gush with unimaginable sorrows.
With an elegant simplicity, Chigozie Obioma narrates a woe all at once terrible
and vivid. With vivacious expressions sharply fleshing out images, the reader
is inured to misfortunes. You are pulled into a participatory reading of the
text. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Fishermen</i></b>’s chic use of words entices the reader. In a way
that smacks of Oscar Wilde’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Picture
of Dorian Gray</i>, Chigozie Obioma creates beauty and shreds it. This book elaborates
a quotidian family life interspersed with the fragile political tensions of the
1990’s. This is majorly the story of four brothers soused in fleeting joys and suffusive griefs. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In a clearly portrayed 1990s,
Ikenna, Boja, Obembe and Benjamin, all brothers, turn fishermen of fishes,
hope, and disaster. Their childhood is battered repeatedly and adulthood soon
steals on them. At Omi-Ala, they draw evil home. The turbulence that wracks
their household creates a million stories for the reader’s delight. Flashbacks
and foretelling chapter titles mix well in this book. Chapter titles like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fishermen, Sparrow, Locusts, </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fungus </i>are suggestive of impending
issues. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Fishermen</i></b> blends the superstitious with the cultural.
Everything you take away from the book is subjected to your belief. Life’s
checkered nature is wicked as it bites hard on these brothers. This book is a
quiver of memories, if you witnessed the full cycle of the ‘90s, memories of
those times will flush you as you read. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Fishermen</i></b> packs enough of
infantile gimmickries and mischiefs to double you up. I could see bits of myself
in the childhood of these fishermen; in their pranks and wits. My mother would
never know (except she read this) why money charged for grinding pepper kept
soaring each time she sent me and my sibling to the grinder. The surcharge paid
for our stay at game houses. If you never played SEGA game console, your
childhood needs to be reconstructed. Trust me. Your childhood is bland. This sent
me chortling silly:</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“After
this fight, we got tired of going outdoors. At my suggestions, we begged Mother
to convince Father to release the console game set to play Mortal Kombat, which
he seized and hid somewhere the previous year after Boja – who was known for
his usual first person in his class – came home with 14<sup>th</sup> scribbled in
red ink on his report card and the warning Likely to repeat. Ikenna did not
fare any better; his was sixteenth out of forty and it came with a personal
letter to Father from his teacher, Mrs Bukky. Father read out the letter in
such a fit of anger that the only words I heard were ‘Gracious me! Gracious me!’…
He would confiscate the games and forever cut off from the moments that often
sent us swirling with excitement, screaming and howling when the invisible
commentator in the game ordered, ‘Finish him’, and the conquering sprite would
inflict serious blows on the vanquished sprite by either kicking it up to the
sky or by slicing it into a grotesque explosion of bones and blood. The screen
would then go abuzz with ‘fatality’ inscribed in strobe letters of flame. Once,
Obembe – in the midst of reliving himself – ran out of the toilet just to be
there so he could join in and cry ‘That is fatal!’ in an American accent that
mimicked the console’s voice-over. Mother would punish him later when she
discovered he’d unknowingly dropped excreta on the rug.” </i>(pg. 15)</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
This book could make for a good literary
feminist reading. The frail place of women in the society, how they are
subalterned, how they are made as the other, is subtly spread across the book.
Women characters in the book seem lopsided and almost unintelligent. Things
slip off them before they even know. The character of Mother is interesting.
For someone who seems to “own copies” of her children’s “minds” (pg. 103), she
seems not to be as vigilant as such. She is only fully realized in the presence
of Father. Her maternal vigilance falls apart with his momentary absence. There
is Iya Iyabo too, a gossip, someone who fits well into your stereotypical
construction of a fish wife. This was in the ‘90s. This makes for an
interesting study of women and their roles across ages. Was your ‘90s filled
with these types of women or not? You could even do a brief study of women in
the society from the ‘90s till now, and see if anything has really changed. Doing
a literary feminist criticism of this book will then be critically assessing
that aspect of feminist theory which Toril Moil calls the ‘feminine’ aspect as
opposed to the ‘feminist’ phase of gender criticism. This ‘feminist’ aspect she
calls a political position (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">see Peter
Barry’s Beginning Theory, 2<sup>nd</sup> ed.</i>). Feminine reading of the text
will be exploring “a set of culturally identified characteristics” of women and
see if women’s place in the society as portrayed in this novel has not been exaggerated
or understated.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In a flush of thick mishaps, events in this
book follow after the law of causality. This calls David Hume’s “Necessary
Conjunction” to mind, the way minds are copies of experiences (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">see David Hume’s An Enquiry concerning Human
Understanding</i>). Causality says the human minds run in a tight chain of
causes and effects. By experience, we habitually give ready conclusions to
things. If A happens, then we know B will necessarily follow. This curious case
of automatic relation of things and events deepens the tragedy in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Fishermen</i></b>. People’s experiences with the crazed yammering of Abulu make
Abulu a god. Even the supernatural seems to be at a loss on how to deal with Abulu.
Ikenna is driven sore and begins providing conclusions to Abulu’s utterings. Even
their educated Father falls prey to this automatic relation of events. It is
just human to necessarily conjunct related events. This is the way our society
is built. Chigozie Obioma takes us to that tender territory of our psyche and
how it affects our lives and communities.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I love this book! Editors of this
book did something sterling. I could not find a sentence out of place. The use of punctuations
marvel you. Words jump out of the book and pull you in. You can feel their hands
on you. This is editing at its best. I love <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Fishermen</i>.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">***** </b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Upcoming:</b></div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tram 83</i> by Fiston Mwanza
Mujila</b></li>
<li><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What About Meera</i> by Z P Dala</b></li>
</ul>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-53158281944739638972015-12-15T18:50:00.004+00:002015-12-15T18:50:50.159+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 36px; text-align: justify;">Etisalat Prize for Literature 2015 Shortlist Announced</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">Etisalat Prize for Literature 2015 Shortlist Announced<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">Lagos, Nigeria: December 14, 2015:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;"> Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Penny Busetto
and Rehana Rossouw are today announced as the three </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">shortlisted authors for the 2015 Etisalat Prize for Literature. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">The Etisalat Prize for Literature is
the first pan-African Prize that is open solely to debut fiction writers from
African countries. Now in its third year, it is acknowledged as the most
prestigious literary prize for African fiction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">The three books, selected from the
longlist of nine, are:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">•<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">Fiston Mwanza Mujila (Democratic Republic of Congo) - <i>Tram 83</i> (Deep Vellum)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">•<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">Penny Busetto (South Africa) - <i>The Story of Anna P, as Told by Herself</i> (Jacana Media)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">•<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">Rehana Rossouw (South Africa) - <i>What Will People Say?</i> (Jacana Media)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">The shortlist was selected by a
three-member judging panel: </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">Professor
Ato Quayson, Professor of English and inaugural Director of the Centre for
Diaspora Studies at the University of Toronto</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;"> (Chair of Judges); </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">Molara Wood, writer, journalist, critic and editor; and Zukiswa
Wanner, author of <i>Men of the South</i>
and <i>London Cape Town Joburg</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">.</span><span style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">Chair of judges, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">Professor Ato Quayson</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">, comments: “The variety of styles and subject matter of
the books on this year's Etisalat Prize for Literature shortlist reveal the
vitality of contemporary African literature. They contribute to our
understanding of what it is to love, to laugh, to improvise, sometimes to
despair, to know and yet be fooled by the assurance of such knowledge, to work
for our ablution in the fate of another's suffering, and ultimately to embrace
life in all its bewildering complexities.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">Zukiswa
Wanner </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">adds: “This year's Etisalat Prize for Literature shortlist
showcases the varied voices emerging on the African literary scene, bringing
something beautiful and unique to the reading experience.”</span><span style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">The third member
of the judging panel, Molara Wood concludes:</span><span style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;"> <span lang="EN-US">“The shortlisted books challenge ready
notions about new writing from Africa. They expand the field of literary
engagement with themes of nationhood and the self. These are highly original
voices whose works will charm and astonish new readers, through the Etisalat
Prize for Literature, and deservedly so.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">The shortlisted writers will be
rewarded with a sponsored multi-city book tour and will also have 1,000 copies
of their books purchased by Etisalat for distribution to schools, libraries and
book clubs across the Continent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">NoViolet Bulawayo won the maiden
edition of the Etisalat Prize for Literature with her highly celebrated debut
novel, We Need New Names, while Songeziwe Mahlangu emerged winner of the 2014
Etisalat Prize for Literature competition with his novel, Penumbra<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">The winner of the 2015 Etisalat
Prize for Literature will be announced in March and will receive £15,000, an
engraved Montblanc </span><b><span style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meisterst%C3%BCck"><i><span style="color: black;">Meisterstück</span></i></a></span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;"> pen. The Prize also includes an
Etisalat sponsored fellowship at the University of East Anglia, mentored by
Professor Giles Foden, author of <i>The Last
King of Scotland</i>.</span><b><span style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">The distinguished Patrons of the
Etisalat Prize are noted the acclaimed writer Ama Ata Aidoo (Ghana), Pulitzer
Prize Winner Dele Olojede (Nigeria), editor, critic and 2015 Man Booker Prize
Judge, Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, OBE (UK/Zimbabwe), writer and public intellectual
Kole Omotoso (Nigeria), editor, writer, broadcaster, consultant and co-founder
of Allison & Busby, Margaret Busby, OBE (UK/Ghana) and novelist, poet and
playwright Zakes Mda (South Africa).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">For more information about the
Prize, visit </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Neo Tech Alt","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><a href="http://prize.etisalat.com.ng/">http://prize.etisalat.com.ng/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">About
Etisalat Nigeria<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">In just seven years of operations,
Etisalat Nigeria has become a major industry player with a growing subscriber
base of 23 million in a highly competitive market. Its portfolio of voice and
data-centric products include – Easy starter, Easycliq, Cliqlite, Classic
Post-paid, Easybusiness and Easyblaze; all tailor-made to meet the needs of its
customers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;">Etisalat Nigeria is one of the 19 operations of the Etisalat Group
spanning Africa, the Middle East and Asia and serving over 182 million
subscribers. Etisalat Nigeria is committed to delivering innovative and quality
services to its growing subscribers.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Neo Tech Alt', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-13969470902524928032015-12-14T14:33:00.001+00:002015-12-14T18:56:22.239+00:00“Season of Crimson Blossoms” by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nQ7be27txNk/Vm7R_oTSy0I/AAAAAAAAAyo/5cElaJzWsIA/s1600/book.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nQ7be27txNk/Vm7R_oTSy0I/AAAAAAAAAyo/5cElaJzWsIA/s320/book.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.josephomotayo.blogspot.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">©</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Joseph Omotayo</span></b></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Season of Crimson Blossoms</i></b>
grippingly depicts the vagaries of life. It bares realities and its intricacies.
It examines the moral rules we live by. Humanity could be confusing; the same rigid
laws that guide us, snuff us out. In the manner characteristic of Victorian
literature, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim explores a puritanical society. Interestingly,
he portrays well the fragile veneer masking strict morality. The society portrayed
in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Season
of Crimson Blossoms</i></b> is typical of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s <i>The Scarlet Letter</i>.
Binta Zubairu and Hester Prynne share a striking similarity in their woes. This
is how a puritanical society works: freedom is rejected for adherence;
practicality is celebrated over sheer pleasure; the human will is heavily influenced by
prescriptive religious mores. With that prescriptiveness, society turns against
itself in its constant moralistic sanitization. Humanity is seen striving for
divinity, and there lies the evil that ravages it. Humanity is humanity. The
Supernatural is the Supernatural. When humans long to be preternatural, many
things give. In <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Season of Crimson Blossoms</i></b>, Binta Zabairu gives; Hassan ‘Reza’
Babale gives, and everything that surrounds their stormy relations.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The novel is the story of love (lust?)
in unexpected places. Like life, other things follow this. Binta is at the
centre of a complex commotion that trudges to a dampened climax. In Binta’s self realisation, she constantly battles with her society. Nobody wins an African society
easily. Ask Ezeulu in Chinua Achebe's <i>Arrow of God</i>. An African society heavily relies on the Ubuntu
philosophy where personhood is only realized in communality. You are nothing
outside the approval of your society. Binta breaches societal and religious
norms, and the consequences are overwhelming. Beyond the travails Binta suffers
and the boisterousness of San Siro are Nigerian politics and the consequent
ethnic-religious crises. There is Senator Buba Maikudi, a roguish politician
oozing grimes and candies from the same side of the mouth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book uses riveting yet subtly dark humour
to capture the entity called Nigeria. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yaro’s,
Zubairu’s, and Fai’za’s parents’ lives serve as a counter-narrative to popular
perspectives on the many ethnic-religious crises in the North. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Season
of Crimson Blossoms</i></b> is a complete debut of everything wrecking a closely
knitted society as ours. Above all, it lauds an individual’s will to rise above
the conventional. Binta wills freedom here:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“She
wanted it to be different. She had always wanted it to be different. And so
when he nudged her that night, instead of rolling on her back and throwing her
legs apart, she rolled into him and reached for his groin. He instinctively
moaned when she caressed his hardness and they both feared their first son,
lying on a mattress would stir.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What
the hell are you doing? The words, half-barked, half whispered, struck her like
a blow. He pinned her down and, without further rituals, lifted her wrapper.
She turned her face to the wall and started counting. The tears slipped down
the side of her closed eyes before she got to twenty.” (pg. 54)</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The above is not just sex. A
woman’s soul is being gruesomely wrenched off. Sex in her home is following
through duteous motions. One would have to understand the kind of society Binta
is in to well appreciate the bravery Binta summons there, as she mounts her
husband. Hers is a society driven by strict religious dicta: a society that
normalizes the objectification of women; a society where you fuck your wife and
she does this:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“When
he’s done, always put your legs up so his seed will run into your womb.” </i>(pg.
51)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
You will cry here. No wetness. No
pleasure. And Zubairu, Binta’s husband, just rams her on:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“…when
he was tossing and turning on the bed next to her, she knew he would nudge her
with his knee and she would have to throw her legs open. He would lift her
wrapper, spits into her crotch and mount her…She would count slowly under her
breath, her eyes closed…And somewhere between sixty and seventy – always
between sixty and seventy – he would grunt, empty himself and roll off her
until he was ready to go again.”</i> (pg. 53-54)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I love the way language is used
in this book. Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s use of language impresses. In fact,
before you get yourself into the story, language hooks you first. In showing
the way Binta breaks free, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim paints it well here: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Hajiya
Binta Zubairu <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>was finally born at
fifty-five</u></b> when a dark-lipped rogue with short, spiky hair, like a
field of miniscule anthills scaled her fence and landed, boots and all, in the
puddle that was her heart.” </i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">emphasis
mine </b>(pg. 3).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
You will love the poeticity of
his language. Meanings are compressed and left to swell in your mind. Check
this:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“After
growing wings through indiscretion, Hajiya Binta, contrary to her expectation,
did not transform into an eagle, but an owl that thrived in the darkness in
which she and Reza communed.”</i> (pg. 123)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
My favourite in the book is how
this everyday teenage act is simply shown:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“…the
girl was already up, wiping sleep from her eyes with a cotton ball dipped in
facial cleanser.”</i> (pg. 33)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Everything in this novel reflects
the postcolonial. I like this. The postcolonial always aims to deconstruct and
break hegemony of discourses. Characters in this book de-stereotype societal held norms.
There is a subtle attack on societal negative ancientness. Binta breaks
Patriarchal power in many ways. An instance is the way she perpetually scorns
Mallam Haruna’s proposition. Characters triumph in their complexities to
challenge pigeonholing. Reza may be a street rogue and bestial political tool,
however, the orderliness he enforces in San Siro shows an unconventional
intellect at play. The lord of San Siro, a place where street scums trade in the illegal,
Reza’s humanity shines off nevertheless. His soft spots for Binta and his familiar
trauma are the two sides of him he struggles to manage.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
However, some of the many deconstructions
in this book are not without their faults. In the overreaching attempt to stab
stereotypes, Abubaka Adam Ibrahim seems to desperately over essentialise
characters and incredulity stings you in the face. Some characters in this book
shove unbelievable intellects into your face. The book takes it far when Reza
sees the need to get Leila a book while in his captivity: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I
found this on my way back yesterday at a second-hand bookseller’s. I thought you
could do with something to read. Keep you company, you understand?”</i> (pg.
284)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is Reza! Not Fai’za and her friends, who we know to love
books. I find the passion Binta shows towards literary works unnatural. I see
it as a belaboured attempt to elevate this character into something she is not.
This is an imposed intellection, another place where deconstruction terribly fails.
Consider this:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“While
dusting the small pile of books shelved on the little cupboard in the corner,
her eyes fell on Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. But Binta picked out a
Danielle Steel novel instead and tossed it on the couch…” (pg. 34)</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At a time in the book, she is seen philosophising about the old man’s
struggle at sea, relating it to her own life. That part of her marvels me! What an
intellectual! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
You should read <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Season
of Crimson Blossoms</i></b>. There are so many things to love the book for.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
***</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Upcoming this month:</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Fishermen</i> by Chigozie Obioma </li>
<li><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tram 83</i> by Fiston Mwanza Mujila</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-88154961808722447142015-05-22T08:59:00.001+01:002015-12-03T11:07:25.603+00:00Exploring John Keats' Philosophy of Art in “Ode On A Grecian Urn”<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ode
on a Grecian Urn</i></b> celebrates the reality of still-life in art than the
harsh realities of normal life. In the painting on the Grecian Urn, everything
becomes important in their lifelessness and stillness. It is as if John Keats
is elevating deadness to life as an ultimate escape from life’s stinging
realities. In the poem, John Keats comes to see art as many things. For one, he
glorifies it as he portrays it as the fulfillment of that which the limitedness
of life cannot achieve. The limitations of life are various; and they have
always continued to define humans. Time and its transience are perhaps the
dominant of these limitations. Most times, these limitations make the joy of
living pass off so soon. In <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ode on a Grecian Urn</i></b>, the opposite
of that is attained; everything is permanent. Permanence rolls on with luxuries,
longings, and unending passions. However, amidst these luxuries of permanence
are unanswered questions – the evil of stillness perhaps, perhaps not. In the
poem, so many questions are left unanswered. More than they being rhetorical,
one may say, just as with stillness, answers to them have also been frozen:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who are these coming to the
sacrifice?...</i></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> ....And all her silken flanks with garlands drest? </i>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .25in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What little town by river or sea
shore, </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is emptied of this folk, this
pious morn?</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
John Keats’
philosophy of art can be briefly summed up as: art is that which life is not.
That means art’s glory is manifested in the inadequacies of life. In the poem,
one can deduce John Keats’ philosophy of life as thus: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Art as an ultimate preserver</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Art
as a Keeper of Beauty and Time</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Art
as a True Picture of Humanity</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Art
as a form of Escapism</i>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Art as an Ultimate Preserver</u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
The addressed
Grecian Urn is an object that records the various scenes and stories the poem
talks about. In the opening of the poem, the persona calls this urn:</div>
<div class="Default" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 1.0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness…</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
And to further
portray the preserver and recorder nature of the urn, he follows the above
with:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 4.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thou foster-child of silence and slow time, </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
The painting on the
urn preserves the histories of man by freezing and keeping the pictures in
ultimate silence, so that nothing is rushed and nothing uttered. It is because
of this feature of the painting that an encounter with the many stories on the
urn is possible with the persona. Many people, like the persona, must also have
witnessed this same painting on the urn and the Grecian urn must have been in
existences for years. It is in the ability of the painting as an ultimate
preserver that such stories still live on for the persona to encounter and
relive in the poem. Hence, deducedly, John Keats sees art as the ultimate
preserver.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Art as a Keeper of Beauty and Time</u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
In stanza two of
the poem, a lover bent on winning a damsel is implored to take ease. He is so
advised because time is permanent and his lover’s beauty will be forever fresh.
However, there is futility of pursuit to the lover's attempt; he will never be able to
kiss the lady, his wooing would not stop and her beauty will not fade. In the
art he is perpetually subjected to eternal grieve of continued proposition. The
endless pursuit of the lover is portrayed here:</div>
<div class="Default" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 27.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss, </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 27.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Though winning near the goal - yet,
do not grieve; </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 27.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">She cannot fade, though thou hast
not thy bliss, </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 27.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">For ever wilt thou love, and she be
fair! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Art as a True Picture of Humanity</u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
On the Grecian
urn, different stories are told about various occasions of life. The different
scenes on the urn come to picturesquely depict humanity in all its forms – the fantasies,
wiles, beauty and religion. As humanity is made up of different happenings so
also are the paintings on the urn. In the first stanza of the poem, one
encounters the wild sexual ecstasy of men, of maidens wanting to escape this
wild estasy and the stomping revelry around it all:</div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> …</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">What maidens loth?</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></i><br />
<div class="Default" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 1.0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></i></div>
<div class="Default" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 1.0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br />
In the second stanza, there is music and a story of love. These two subjects
are of essence to life. Music, an integral part of our daily existence and
love, as some say, the thing our emotions must uniformly identify with:</div>
<div class="Default" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 63.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 63.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Are sweeter:
therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;…</i></div>
<div class="Default" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 63.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 63.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss, </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 63.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Though winning near
the goal - yet, do not grieve…</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the fourth stanza, one is confronted with
religion. There is a ritual rite to be carried out. One sees a priest
approaching an altar to offer sacrifice to some gods, perhaps in appeasement
perhaps for other things. One can only assume.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Art as a Form of Escapism</u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
By reflecting on
the pictures on the urn and eulogizing them, John Keats engages in escapism. He
goes into the world portrayed on the urn to briefly forget the horrors of this
world and its temporal nature. The reason for John Keats’ escapism is
understandable. One could link this escapism to John Keats’ falling health as
this poem was composed at a time tuberculosis was almost pulling the last
strand of his life<sup>1</sup>. In exalting the still nature of the art, he is
imploring the reader to turn away from life and focus on art as the ideal form
life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Reference</b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> 1. </span></span></span></b>Biography Online: <b>John Keats Biography </b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">(<a href="https://www.biographyonline.net/poets/john-keats.html">https://www.biographyonline.net/poets/john-keats.html</a>)</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<ul>
</ul>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-74667129627000163252014-06-30T22:39:00.000+01:002014-06-30T22:39:31.620+01:002014 Caine Prize Shortlist (2)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<ul>
<li><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Read the first part of the review <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2014/05/2014-caine-shortlist-1.html" target="_blank">HERE</a></i></div>
</b></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
If you are patient enough, you might
like some pieces in this year’s Caine Prize than you thought. Just like how I
couldn’t relate with Absurdism in my drama class, few things in some of these
pieces, especially those I will be focusing on in the last part of this review,
frustrated my reading. The internet does not allow you to easily give the kind
of attention these stories demand. The internet is a jealous thing, you
know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And one with more interesting
stories to offer. In my drama class, for the grade, I took to liking the
Absurdist movement; if only to be able to fault it well and please my lecturer.
In the nonsensicalness of Vladimir and Estragon (in Samuel <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Beckett’s
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Waiting for Godot, </i>an absurdist play
text), I took up an interest, rationalizing everything in to make sense of
everything. In the endless dribbles of Vladimir and Estragon and the bestial servitude
of Lucky to Pozzo, I saw how humanity could be vain and nothing and wicked. And
so with the responsibility that comes with completing this review, I have made some
sense of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Gorilla’s Apprentice </i></b>and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Intervention</i></b> and I
have dug up some interesting things in them; if only to be able to review them
well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
These stories usefully make use
of good subtleties. In Billy Kahora’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Gorilla’s Apprentice</i></b> for
instance, nothing is directly quickly revealed. Before anything is really
shown, you must have known, so that when it is eventually revealed, it does not
then only become a revelation, but a knowledge that is made known to understand
other things. Instances of this abound in Billy Kahora’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Gorilla’s Apprentice</i></b>.
It is in the same use of subtleties, that Billy’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Gorilla’s Apprentice</i></b>
and Tendia’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Intervention</i></b> share some writing style. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The Intervention”</i></b>,
though politics is a noticeable theme, the writer does not make it dominant. He
only turns it into a passing commentary that complements the squabble between
the young couple of Tamu and Sarah, and the characters’ lives as exiles. With
this, it is only in the sufferings and anxieties of these characters and their
conditions as immigrants that commentaries on the devilish politics running down
their home country are made. Interesting way of writing there. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
With <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The Gorilla’s Apprentice”</i></b>
too, the author never pushes it to you that Kenya is in a political turmoil.
After you may have been hooked by Jimmy’s obsession with the old mountain
Gorilla, chips of political uncertainties are only made reflective: in how long
the tourists will stay at the zoo; in the crazy attitude of motorists on the
way to Jimmy’s house; in the screams and billows observed away from the zoo.
All these subtleties make these two pieces somewhat engaging. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“The Gorilla’s Apprentice”</b> by Billy Kahora</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Nothing matters to Jimmy Gukonyo,
only the Gorilla does. The zoo is his escape from many miseries. That boy
really has suffered. From a torn home, to the miseries that come with being
raised by a single parent and his sight condition; a young boy cannot have bargained
for so much despair. Nothing bears him comfort than in the non-verbal company
of the gorilla. So, it is understandable that life for the gorilla is also one
for him. As the gorilla ails, Jimmy soon seeks a way to talk to it. Semambo is
his solution; Semambo is the havoc.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Billy takes feminism overboard in
this piece. It does piss me off! We should stop this vogue of making men
unjustifiably cruel in literature. This is the kind of literature that preys on
the common for some misplaced gender right. We are never informed of what
happens to Jimmy’s father, why he leaves Jimmy and his mother. We do not know
what he does or does not do. All the reader knows is that he is the devil and
the cause for the broken home. The author does not tell you this directly
though, but the manner Jimmy’s father is mentioned in the stories makes you
assumes as much. When a man leaves his home and child, he is always the devil
and the women a saint in her singlehood (as she finds life afterwards in all
manner). Just make men the devils anyhow and female characters in our
literature are instant heroines. Rubbish.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“When Jimmy was twelve <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>his father left them</u></b>, and Jimmy began to come on his own,
except for the year he had been in and out of hospital.” </i>(pg. 1)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Why did he leave? Billy will not
tell you. Billy will again tell you he left:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Jimmy
knew all about these children – had lived among them, and become one of them
after <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>his father had left</u></b> and
his mother had taken them to her parents’ in Kerugoya for six months.” </i>(pg.
3)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
And then the father will be
called names:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“‘What are rabbits anyway? <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>Your father is a rabbit</u></b>. Always
up in some hole.’” </i>(pg. 4)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The question for his leaving is
still unanswered:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">“ ‘You know, when <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>your father left</u></b> I thought that
we would just die, but look at us now.’” </span></i><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">(pg. 4)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
And Jimmy’s mother is made a
heroine:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">She would smear on her lipstick and flounce out of the apartment to meet
a new man friend. (I’ve no time for boys. I need a man. James, will you be my
man? Protect me.)</span>” </i>(pg. 4)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“The Intervention”</b> by Tendai Huchu</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
This interestingly blends a large
scale political turbulence with a trivial emotional issue. In this story, the
characters are distanced victims of what is happening in their country. This is
one piece that almost articulates the drivel and dribble of the exiled. It
shows the hypocrisy of opinionated immigrants even as they are ensconced
elsewhere away from where it burns. It is easy to wax rhetoric when you are
removed off the heat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a long time,
exile will always be better than home for third world immigrants. They might
only say otherwise to constantly always remind themselves; that they have
homes, that their exile is not total. But really, the exile is total.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Z will hope the opposition party
wins the election here:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“ ‘Change is coming to Zimbabwe,’ Z said. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘It’s
been a long time coming,’ said the blazo. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘As
soon as our victory is confirmed, I’m packing my bags, leaving this goddamn
country and going home,’ Z went on.” </i>(pg. 8)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
But when something else happens,
his hypocrisy is magnified:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The results were out. The Party had won. The Party had won. The Party had
won. The Party had. The Party? I saw a joyful smile mixed in with relief on Z’s
face, because the Party’s win was a victory for him too. He had an asylum claim
pending with the Home Office and if the Opposition had won, he’d have been
screwed. He quickly mastered himself and frowned, now wearing a new look, a
cross between sorrow and anger.</span>”</i> (pg. 8)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
Does anyone
understand the dumb poetic outburst of Samba here in the story?:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<i>“The
children of Africa cry </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<i>Waa-waa-waa
</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<i>When
they should be laughing </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<i>Ki-ki-ki
</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<i>Can
you hear them, can you hear them. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<i>Will
you help them, will you help them. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<i>The
land of the fat hippopotamus </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<i>The
home of the mighty Zambezi </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<i>The
mystical ancestors </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<i>The
wide African skies </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<i>The
children of Africa cry </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<i>Waa-waa-waa”
</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(pg. 9)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Just what is the significance of that anyway?
And don’t tell me it is a mark of some resignation. There are several other
ways that could be achieved.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
This year’s
stories are mixed for me. They all have what you will like them for and
otherwise.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 463.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Follow Joseph Omotayo on
Twitter @omotayome</b></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-45280099580943746492014-05-31T15:53:00.000+01:002014-06-30T22:50:30.661+01:002014 Caine Prize Shortlist (1)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">©<a href="http://www.josephomotayo.blogspot.com/">Joseph Omotayo</a></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kkv4qJ4JlZk/U4neZFg621I/AAAAAAAAAuE/_4FWii4NnMw/s1600/Caine+logo+2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kkv4qJ4JlZk/U4neZFg621I/AAAAAAAAAuE/_4FWii4NnMw/s1600/Caine+logo+2.gif" height="110" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
This year, it is not that some
pieces are not politically marked and steeped into the usual third world concerns.
They subtly are. You perhaps would think otherwise in the manner they have
tried to roll abstractness around those concerns. We have abstractness
alongside other worries shoddily inserted by some of the pieces. Interesting, however,
is that some manage through their narratives to hold us, slightly, with these worries.
They achieved that with a bit of imagery here and there, which is, anyway, some respite from
the many issues these stories have.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
These concerns I write of are the
usual themes ruining down and reeking in most African stories – themes of
deep-seated social tension, poverty, political instability and their murky
likes. We have them stinking everywhere. Perhaps, what some of these
shortlisted writers will be applauded for is that, in some way, they succeeded
in toning down the usual paper gloominess for us. But their doing so hardly
motivates. These stories take some easing into. Just why must one ease into a short story? It is not a novel! In a short story, if you can’t
hook your reader early enough, boredom shadows the rest of the story for him. This
is one problem a story like “Phosphorescence” much struggles with. Its reading demands
patience. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Clear enough, the many problems with these stories haven’t
anything to do with their themes. Rather, it is in how they write about them. Your reading
glee faints, slumps, subsists and dies. Another day, you pick them up from
where you left off and your interest again dies and you doze off and slur. When
this happens, you don’t have a reading problem, the stories only make it so. It
is never your fault. I really wanted to believe there were a lot going on for
the stories but stubbornly as I read hard, almost everything was pallid. I had
to read these pieces many times over. I have never spent that much time with
short stories. I was only overly optimistic that something in them might just
connect for me. It took me some stubborn curiosities to go far with some of
them: the curiosities to know what significance chicken has with Kaba and the
whole grand scheme of things in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Chicken”</i></b>; what makes Jimmy, a boy
obsessed with a gorilla, a Gorilla’s Apprentice in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The Gorilla’s Apprentice”</i></b>
and other mental wanderings. You must be a traditional reader to finish reading these
stories at a first pickup. To be a traditional reader is to want to dig up more in a story, a reader whose attention is not easily lost. When
you are not, you’re quickly bored.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are a host of short stories on the web starved of relative attention. Writing prizes are falling at archiving the best for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometime lately, I read <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jowhor’s
“Afternoon Street” </span><a href="http://brittlepaper.com/2014/05/afternoon-street-jowhor-ile/">here</a>. If
a piece like that could handle a theme as abstract as delirium with apt skill, why not Okwiri Oduor’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My Father’s Head</i></b>? <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: center 3.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Harrington; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">--
The Shortlists --</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>“Phosphorescence”
by Daine Awerbuck</u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Phosphorescence”</i></b> shows
how pride most times influences what we make of people. With Alice, Brittany is an helpless and confused teenager. Perhaps she is. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>For most part of the story, the reader knows
all what Brittany is from Alice’s eyes. But Alice’s view of Brittany might not
just be the whole truth. What later turns out at Graaf’s pool will make you question
Alice’s opinion of her granddaughter. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Phosphorescence” stacks up the old with the
young. This is a metaphor of many interpretations. In a way, one can relate Alice’s
and Brittany’s brief walk-out-to-the-pool relationship as one that portrays
the value of family. Just what could have been with Alice in
the pool as the municipality calls?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
For most part, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Phosphorescence</i></b>”
reads like an academic creative short story. Every sentence is over-edited. The
sentences seem too careful. The language is rigid. It most reads like a
submission for one’s lecturer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>“Chicken” by Efeima Chela</u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I don’t just get the first part
of this piece. Tell me, how does it connect with the whole part of the story? Cut
the first part off and read the remaining as a whole and tell if the story
still not stands. It really does. This is one winding story. If the first part
of the story is to provide a background to Kaba, then it fails with its numerous
details about her family. And oh, it even yammers on as it chronicles Kaba’s
extended life also. Again, what significance does the title bear to the story?
Apart from a few slaughtered chickens, there is no other place that shows the relevance
of the title to the story. This makes you want to ask; how are titles chosen
for stories? However subtle, shouldn’t there be a correlation between stories
and titles?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
“Chicken” narrates the derailing
life of Kaba. Her stubborn belief in herself will not save her. Numerous forces
will haunt her. With families and home flung off for a (misplaced) belief, Kaba
shoulders it all. And almost rises above them all with a keen spirit, soul and
ovary.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>“My Father’s Head” by Okwiri Odour</u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
This is slightly dabbled with the
imaginative to captivate. Simbi strides the real world and beyond to know what exactly her father’s head looks like. Around the
delicate nuance of recalling the memory of a head are minutes of everything
from banal religiosity to social imbalance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The ability of a writer to tell so much in a short story often relies on
the influences of remarkable images. For me, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“My Father’s head”</i></b> is
just a story, nothing more. I believe the use of more images would have helped tell
the story better. More engaging images as these:</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">“One moment I was listening to
tales of Acholi valour, and the next, I was stringing together images of my
father, making his limbs move and his lips spew words, so that in the end, he
was a marionette and my memories of him were only scenes in a theatrical
display.” </span></i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“…</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">I
could even see the thick line of sweat and oil on his shirt collar, the little</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">brown veins that broke off from
the main stream of dirt and ran down on their own.</span>”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: center; text-indent: -.5in;">
****</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: center; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Read the concluding part of the review <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2014/06/2014-caine-prize-shortlist-2.html" target="_blank">HERE</a></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Follow Joseph
Omotayo on Twitter @omotayome</b></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-75771971857575442962013-12-31T15:12:00.000+00:002014-01-02T19:29:19.200+00:00“Indigo” by Molara Wood<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b><a href="http://www.josephomotayo.blogspot.com/">©Joseph Omotayo</a></b></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kK6a3egorRs/UsLQrwFVtZI/AAAAAAAAAsY/_07SJd1OPVc/s1600/Indigo+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kK6a3egorRs/UsLQrwFVtZI/AAAAAAAAAsY/_07SJd1OPVc/s1600/Indigo+2.jpg" height="320" width="225" /></a></div>
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By now, you should know I delight
much in the short story genre, more so when it is a collection or an anthology.
I already said that many times. <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-whispering-trees-by-abubakar-adam.html">Here</a>
and <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2013/10/african-roar-2013-anthology-of-13-short.html">here</a>
are just few of the times. It is therefore with a certain glee that I approach
every short story. So, when the writer fails, I scream, frown and sulk loudly.
When a book is good, you say it. When it is otherwise, don’t cower and make
many ruin money on boring sentences limping on gummed papers called a book. Children
are suffering in South Sudan <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2013/08/tenants-of-house-by-wale-okediran.html">and
you are there buying hopeless books</a>. This reviewer will always say it the
way it is. Good stories fly over, around and everywhere, begging for readership
every day on the internet. And free too. So why buy a book just for the
spending? Molara Wood’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indigo</i></b> is a reader’s pleasure. Not
just for the spending. This reader tells you so. Truth and simple. Don’t just
tut-tut. Read a copy to prove me wrong. However mixed my feelings are towards a number
of pieces in this collection, some are total delights. To the few
spoiler-stories, that isn’t surprising, going by the number of stories in the
collection. Seventeen short stories. Too many if you ask me.
Seventeen pieces mixed with pleasure and the lows.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indigo</i></b> is angry, subtly
shrill and stinging. Many of its characters are interesting stock victims of
familiar crises: polygamy, barrenness, social insecurities and female objectification, just to mention a few. My familiarity with these crises is deep. If your married sister has
never returned home crying, sobbing through catarrh and cursing marriage, you
won’t know Idera in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Indigo”</i></b>. Forget it. My familiarity with those crises is deep. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indigo</i></b>
groans loudly of women secretly licking sores, gaining confidence, standing tall
though bruised, wincing but still biting. These women’s battles are many. They
confront the many pains punctuating the bravery of womanhood. Of intense pity
is how many of them fight to making lives the ways they want them. In these
fights, some are subtle and others ridicule cheap devilish tradition. These
women want better and they thus work harder. With immense strains, some
succeeded and others only become victims in foolishness. In this foolishness,
you might find Maryam, Emily, Aunty Mina and Aramide’s mother. But this
silliness is not total. It is not willed. In murky circumstances, they only
desire to make their worlds better. And indeed, no human deserves lesser.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indigo</i></b> is angry, subtly
shrill and stinging. Many of its characters are interesting stock victims of
familiar crises:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“
‘Actually the features are not quite set yet…It may be too early to tell who
the baby resembles.’ The last few words dropped haltingly from her mouth, as
she became aware of the frozen stares in her direction. Several women raised
their eyebrows.</i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘Excuse
me, but what do you know?’ The aunt planted one hand on her hip and jutted out
her chin at Idera</i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘I
am sorry?’</i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘I
asked you a question: what do you know about babies? How many have you pushed
out?...</i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bola
shifted, adjusting the baby’s head in the crook of her elbow as she did so.
‘Aunty please…’</i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘No!’
The aunt thrust a hand at Bola, whose mouth clammed shut. ‘Let me deal with
this, this so-called woman’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She poked
the thumb of the other hand at Idera and enquired of her niece, ‘Abi, is this
not the one that came from London and thinks she’s European? The empty husk you
told me about, parched as a fallen leaf in Harmattan?’ ”<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(pg. 14: Indigo)</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Pity;</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“…A
huge sum. As collateral, she left her daughter behind to serve as bonded
labour.</i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘I
did it for you, my dear son. To pay for your primary and secondary education.
To make you what you are today – the first educated man of your generation in
this place. I planned to…reclaim my daughter within two years, but I could
never get the money. And twenty years passed…’ ”</i> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(pg. 84: Girl on the Wall)</b></div>
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This book isn’t just another
feministic bundle adoring women, making them angels, faultless and superiors of
humankind. In this book, the women have their weaknesses and they are not
hidden. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indigo</i></b> makes the cheap a rarity of some sort. This is how you
know when the stereotypical is handled well. No issues in this collection are
far drawn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Julie
would never have come to Mother’s funeral. Not after the March day in 1989 when
Mother came home with Mr Filanda, who dragged my fifteen-year-old sister into
the back of his car as his driver started the engine. Filanda’s moniker was an
alias. He was a known trafficker of girls to Italy. Julie was a trainee ashewo
anyway, Mother sneered after the vehicle, let her go and see how professional
Nigerian prostitutes do it in Europe…”</i> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(pg.
91: In the Time of Job)</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
It is almost clichéd anyway; we
all know the grimes society rub on women. However, it becomes shared evil if
one sees it stereotypical in the vicious ways society and misplaced chauvinism are
slaving them. In this instance, ‘them’ is a devilish distant pronoun. I would
prefer ‘us’ instead. When you slave a woman, some other world crumbles along
with her. In <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indigo</i></b>, nothing of the women’s sufferings is trite. Though
Aunty Mina’s immigration issue may sound over told, it is a trajectory of other
bigger problems: Ade’s trauma and Angela’s family. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indigo</i></b>’s women are
fragile, hunted, but resilient characters. Sariatu refuses to be Gani’s
stopgap; Iriola won’t foolishly follow Kelemo downhill; Idera trashes around
for redemption; Emily won’t go down without an effort; and Falode confronts her
major calamity. These women won’t just give up. These women are all around us.
We know them. Idera might be your sister. Falode could be your next door neighbor.
And Sariatu a representation of all slowly dying subservient women. In Africa,
women suffer, partly to ignorance, majorly to inhumane traditions. In this
case, I would not see Africa as a continent, but a tradition and mentality inhumane
to women. Darn traditions! This book portrays several domesticated evils.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indigo</i></b>’s women are
fragile, hunted, but resilient characters.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Sariatu refuses to be Gani’s
stopgap:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I
cried as I rushed to stop the fight… But my hands disobeyed my voice when I
reached them. I held our husband so that Clara could beat him all the more. I
don’t know where I found the strength.”</i> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(pg. 30-31: Gani’s Fall)</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indigo</i></b>’s women are
fragile, hunted, but resilient characters.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 427.5pt 436.5pt; text-align: justify;">
Falode
confronts her major calamity:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 427.5pt 436.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 427.5pt 436.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“ ‘Mother smiled at Alhaja. ‘Kerosene is
cocaine, as my sister here is fond of saying. Husbands are dearer than eyes’ ”</i>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(pg. 150: The Scarcity of Common Goods)</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 6.5in 472.5pt 7.0in; text-align: justify;">
With
a few flash pieces interspersing the stories and offering brief exciting pauses in
the reading, you can’t be bored. Moreover, the link between <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Free
Rice”</i></b>, a flash story, and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The Scarcity of Common Goods”</i></b>, a short story, provides a creative continuum.
It is more like creating an interlude in a same story for sterling effect. What
this achieves is a complex flux of different emotions in just a story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You will like it. As your emotion is suddenly
clipped off in the brief but engaging <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Free Rice”</i></b>, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The Scarcity of Common Goods” </i></b>gets
it all going again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is saddening
however when you consider that same thing could have been done with flash fictions like <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“A Small Miracle”</i></b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The Girl on the Wall”</i></b>. Engaging
notwithstanding as they are, I see them as frills just blowing in the air.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 6.5in 472.5pt 7.0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 6.5in 472.5pt 7.0in; text-align: justify;">
When
they are many stories in a collection; some stories overfeed on shared themes
and go whining without adding anything new. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The Last Bus Stop”</i></b>
explores the same immigration subject already touched by stories like<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> “In
Name Only”, “In the Time of Job”,</i></b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Leaving Oxford Street”</i></b>.
For me, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The Last Bus Stops</i>”</b> only swells the count. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 6.5in 472.5pt 7.0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 427.5pt 436.5pt; text-align: justify;">
Molara
Wood’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indigo</i></b> is a reader’s pleasure. Not just for the spending. This
reader tells you so. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 427.5pt 436.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 427.5pt 436.5pt; text-align: justify;">
Ok, I
said that before. ;-)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 427.5pt 436.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Follow me on Twitter @omotayome</i></b></li>
</ul>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">**** </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 427.5pt 436.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Critical Literature Review</span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">
closes for the year with this post. Your readership on this blog has been
massive. Google Traffic tracker tells us so. And we are humbled and grateful.
As we resume blogging in the 3rd week of January 2014, we look forward to bringing more diversities
to the blog. In this regard, we kindly ask you recommend books for us (all
genres), contact us (<a href="mailto:jomotayo01@gmail.com">jomotayo01@gmail.com</a>),
send them if you can and we will review them. Happy New Year. Keep reading!
It’s really been fun all the way!</span></div>
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<![endif]-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-31398711878647793452013-12-12T16:32:00.002+00:002013-12-14T22:19:50.834+00:00“Love Is Power, or Something Like That” by A. Igoni Barrett <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5anjoAcsysQ/Uqm_QUcB3jI/AAAAAAAAAr4/GsZoP7LKi9k/s1600/Love+Is+Power,+or+Something+Like+That.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5anjoAcsysQ/Uqm_QUcB3jI/AAAAAAAAAr4/GsZoP7LKi9k/s1600/Love+Is+Power,+or+Something+Like+That.jpg" height="320" width="210" /></a>This is how you know you have
come to read a good book: you open the book and language sponges you in. Such
book does not thrust stories into your face. No. it doesn’t. God eternally
forbids I ever spend my money on any book with tepid language. Believe any
theory you want about literature. Diction always is prime over stories. There
are just no new stories. If literature is the mirror of life, then the stories
it tells are the lives we already know. If there is anything different in a
story, only attribute it to the writer’s creative twist. Nothing is new. My grandma
is one engaging storyteller. If that woman knew what it was to write, she may
have written the best fable rehash ever. Nothing was new in her stories, only
the language entertained us. Igoni’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Love Is Power, or Something Like That” </i></b>tells
nothing new. Its charming language makes everything as beautifully different. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
From <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The Worst Thing That Happened”,</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Trophy”,</i> “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My Smelling Mouth
Problem”</i>, “The Shape of a Full Circle”, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Dream
Chaser”</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Love Is Power, or Something
Like That”,</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Godspeed and Perpetua”,</i>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The Little Girl With Budding Breasts and
a Bubblegum Laugh”</i> to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“A Nairobi
Story of Goings and Comings</i>”, these are pieces as true to the messy life we
live in, the checkered presence we call life, living. Igoni only knows an
engaging way to tell our stories and he does it good. It is all about language,
reader. This book pulls it off very much in that regard. And you will soon find
yourself owning the stories as if you had written them. Igoni serves his fare
that well in this collection of nine stories.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The stories are revolting, funny,
witty and entertaining in a numbing and exhilarating way. Realities could be
wicked. The ways they are presented in this book are brazen and convincing. The
realities in this book are jabbing but not new truths. Igoni only paints wicked
realities and makes them fun all the way. Isn’t that what happens as one gets
inured to known realities? We laugh them off. There is a thrilling panacea in
laughing pains off. We laugh them off, we are relieved but they don’t go away.
They stay with us. In laughter we only find a ridiculous way to cope with them
longer. In this book, even the banal surprisingly gathers cuttingly entertaining
strength. See <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“My Smelling Mouth Problem”</i>
and you would understand why I said so. This is the only thing you get in
originality told in engaging conversation. Yes, Igoni’s book is conversational.
It talks with the reader because the characters are true and the language
engaging. In this book, Igoni’s words sing. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Consider this interesting;</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“He
looked down at her, this weight in his arms. He walked to the bed and placed
her on it. She whimpered, drew up her knees, and crossed her arms over her
chest. He slipped off her sandals, pulled the blanket up to her neck, then
turned on the air conditioner, switched off the light, and lay down on the
carpet at the foot of the bed.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">He
couldn’t sleep. His imagination grew insect legs and crawled all over his
nerves. He scratched his arms, rubbed his face, slapped at his feet. When the
bug bites became unbearable on one side, he rolled over….</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You
don’t have to sleep on the floor, there’s enough space here , she said, patting
the bed… (pg. 127-128)”</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Abuses of the slow demeaning kind
cut across the stories. In <i>“Love Is Power, or Something Like That”</i>, <i>“Trophy”</i>,
<i>“The Shape of a Full Circle”</i> and <i>“The Little Girl With Budding Breasts and a
Bubblegum Laugh”</i>, there is no constant abuser. One moment, the abused is the
abuser, another time, the abuser the abused. Abusers and the violent then
become just terms for the acts and not permanently to identify their doers. Who
is the abuser really: Dimme Abrakasa, the landlord or Daoju Anabraba? Joke or
Babasegun? Shakira or her cousin? Adrawus or the uniform? Godspeed or Perpetua?
Ascertaining this could really be a puzzle. It becomes quite easy when none is
seen less guilty than the other. Everything is interestingly messy and it is in
that foulness that all are connected. None carries a wholesale guilt. Everybody
is as guilty as they are to be pitied. We only need to consider their
circumstances. Or what will you say of the dream chaser, Samu’ila? Would his
brother be more blamed than him with its many internet shenanigans? No. Perhaps.
Confusing? Hahaha.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The stories in this book are
looming and engaging as life. The pains are in chain of causes. Nothing is the
uncaused cause. No one is blameless. I do not speak arcane philosophy here. It
is what is. Life. If you decide to blame Ma Billie’s children for her near
neglect in her old age, what will you say of the event leading to her husband’s
demise and the dogs’?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I first came across <i>“My Smelling
Mouth Problem”</i> as an oral short story. In its written form in this collection,
it reads dull. I wouldn’t want to hold forth on the incompatibility of the oral
to the written. Most oral pieces wouldn’t just remain the same in their written
versions. This is where the written words, as we know them, fail. Try as you
may, when oral pieces are transcribed, they are always as half enjoyable, half
as solid. This is one reason most written Old English poems do not sound as
good as their original oral forms. Go read “The Battle of Maldon”, “Beowulf”
and “The Prologue and Franklin’s Tale” and also listen to them in rendition;
you will moan their written forms. So when I came to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“My Smelling Mouth Problem”</i>, I knew it can’t just be as fluid as
the published oral version. You should listen to the oral version of that story
<a href="http://www.drumlitmag.com/index.php?page=sounds&display=04--Issue_4._September_2010#entry119" target="_blank">here</a>. When you listen to it, you will mock the written version. With the excellent
and profuse use of the Nigerian English, this story is smooth only in its oral
version. God saves us from unthinking publishers. Nothing stops Farafina from
including a disc of the oral version of that story in this book. Any cheap disc
will do the work. That story is entirely whacked in its written form. When you
listen to the <a href="http://www.drumlitmag.com/index.php?page=sounds&display=04--Issue_4._September_2010#entry119" target="_blank">preview of the audio version</a>, you wouldn’t mind paying more to
have an audio version of the story included in the book. And then they will
still attend seminars and reel on making the book better. Isn't this one of the ways of doing so?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Could someone tell me what <i>“Dream
Chaser”</i> is doing in this collection? We have read it in the author’s debut,
<a href="http://josephomotayo.blogspot.com/2010/06/from-caves-of-rotten-teeth-nigeria.html" target="_blank"><i><b>“From Caves of Rotten Teeth</b></i>”</a>. What is with republishing it here? The revision
on it notwithstanding, it is like shortchanging Igoni’s earlier readers. I
skipped it in this book. Just what would I do with a revised old story
republished in a new collection? Whoever the editor is, republishing <i>“Dream
Chaser”</i> is like having a sour mayonnaise sandwiched in soft fresh bread. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Love Is Power, or Something Like
That” </i></b>is eloquent. Its stories are interesting. The writer’s voice is
confident without belaboured. The stories in the collection grow on you. And
you will like them so. You should read this book.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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<ul>
<li><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Follow me on Twitter @omotayome</i></b></li>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-17241591540149323142013-11-23T17:37:00.002+00:002013-11-23T17:59:37.387+00:00“We Need New Names” by NoViolet Bulawayo<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.josephomotayo.blogspot.com/">©Joseph Omotayo</a></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“If you are stealing something it’s better
if it’s small and hideable or something you can eat quickly and be done with
like guavas. That way, people can’t see you with the thing to be reminded that
you are a shameless thief and that you stole it from them, so I don’t know what
the white people were trying to do in the first place, stealing not just a tiny
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kifg88Hk2As/UpDpBaiCxFI/AAAAAAAAArk/m-kuzMuHbZk/s1600/68.Noviolet-Bulawayo-We-Need-New-Names.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kifg88Hk2As/UpDpBaiCxFI/AAAAAAAAArk/m-kuzMuHbZk/s1600/68.Noviolet-Bulawayo-We-Need-New-Names.jpg" height="320" width="206" /></a>I fell in love with almost everything in
this book. Above all, I swooned for its diction. It is simple yet engaging. You
would too when you read it. Bulawayo really has an engaging way with language.
In this book, the language is not just a means of communication but the stories,
the characters even. The language becomes the narrator and the narrator just a
character. In literature, this is what is called an indirect characterization.
With it, we know the characters not only by how we are told they are but by
their personal nuances. In “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We Need New Names”</i></b>, characters are
mostly known for their language property. As Darling changes borders, as her
life becomes less starved, as she begins living out her dreams, as she battles
with adolescence and making meaning of her worlds and making memories of home;
her languages are many. She is her words. Words really are character
developers. When she speaks here you could tell who she is and her condition:</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“We
all find places, and me, I squat behind a rock. This is the worst part about
guavas; because of all those seeds, you get constipated once you eat too much.
Nobody says it, but I know we are constipated again, all of us, because nobody
is trying to talk, or get up and leave. We just eat a lot of guavas because
it’s the only way to kill hunger, and when it comes to defecating, we get in so
much pain it becomes an almost impossible task, like you are trying to give
birth to a country” (pg. 16)</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
And when you encounter her again
here, you needn’t be told her world’s changed. Words are that revealing:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The
teasing stopped only when Tom joined our class; I don’t know where he came from
but he came with these crooked teeth and long, greasy hair and these large
glasses and this sad stutter. Somehow he made them forget about me and I almost
felt like thanking him for it. I remember they teased him harder, maybe because
he was a boy. I remember they always wanted him to fight and called him freak, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">which I had to Google since I had never
heard the word before</b>…” (pg. 106)</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The book could appear grim at the
start. As Darling, Chipo Bastard, Godknows, Sbho and Stina shuffle around in
hunger, poaching around for food and managing boredom, everything is stark
hopelessness. You may wonder who these children meandering around homeless and
roving Budapest for guavas are. You may even question Chipo’s pregnancy. It is
only when you get to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Real Change</i></b> that answers to those
may be provided. The book does have its chain of causes well laid out. Nothing is
desperate. Nothing is patronizing. When I first read<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Hitting Budapest</b>, </i>a
section in the book, as a short story on the Caine shortlist, I wondered at the
demeaning uncertainty it portrayed. There was just no backlink to the story.
The story was just not convincing beyond the desperation to make horrible and enforce
weepy characters. Then, I labelled it desperate. However, just as many were soon
to discover with the publication of the book, I was in the wrong. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps, that is a big problem with submitting
an excerpt of a longer story, of a book in progress, for a competition. But it
worked for Bulawayo anyway. It gave her a winning and a head start for her new
book. However, her critics were only done for with their tired sophistry and shoogly
views, shrilling about how stereotypes in African stories must stop. SMH.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Bulawayo really pulls it off with
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How
They Left</i></b>. That part of the book does serve as a good plot divider. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How
They Left</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>takes the reader
into the changed world of Darling. In this world, we begin to see how everything
gradually upturns in Darling’s endearing vision of America. And when you come
to the next part of the book, titled <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">DestroyedMichygen</i></b>, subtle presages of what
are to come to Darling are not lost on you. I just love this book! I hope
somebody who’s read it does too. Do you? However, as the book sets in America,
it begins bleeding itself as some parts only whine on and on about immigrant
tired troubles. Really, I am already bored to anger reading these commonplace immigrant
troubles. When you read a part like <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How They Lived</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, </i>its pure bellyaching butt-scratching shrill is ordinarily obvious.
Darn! What’s that really? It is just shrilling, squawking, and loud sulking.
This here only wants to make you rip out some pages out in the book:</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“How
hard it was to get to America – harder than crawling through the anus of a needle.
For the visas and passports, we begged, despaired, lied, groveled, promised,
charmed, bribed – anything to get us out of the country…. And when we got to
America we took our dreams, looked at them tenderly as if they were newly born
children, and put them away; we would not be pursuing them… Instead of going to
school, we worked. Our social Security cards said ‘Valid for work only with INS
authorization’, but we gritted our teeth and broke the law and worked….” (pg.
240-242)</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“We Need New Names</i></b>” is
filled with many themes evenly knitted with the main story. You will certainly
relate with it. Of infantile innocence in terrible situations, of the longing
for home and personal reinvention, of numbing oneself to pains and gaining
newer experiences, of stitching cures in strange lands, of adolescence and
hormonal confusion: there is a story for everyone. Really, you can’t just be
bored reading this book. I could relate with Darling and her oyinbo friends. Mind
you, don’t get me wrong. I am just one who also has once got teenage rampaging
hormone. Hehehehe. *winks*</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I
am looking at her purple high-heeled shoes and wondering how anyone can stand
on those things. The boy comes up behind her, his thing like a snake in front
of him. I reach forward and click on Mute because when the real action starts
we always like to be the soundtrack of the flicks. We have learned to do the
noises, so when the boy starts working the woman we moan and moan and we groan,
our noise growing fiercer with each hard thrust like we have become the woman
in the flick and we are feeling the boy’s thing inside us…” (pg. 201-202)</i></div>
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Have you read this book? Let’s
talk about it. I want to know what you think.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Candara","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">*****</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-47818147240187051142013-10-18T15:14:00.000+01:002013-10-18T20:06:56.817+01:00African Roar 2013 (An anthology of 13 short stories)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">©</b><a href="http://www.josephomotayo.blogspot.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Joseph Omotayo</b></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mt1f9duJlsE/UmFAaHGaVBI/AAAAAAAAApI/sO3hO5fMR8o/s1600/african-roar8_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mt1f9duJlsE/UmFAaHGaVBI/AAAAAAAAApI/sO3hO5fMR8o/s320/african-roar8_n.jpg" width="198" /></a></div>
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Sometime this week, I was at a
carpenter’s shop. I was to give him a description of what I wanted him to do for
me. I thought of sketching or showing him a snapshot of what I wanted. Anyway,
I relied on words. Awfully, my words failed at description, at successfully
substituting the sketch or the snapshot. I struggled with descriptive words as
I resorted to gestures and voice modulation. Maybe he understood me. Maybe he
didn’t. I wouldn’t know. However, I left there feeling unfulfilled. I didn’t
used words well. I could have done better. Some of the books I have been
reading lately are seriously starved, lifeless and unable to communicate. Just like
my encounter with the carpenter. It is Updike who says <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“but one can’t give more than he has received…” (see “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Burn This Book” </b></i>edited by Toni Morrison<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">).</i> So who says the many books I have
been reading recently didn’t affect my carpenter’s experience? And who says they
have? *winks*</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
My recent readings failed to draw
me into their worlds. Talking about them, lukewarmness would be a compliment. And
that’s the simple reason I have been shying away from reviewing them. I may bellyache
if I do, which is as bad as just ranting. I want to review objectively. Anything
totally rubbish is not just worth my time, my words, this space, the awareness,
the readership. So, I have been mute for some time until now. Perhaps because African
Roar 2013 is an anthology of short stories. And not all stories in an anthology
can be as all bad, some will still be well worth talking about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I have been following African
Roar since its inception in 2010. Read my previous comments <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2010/06/literary-world-quakes-with-african.html" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2011/10/african-roar-2011-anthology-of-14-short_15.html" target="_blank">here </a>and
<a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2013/03/african-roar-2012.html" target="_blank">here</a>. I have always found the short story genre interesting. Like living, it’s
in mixes of its interesting own. It could sometimes be misshapen but not entirely
shapeless. I believe the short story is the proper depiction of life in its
multi narratives. That is also the reason why I see more tangibility in Alice’s
short stories than Morrison’s novels (or sometimes novellas). They both are
feministic though and true to their engagements but one moves me closer to life
than the other. I love short narratives, they cannot afford pretense. The space
is little. They come to tell life better without as much dithering. When they
dither, they fail. When they do, it’s clear to all. I think the allure of the
short story influences what <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-thing-around-your-neck-by.html">Oyebanji
Ayodele has attributed to its fleeting nature</a>. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In 2010 I reviewed <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">African
Roar</i></b> as speaking with <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2010/06/literary-world-quakes-with-african.html">the
synergy that tells of the past, present and continuing-present</a>. In 2011, <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2011/10/african-roar-2011-anthology-of-14-short_15.html">it
guides you through the labyrinth of issues its writers are concerned with</a>. Last
year, <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2013/03/african-roar-2012.html">it
portrays bleak situations but moving all the same</a>. So, this year, when I say
it is as good as some parts are also lost on you, know I am frank. No word minced. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">African
Roar 2013</i></b> is better enjoyed at its half. That is the way I see it. In <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">African
Roar 2013</i></b>, the themes are of the dire needs for companionship, of social
battles for a better living, of tortuous fates, of insensitive paternity and of
evil catching up with the doer. These mixes are interesting. You should read
this year’s anthology, there are a lot going on in it. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Of Companionship:</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="usercontent">Alison Bwalya's
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Home”</i></b>
connects identity with pains, with death, with reinvention; the reinvention
that makes us half human and half un-human. Being un-human is worse than being
a beast. We are memories. We collect them and they define us. We slip on them
and we become the un-us, the new 'us' opposite to what our loved ones know, the
ones they can't relate with. We slowly kill ourselves and others becau</span><span class="textexposedshow">se we have lost some memories to gain more. We think of
home and know not where it is; here or there. Fungisai is reinvented. Katherine
is memory. Neville is killed; he is un-him, he is un-past and Katherine is
gone. Forever. And Fungisai is reinvented. Immediately.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Just how far will you bear it
before you yank his penis off? In Lydia Matata’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Cut it Off”</i></b> we see the
different abuses that could push a woman to such end. The abuses that could make a woman suddenly turn to
what makes her lover male and slices it off. This story stages a montage of a
phone-in show as listeners call in to comment on a woman who has recently cut
her husband’s off. It is a story of the abused gaining public confidence from a
woman’s bold step. This is one of the stories that you may have to read twice
to get. You are half into the story before you know how one conversation is
different from the other. So many are talking and the paragraphing is poor. The
writer fails at dialogue separation. And that muddles the characters together. It
is so noisy in there.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Of Social Battles for a Better Living:</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
There could be only one main
reason why Khaled is leaving Bunkpurugu, Hassan and Grandmamma behind. Khaled’s
journey to Accra is not only of his own salvation. It is of others’ too. For
one reason though, it is of Hassan’s salvation from the many Khaled-esque
troubles. Read Aba Amissah Asiboni’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Salvation in Odd Places”</i></b>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Ola Nubi’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Green Eyes and an Old Photo” </i></b>graces
my reading. Oyedeji wants a better life abroad. He goes to England studying and
working. As his family’s burdens weigh on him, he also struggles with racism. There
is black hatred everywhere. He seeks a better life and finds Sandra. He later
has Sarah and his trauma becomes a loveable memory.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Of Insensitive Paternity and Tortuous Fates:</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Bryan Bwesigye’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Through
the Same Gate” </i></b>interests me. His is of a good story telling and one of
the reasons you should read this anthology. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The flashback is well laid and you are not
lost. The narrator is called all sorts. His great tribulation is his
stepmother, Annette. He bears it well and gets inured to it. That he lives with
his father does not bring reprieve. With his tears also comes the relief he
needs from his bottled up emotion.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
It is fate that separates Samira
from Njeri and Atenio, her childhood friends. In their infantile convenience, they
had built colourful future together. Abdiqani Hassan’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The Faces of Fates” </i></b>explores
the irony of their separation. But more ironical is the way they meet later
again. Life could be that funny.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
****</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">African Roar </b>keeps coming every year to showcase our writings. We should
appreciate this. It isn’t everywhere you come across a medium as this which is
committed to giving voices to relatively unknown writers. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">African Roar</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>promotes us, our stories.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Follow me
on Twitter @omotayome</b>
</li>
</ul>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-77549724735691217822013-09-21T12:09:00.002+01:002013-09-21T12:09:50.812+01:00"The Thing Around Your Neck" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "MV Boli"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Thing Around Your Neck</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "MV Boli";"> has been around for a while now. However, Oyebanji Ayodele’s
thoughts on it are refreshing. Reading this review, and if you had read this
book before now, you will really want to go into it once more. Oyebanji Ayodele
engages one that well in this.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "MV Boli";">Read
this guest review by Oyebanji Ayodele. Enjoy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "MV Boli";">---------</span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tUNxxWBsWMw/Uj1-GWENgKI/AAAAAAAAAoQ/brbj_Ff7qdw/s1600/TheThingAroundYourNeck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tUNxxWBsWMw/Uj1-GWENgKI/AAAAAAAAAoQ/brbj_Ff7qdw/s1600/TheThingAroundYourNeck.jpg" /></a></div>
<br /><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">The short story is renowned for its
fleeting nature. Like life. That is probably the singular reason readers like
myself find themselves immersed in its charm. The reader is saved from the
long, winding and grand narratives of the novel. Hence, the wit exhibited by
proficient short story writers. They manipulate form with such compressed
intensity as to make every word matter, creatively injecting ‘that moment when everything
changes’. This is a fact I often remember the BBC Open Book podcast on short
stories for. An interviewee in that particular edition posits that “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">…the best short stories are about the moment
everything changes…” </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>R.K. Narayan’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Horse and Two Goats,</i> F. Scott
Fitzgerald’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Curious Case of Benjamin
Button</i>, V.S. Naipaul’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My Aunt Gold
Teeth</i> and Rotimi Babatunde’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bombay’s
Republic</i> exhibit this,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>and to my
satisfaction.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">I love short story collections. They
afford the writer a kind of productive dynamism as s/he negotiates his or her
themes, each story with its own. This - courtesy of the fact that the stories
exist with quite a lot of issues lurking behind the porch - leaves me with
enough cud to chew.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">The short story sub-genre has thrived well
in this dispensation. Thanks to the internet. You could read as much as you
like and wherever: an attestation to the impending end of paperbacks.
Paperbacks were once like permits into the literary world. You are no writer if
you haven’t published the traditional way. However, things have changed that even
when short story collections make it into print, some stories therein would
have enjoyed enough readership on cyberspace. This is the case with Doreen
Baingana’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2012/08/tropical-fish-by-doreen-baingana.html">Tropical
Fish<span style="font-style: normal;">,</span></a></i> Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-whispering-trees-by-abubakar-adam.html">Whispering
Trees</a></i> and Chimamanda’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Thing
Around Your Neck</i>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">THE THING AROUND
YOUR NECK</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">: A RUNDOWN OF
SOME STORIES</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">Cell One</span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">Cell One<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>is the name that arouses fear in the
minds of the Enugu Police Station inmates. The reckless son of a Mathematics
professor, Nnamabia would find his way to prison, and from there, to Cell One. He
entertains no trait of cowardice as he risks his life for a fellow inmate.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">The beauty of this story
consists in the suspense that brands its end.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">Imitation</span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">When the original begins
to lack its value or is nowhere to be found, it is no sin to make do with an
imitation. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Imitation</i> tells the tale
of how pertinent identity is to humans, irrespective of location. Nkem, though
in America has to compromise her identity in terms of looks just to claim her
straying husband.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">What fascinates me in
this story is how the motifs of immigration and imitation are made to anchor on
the hair motif.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moreover, the story
affords Adichie an opportunity to tacitly mention her new book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2013/07/americanah-by-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie.html">Americanah</a></i>:
</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">“I hope you understand
the big-big English they speak; they are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2013/07/americanah-by-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie.html">Americanah</a></i>
now, oh!”</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">On Monday of Last Week</span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">On
Monday of Last Week</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;"> relates Kamara’s journey to self-realization. That
lesbian part of her that is probably squelched by reason of her conservative
culture finds expression in America. It resurges with the appearance of Tracy,
the painter and mother of Josh, the boy she babysits.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">The Thing Around Your
Neck</span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">The occasional thing that
ties itself around Akunna’s neck is not a pendant. Neither is it physical. It
is a sign. When the conduit through which she gets to the New World disenchants
her, she settles for an independent life that is intermittently paused by
something tying itself around her neck. Akunna will have to trace the significance
of the sign.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">The American Embassy</span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">Unlike every other
America-bound character in the collection, the anonymous protagonist of this
story is on her way to the United States of America for a different purpose. A
partaker of the high-handedness of the rule of Nigerian despot, General Sanni
Abacha towards the press, she helps her journalist-husband sneak out of the
country and loses her only child. Her story details the frustration inherent in
the pursuit of the American dream.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">There is a creative shuttling
between the actual narration and reminiscences.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">The Shivering</span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">What could send ripples
down one’s spine? The Shivering. It transcends spiritual exercises of praying
and speaking in incomprehensible tongues. The shivering comes when one tries to
reminisce and unveil a doleful past. For Chinedu, the devout Christian who is also
conflicted, the past is Abidemi,; for Ukamaka, Udenna. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Shivering</i> climaxes with Ukamaka and Chinedu discovering
themselves and seeing where their lives dovetail. They seem optimistic, that
they will overcome.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">The Arrangers of Marriage</span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">The culture of arranging
marriages between parties not known to each other is peculiar to the African
society. Such relationships brim with imperative voids and uncertainties which
have to be sorted out. Agatha finds out later that the arrangers of her
marriage to Dave Bell (‘my new husband’ as she refers to him) have withheld
more than enough from her. They probably consider them trivial. She does puzzle
the inconsequential realities out later.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">***</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">TALKING HONESTY</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">Ngozi Chimamanda Adichie with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Thing Around Your Neck</i> asserts her
honesty as a writer. I find that she fits into Emmanuel Iduma’s description in
a recent article - <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.mriduma.com/on-writing-now-1/">On Writing Now (1)</a> </i>- of
what writing must be:</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">Writing
always demands honesty to place, honesty to time, and honesty to self.</span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">Adichie’s writing appeals
to the temporal and all that surrounds it. The importance of nursing an
American dream for a Nigerian in the twenty-first century is given considerable
space in the collection. To nurse the American dream is to be a party to the stereotyping
of Nigeria; an expression of its binary oppositeness to America, but I often
ponder on the possibility of excusing our writings from the fangs of
stereotypes. The truth is this: stereotypes continue to be turned out when certain
realities remain tied to the everyday lives of a people. That justifies the
existence of the many America-working schemes – the Christian ones especially -
that smear Adichie’s work. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">For documenting how
America has </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Nigerians by the short hairs, </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">Adichie becomes what Ayodele Morocco-Clarke, in her <a href="http://mantlethought.org/content/gambit-art-creating-ayodele-morocco-clarke">Gambit
interview</a>, calls ‘the gatekeeper of what is the sepulchre of her era’. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">Hair. The issue of hair
is not just an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2013/07/americanah-by-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie.html">Americanah</a></i>
phenomenon. It is an Adichie <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">thing</i>. I
have not read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2013/07/americanah-by-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie.html">Americanah</a></i>
and I’m glad about it. I have a lot to carry into it. Having read reviews of
the book as well as a couple of the author’s interviews, all talking about the
germane-ness of hair to her narration, I went into </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">The Thing Around
Your Neck</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;"> with the mind of finding some other recurring motif. Something
different from the Biafra tale. Not even hair. Lo, I found <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hair</i>! Adichie takes a woman’s hair as a veritable tool for starting
critical discourses on identity. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Imitation,
</i>she does explore hair in its entirety. The pubic hair is not exempted. It
foreshadows the relatedness of the work to sexuality.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">Sexuality does deserve a
mention. The collection does not privilege heterosexuality; it has a fair
amount of queer characters. This turns out to be remarkable because of the
hostile treatment Africans have always meted out to homosexuals. I am gripped
by the homophobia of Africans in this:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 55.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">“…Tracy
appeared, curvy in leggings and a tight sweater, smiling, squinting, pushing
away long dreadlocks from her face with paint-stained fingers. It was a strange
moment. Their eyes held and suddenly Kamara wanted to lose weight and wear
makeup again. A fellow woman who has the same thing you have? her friend Chinwe
would say if she ever told her. Tufia! What kind of foolishness is that?”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 55.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Monday of
Last Week</i>, Pg 81)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">Adichie’s collection
presents the reverse of Daniel Vignal’s position as it is expressed in Chris
Dunton’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wheytin be Dat? <a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3819175?searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DThe%2BTreatment%2Bof%2BHomosexuality%2Bin%2BAfrican%2BLiterature%26Search%3DSearch%26gw%3Djtx%26prq%3DChris%2BDunton%2527s%2BWheytin%2Bbe%2BDat%253F%26hp%3D25%26acc%3Doff%26aori%3Doff%26wc%3Don%26fc%3Doff&Search=yes&searchText=African&searchText=Literature&searchText=Homosexuality&searchText=Treatment&uid=3738720&uid=2129&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21102573556403">The
Treatment of Homosexuality in African Literature<span style="font-style: normal;">:</span></a></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 55.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">"For the
majority of [African writers], homophilia is exclusively a deviation introduced
by colonialists or their descendants; by outsiders of all kinds: Arabs, French,
English, metis, and so on. It is difficult for them to conceive that homophilia
might be the act of a black Africa"</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">She uses the like of Kamara
(in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Monday of Last Week)</i>, the
Senegalese (in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jumping Monkey Hill)</i>
and Chinedu (in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Shivering)</i> accentuate
her position. This queer trio does not attribute its sexual orientation to
western influences. </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">***</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">“THE THING AROUND
YOUR NECK”</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;"> AND ME</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">I dislike <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Thing Around Your Neck</i> for the parallels
that abound in its stories, the immigrant stories especially. The reader keeps
encountering almost the same thing, time and again. What’s more? The personification
of most of her male characters is one-sided. I feel for the poor things, but that
is simply <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Adichie</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">That Adichie is a gifted
storyteller needs no more proof. Her stories teem with depth and originality. However,
whenever she is mentioned, I often demand that she is saved the hype that comes
off. She is a good writer. That’s all.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Aharoni;">***</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Malgun Gothic";">Oyebanji Ayodele</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Berlin Sans FB","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Malgun Gothic";"> blogs at
ayoyebanji.blogspot.com and tweets @ayoyebanji. He could be reached via
ayoyebanji@gmail.com</span></li>
</ul>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-8749933140964865592013-08-24T16:50:00.000+01:002013-08-24T16:50:46.906+01:00“Tenants of the House” by Wale Okediran<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">©</b><a href="http://www.josephomotayo.blogspot.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Joseph Omotayo</b></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/omotayome">@omotayome</a> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">For Twitter</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VWnGYUbPi38/UhjMg59n_BI/AAAAAAAAAnE/K9Ga5dCuqCQ/s1600/Tenants+of+the+House.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VWnGYUbPi38/UhjMg59n_BI/AAAAAAAAAnE/K9Ga5dCuqCQ/s320/Tenants+of+the+House.jpg" width="196" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I won’t lay it on thick for you about
this book. This book is watery. I wish I could be less frank about it. But that
is just what it is, watery. This book should be taken back to the publisher, hauled
at its editors and a quick thorough work done on it. This novel is a big spoiler
to my reading taste and (maybe) to many others’ who may have always wanted to
read it or had read it. Buy it and read but you most probably will demand a
refund as quickly as it can get you through some twenty pages of the book. This book would
have done better as nonfiction. Those who probably read this book’s drafts
never helped it or Wale Okediran was just unprepared to tell his political account
through the nonfiction genre. This is a shoddy novel. It is literarily starved,
clichés riddled and uncertain between fiction and nonfiction. There is so
little or nothing to look forward to in this book. That’s the simple truth.
Don’t be disappointed when you read it because you already know how bad it can
get doing so. But read anyway if you want to.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tenants of the House</i> </b>struggles
to narrate the country's political corruption and schemes, much of which still put the
nation in a constant ruin. The genre this book is in is a great disservice to
the reader. What should have come out as beautiful nonfiction, or simply as
parts of Wale’s biography detailing his experiences as a former member of the House, turns out to be a dull published literature. And we are all calling it a novel. This book is a pitiful
case on many accounts. It takes no finickiness to note these holes. There are
too numerous to escape. Honestly, I did not learn anything new in this book. It
is a book filled with numerous errors, ordinariness and clichés. In the few
places where you are about getting closure on some past and present political
issues, it again stares bland at you. You are entertained though. But that is
only when you consider it as a weak stereotypic melodrama. Perhaps if I were a
challenged (academically) secondary school student, I might have loved this
book. Perhaps not. You never know the rubbish many Nigerian public (and in most cases, private) secondary schools teach
pupils until you go through the same crippled education system. The country’s
education is that challenged. This is not a book I want to give a friend or
leave for my children to read. I would be doing them bad. I don’t recommend
this book. And that is it. If my money could be refunded, I wouldn’t mind.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
All I got from the book are no
different from what news articles would have given me. It reads that shallow.
Painfully though, I will be keeping this book on my shelf. I can’t toss it off.
I love my money that much.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tenants of the House</i></b> is
about the politics laced with shameful hypocrisy. You already know your political
leaders are thieves. So, that doesn’t sound new. What moves you however is how
this act is carried out. And how your future is being held to ransom in the
hands of crooked elites passed off as Legislators, Senators, Governors and a President. The
characters are vivid portrayal of the reality we have now, they are not just
caricatures. You can easily relate with Wale’s fictional character
representations of our substandard politicians. They are no different from what
we see around. Pains are bitter memories. And those political humps are still
giving us more. Every day. With every tenure. Perhaps, this is one thing you
will like the book for. It latches on cheap stereotypes and stereotypes sell.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Amidst the many corruption, Honourable Samuel Bakara is our
angelic politician. But his sanctity will always be threatened. From the move
to unseat the Speaker, the constitution amendment stunt to whom to love, his
travails are multiplied. Nobody in this book is as innocent as it is shown.
Everybody is muddled in his own secret desires. And that is not only with the
politicians. Everything is about politics and its effects and everyone is
trapped. Batejo plays it along with Gidado; Honourable Elizabeth lures Honourable
Samuel severally; the House of Representative is in an endless chaos and President Ambrose Oneya continues to play his citizens off each other.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
However, in the midst of the clichés are some
simplistic truths. This is one:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“…the
minority will have their say, the majority their way, in this country where
democracy is our mainstay.”</i> (pg. 158)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The following are a touch of the
dryness the book reeks of. And they pull me off the reading real bad. Cliché
nonsense and tired expressions! I struggled to finish this book:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“In
one fell swoop…”</i> (pg. 58)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“As
expected, the speaker’s press conference caused so much stir as an earthquake
in many quarters.”</i> (pg. 72)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“You
cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs…”</i> (pg. 85)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“To
my great annoyance…”</i> (pg. 125)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
At many times, you really just want
to know the editors of this book and have them questioned over much
lopsidedness in the book. Consider this; Hon. Samuel had already met the
President before, and he rambles on like he is just doing so for the first time
as he again meets the President at the Villa. Read the following:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“He
looked completely different from the cartoon caricature of a sleep-eyed and
gaunt-looking with oversized ear lobes sticking out like a rabbit’s. President
Oneya appeared smart, even handsome…”</i> (pg. 177)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The above contradicts with the below:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“…I
recalled my previous encounters with the President. In all four of them, I have
found him eager to talk, down-to-earth and, to say to the least, quick-witted.”</i>
(pg. 177)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I do not wish to go on. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tenants
of the House</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>does not cut it
for me. This book had better been done up by the publisher soon. It’s been over three years
since it was published. It is not just the type of book I want to ever read
again. Not one I want to recommend to anyone.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-60166331820733378272013-07-31T13:50:00.001+01:002013-08-02T18:28:23.900+01:00"Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">©<a href="http://www.josephomotayo.blogspot.com/">Joseph Omotayo</a> </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/omotayome">@omotayome</a> For Twitter</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QxYgRfix4mQ/UfkHF4HgYEI/AAAAAAAAAmI/MUqu52a8ZnM/s1600/Americanah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QxYgRfix4mQ/UfkHF4HgYEI/AAAAAAAAAmI/MUqu52a8ZnM/s1600/Americanah.jpg" /></a>I read this book many weeks ago
and I kept carrying it with me in my head. This is so because I never stopped
looking at how different issues in the book connect. Also, I had to go through
with reading many chapters of this book not seeing the depth of some
characterisations. Some characters are left floating, rising and disappearing,
and tepidly flat. This should however be applauded; that Adichie works well
with the blogger self of Ifemelu even when she hasn’t blogged before. But the
snag becomes how she goes separating the racism blogger self from the persona
of Ifemelu the traumatised and the americanised. There are many subtle things
that do not work well in this book. I will cursorily touch on some later. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
This book is slightly of poverty
climbing to richness, but majorly of a complex-traumatised-classy-privileged-middle
class and of love lost and rekindled. From all those you have amusing and
jabbing stories. Everything is made confused, every issue and every story.
Isn’t life that complex? <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Americanah</i></b> would have failed as just
another immigrant story. But it didn’t because other than telling the triteness
of the overflogged immigrant theme, it prickles us with our stories and we are somewhat
purged. Adichie does a rich commentary on both the Nigerian and American
socio-economic problems. This book will do for anyone wanting to study the
psychology of émigrés. (Review spoilers won’t allow me dwell more on the
various themes in this book. I could exchange private emails with anyone
seeking more textual analysis on the book).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Americanah</i></b>, everything is
tuned towards America. American Dream becomes everyone’s, the only escape from
the country’s institutional problems as all standards are lapsing. When fate
fails the General, America ensconces Aunty Uju. When the University fails,
Ifemelu joins Aunty Uju in America. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Americanah</i></b>
builds interesting characters out of these many situations. Going to America is
the saving card and everyone hankers after it. However, America is just a
passing phase. America wouldn’t solve anything. America wouldn’t provide resolution
but an enlightening as America is also distressed with its many issues. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In adapting to strangeness abroad and finding
home strange, nothing is solved, issues only become more knotty. The hue of the
chameleon only changes, the chameleon still stays. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Americanah</i></b> is full of
fragile lives. Everything, precious slippery things, crumbles too soon. After
all it is life to have, to lose and to regain. But it is how you come close to
this known reality in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Americanah</i></b> that does you over. This
book will make you angry at so many things. It’s not that this anger is new.
But you will only find a new way to be angered. A good literature does that
good. In <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Americanah</i></b>, mistakes aren’t corrected, they pile up and become new
defining lives of the characters. Ifemelu’s early love with Obinze opens up her
early exposure; the tennis coach encounter changes her. Obinze’s shredded love stabs
his careful life; his renewed life in Nigeria makes him the villain of his own
self. Aunty Uju sees the new America with Bartholomew; she faces a new type of
racism with the otherness of Dike. Kosi makes a good home; but with Ifemelu.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The female characters in this
book are given more authorial sympathy. Their lives; loses and abuses, are
elevated to suck in your sympathy. Adichie’s feminism in the book is not subtle.
That is indeed interesting. The manner villains are quickly created off the
male characters makes you curious. But this book isn’t only of Ifemelu. It is
of Ifemelu’s as it is very much of Obinze’s. Adichie encroaching authorial
point-of-view plays at the vulnerability of the female to gather fellow
feeling. And you could become an instant feminist. For instance, when Aunty Uju
dumps and hurts Olujimi, nothing much is said about what may have happened to
Olujimi. Olujimi receives no sympathy. He is done away with in clinical
brevity. Olujimi is briefly known and quickly forgotten here: </div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Aunty
Uju’s exboyfriend, Olujimi, was different, nice looking and smooth and
smooth-voiced; he glistened with a quiet polish. They had been together for
most of university and when you saw them, you saw why they were together. ‘I
outgrew him,’ Aunty Uju said.” </i>(pg. 80)</div>
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<br /></div>
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We are strongly made to consider
the reason why Ifemelu may have shut out Obinze; that Ifemelu is going through
debilitating emigrational issues, which is quite a moving justification of
Ifemelu’s action. Ifemelu’s life looms large on our consciousness that Obinze’s
later rumpled life receives weak attention. With the tennis coach encounter,
Obinze is thrown off and that is that, he deserves it. (See pg. 153-158)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Maybe this is why you are a writer:
to make everything matter; to write from the mundane things; to be given so
much to description even when nothing appears to be described; to write and
never considers if the reader sleeps through it because you must write and
bring many lives to your pages. And so when the book drags so many times, that was
the only meaning I could find to it. Nothing escapes Adichie and she seems to
convulse us with the many details fascinating her. She wants to write about
everything around everything. And this is why I see that the hair issue in the
book is overrated. More than it being the stirring for the proper evolution of
Ifemelu and an avenue for the expression of immigrant struggles in snatches, it
is Adichie’s metaphor for exaggeration. I speak of exaggeration not to say that
some problems which it is a metaphor for are not true, but that they might have
been favorably told to make the truth more sympathetic. That is another issue
in this book. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Ifemelu and Obinze are archetypal
characters that speak to us. As much as I understand, they are some of us. If
you passed through the early rotten system that sent the Univerisities sinking,
these characters are not far drawn. Maintaining a narrative vividness, Adichie
sets this story at the different times that are oblique to none. Almost anyone
of readeable age can relate with this book. There are many characters and
stories to go round. Ifemelu and Obinze are made rarities by the deepness of
their misfortunes. And you begin to question the trueness of their states; if
the author has not purposefully made them to wring compassion out of the
reader. Again, the issue of exaggeration comes to mind.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The inclusion of Ifemelu’s
blogposts is quite a distraction. This is where Adichie gets it wrong in
bordering Ifemelu the blogger from Ifemelu the americanised and traumatised. As
much as Adichie overreaches herself to make the blogging tone distinct, it
really disturbs the reading. Ifemelu can still be a good blogger in the book
without including her blog posts (most of which are inchoate) in the book. It
does really distract. They do not help the story or portray the racism
troubling Ifemelu in any different way.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Americanah</i></b> makes for a
curious reading. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-77677239957852264422013-06-17T00:13:00.000+01:002013-06-17T06:40:35.573+01:002013 Caine Prize Shortlist (2)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">© <a href="http://www.josephomotayo.blogspot.com/">Joseph Omotayo</a></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.twitter.com/omotayome">@omotayome</a> For Twitter</b></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Read the
first part of the review <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2013/05/2013-caine-prize-shortlist-1.html">here</a></i></li>
</ul>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Recently, I have been studying early
American literature and Renaissance poetry. I found out that distinctive
matters drive a literature of a particular age and time. Of the early American
literature, the pursuit of the American Dream, the failure and the prospects of
Puritanism were the bases for their writings. Renaissance poetry was so
humanistic in its art, focusing all attention on the human feelings; the
weaknesses and strengths. It is quite understandable that African writings of
this present time are steeped in our prevalent messy economic struggle. Social
insecurity still remains the continent’s most visible bane. It is in
un/consciously following this pattern of writing that many of the shortlisted pieces
mar their works. They are telling us what we already know in an ordinary
manner. To this and for how to write, some add desperation to their narratives.
Though there is some truth in what they write about, it is done with a poor or
no attempt at necessary embellishment. This is bad. This is literature and not
peer-to-peer small talks. I read <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Miracle</i></b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Foreign</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Aid</b></i>
and I mourned their pure ordinariness. Aside their conventional character types,
nothing in those stories interested me. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If nothing, Pede Hollist should be praised for
the creation of Balogun and the creative transition of the same character to
Logan. There is some creativity at play there. But the story is stock and cheap
anyway. This is not about being sniping; <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Miracle</i></b> is just not it for this
prize.</div>
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<br /></div>
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In this second part of the
review, I focus only on the three other shortlists. Reviewing the five shortlisted
pieces in sections is premeditated. You will find in these three stories, aside
Ibrahim’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Whispering Trees</i></b>, similarities pointing you to previously
shortlisted entries. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bayan Layi’s</i></b> child-touting theme and
slummy setting bear semblance with <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stickfighting Days</i></b>. I wonder why only
few co-reviewers are pointing out this similarity. Those who knocked Olufemi’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stickfighting
Days</i></b> for its devilishly myopic <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">single
story</i> should not give tasteless acquiesce to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bayan Layi</i></b> now. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps, that only teaches one that most times
what one calls objectivity is just a riled rumble of some class. Let the same
people also hawk the Adichieesque single story this time and say <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bayan
Layi’s</i></b> narrative is written with a dire desperation.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Like all children point-of-views
are, they are not trustworthy and you cannot put a finger on what is really
wrong in their telling. Everything is quickly overlooked. That’s the gift infancy
bequeaths upon them. Adulthood forbids such mercy. Adults suffer the
consequences of their least misplaced actions. So is it with <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bayan
Layi</i></b> that one follows the child-narrator’s story without many questions.
Inconsistences wrack <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bayan Layi</i></b>, the obvious desperation
to achieve horror being one. Elnathan must have come under the child-narrator’s
point-of-view to escape censure. But I see through Elnathan’s feint. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bayan
Layi</i></b> throttles simple chronology. The way of the ghetto may be
volatile, but it does not change so rapidly in horror as <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bayan Layi</i></b> shows it.
There are some loose ends in the story, beside some consequences not adding up
to their antecedents, many things hurriedly happen without causes. Let’s
examine this:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">“No one dares come to steal in Bayan
Layi. He tried to take some gallons of groundnut oil from Maman Ladidi’s house.
Her house is <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">ba’a shiga</span>, men
aren’t allowed to enter. She saw him and screamed. Then he ran and jumped over
the fence. I like chasing thieves especially when I know they are not from
Bayan Layi. I am the fastest runner here even though I broke my leg once when I
fell from a motorcycle in Sabon Gari. Anyway, the groundnut oil thief, we
caught him and gave him the beating of his life. I like using sharp objects
when beating a thief. I like the way the blood spurts when you punch. So we sat
this boy down and Banda asked what his name was. He said Idowu. I knew he was
lying because he had the nose of an Igbo boy. I used my nail on his head many
times, demanding his real name... </span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span style="color: red; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Like a bird in the sky he
just flew past us. We couldn’t catch him this time. Banda asked us to just
leave him alone. He didn’t reach Sabon Layi. Someone saw his body in a gutter
that evening…</span></u></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%;">”</span></i></div>
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From the above, you ponder, why must
Idowu die to serve the horror fare? Life may be so complex. But when you write,
you don’t leave a careless vacuum for the reader to fill. That is just crude
carelessness on the writer’s part. The story is already horror filled. The
additional attempt only pushes it far.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Even the names of the parties
(the Big and the Small Party) give so much away. And when you make it out in
your head, the result matches the end of the story. Ask yourself, who wins
between a Big and a Small party? In Nigeria, when that happens, what follows?
When do the thugs come in when a small party is cheated? And the mayhem that follows,
how does it change things? Work out those and you might write the same end-lines
to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bayan
Layi</i></b> as Elnathan’s. So much for horror and desperate writing.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Chinelo Okparanta’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">America</i></b>
bears a homosexual parallel with S.O Kenani’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Love on Trial</i></b>, a 2012
shortlisted piece. While Kenani‘s focuses mainly on its gay theme, Chinelo’s
rings the homosexual with the country’s woe and other shoddily inserted
matters. When so many things are packed into a short story, first, length is
compromised and the writer battles to manage the climaxes. In Chinelo’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">America</i></b>,
there is the issue of immigration and homosexuality, both eventually ending in
a fanciful resolution. </div>
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<br /></div>
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There is no clear manner as to
when the stream-of-consciousness helps advance a story. I had read on
it, there really isn’t. All that matters is that the story is advanced and it
is non-intrusive. Chinelo needs not insert the stream-of-consciousness where she
does in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">America</i></b>, it renders the story bland and it does not add
anything creative to the story. Consider this:</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Plantin-Light;">That
night, my final night in the inn, I sit on my bed and I recall every twist of
that folk tale. I think of crude. And I think of gold. And I think of crude as
gold. I imagine Nigeria – the land and its people – as the hens, the producers
of the gold. And I think that even when all the gold is gone, there will always
be the hens to produce more gold. But what happens when all the hens are gone,
when they have either run away or have been destroyed? Then what?</span>” </i></div>
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<br /></div>
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The reader does not
need that. For writing sake, this is not an essay, it is a short story. Didacticism
is always in the arts, you need not make it too obvious. When you do, that is tarty
peachiness. The early Europeans destroyed African theatre for their knack for
instructionalism over the arts. Thank goodness, we had the intelligent observation
and subtle opposition of Major L.A. Natcutt and G.C Latham.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
I once reviewed <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Whispering Trees</i></b> as a collection of short stories <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-whispering-trees-by-abubakar-adam.html">here</a>.
I observed that <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Whispering Trees</i></b> is one of the few worthy pieces in that
collection though I didn't point that out. And I still stand by my then kept opinion; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ibrahim’s<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> The Whispering Trees</b></i>
mixes good language with an unpopular but creatively told story. The weakness
of the story can only be attributed to the excesses on the author’s part. In
short, the story is avoidably long. And when Ibrahim tries rescuing that, he
too becomes preachy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is certainly
no need for this:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: CalistoMT;">“So it was that I lost my sight to find
my vision, I lost my life to find my soul and I lost my vanity to find my
purpose. Now, sitting here, in the The Whispering Trees, amidst all this beauty
and these innocent souls, listening to this heavenly orchestra, I realise that </span></i><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "CalistoMT\,Italic";">happiness lies, not in getting
what you want, but in wanting what you have.”</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
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There is no one way to telling a
people’s story and no story is so dark as to be untrue. Learn how to write and
tell your narratives too. And then, we will only have a balance in the way our
stories are told.</div>
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****</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">The delay in publishing this second part of
the review as against the 10<sup>th</sup> of June is much regretted.</span></b></li>
</ul>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-50808567982256027122013-05-31T21:17:00.000+01:002013-06-20T05:30:47.814+01:002013 Caine Prize Shortlist (1)<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">©</span><a href="http://www.josephomotayo.blogspot.com/"><b>Joseph
Omotayo</b></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www.twitter.com/omotayome">@omotayome</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Caine Prize has in recent years gone from the overfed bizarre stories
about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Africa</i> to stories that now
relatively tell our stories. Since Africa is still confronted with the issue of
social security, it will be more understandable that stories centering on
social security and its attended consequences will not cease in the nearest
time to come. In this shortlist, the stories focus on the daily economic
struggles of simple living in the continent. In this case, I refuse to see
Africa as a collective. And so, the shortlist will only be as reflecting the
concerns of their individual locale. They have not represented Africa, they have
just told a tiny narrative of the continent. There are still more stories to
tell. All that is needed are more exploring narratives rather than cheap boring
stereotypes. A greater part of the shortlist is poor. This is not of writing
skill but of the stories they tell. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
only piece that escapes this shared laziness spoils itself with the need to justify
its characters’ fate and actions. However, the 2013 shortlists are interesting
in their simplistic plots. This is so, as most times, bland and common stories draw
us because even the common is cheaply relatable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The human survival is a theme central to all. The
shortlist is seen telling the typicality identified with their different
settings. And it is in doing this that some struggle with common banality in
their telling. One evil of retelling stories so common to us is the inability
to distance such narratives from the stereotypes embedded in them. So, if creativity
must come to bear, a masterly twist is useful. And that skill does not
naturally come with storytelling. We all tell stories. But only a writer with
the consciousness of brevity and diction does the job. We are already familiar
with most of these stories.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I quite find most of these stories preachy and intrusive. The writers
are too inclined on showing what is from what is not. They should know; a piece
is mired when its messages are pushed to the reader’s face. That is the snag
about Neo-classicism in literature. The Neo-classical ideal does not just work
in these days of internet writing. Let’s figure out the meanings ourselves,
don’t shove them down on us. Another common problem with many of the stories is
the intent to achieve justification too quickly. That is what happens when a
story starts off with the aim to compare two dissimilar things as observed from
a number of the stories.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2013 Caine shortlisted stories are just readable but not original. There
is a seeming desperation to the stories they tell. They are too forced. I am
not satisfied as a reader. What matters now is just the prize to be won and not
the imaginativeness of the stories. For me, just a story makes it pass ordinariness
of characterization and stock narratives. Just one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Miracle”
– Tope Folarin<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This story does not tell anything new. This entry makes me question the quality
of the over ninety stories that didn’t make it up to this stage. The plot is so
dull and too simple. It is ordinarily a story about the religious deception and
the credulity of those caught in its wiles. Again, the predictability of the
story is a bore. One quickly knows where the story is leading to. Nothing is
hidden. And even the attempt at humour falls supine. It is just so riddled with
the usual protesting small talks about Pentecostalism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The old man’s, the visiting pastor, show is melodramatic and tired.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“ ‘We must continue to pray
ladies and gentlemen! There are forces here that do not wish for this to be a
successful service. If we are successful in our prayers that means they have
failed! They do not wish to fail! So we cannot expect that our prayers will simply
come true; we must fight!...<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But in order for your blessings
to be complete, you will have to pray today like you have never prayed before.
You will have to believe today like you have never believed before. The only
barrier to your blessing is the threshold of your belief. Today the only thing
I will be talking about is belief. If I have learned anything during my visits
to this country, it is that belief is only possible for those who have dollars.
I am here to tell you that belief comes <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">before
</span>dollars. If you have belief, then the dollars will follow.’” <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Nothing is done to uplift the cliché catch-utterances and this spoils it
deeply.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nonetheless, there is a reprieve
in the laboured twist ending the story. I can imagine Folarin sweating sore to achieve
that as the main writing mismatches the creative end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Foreign
Aid” – Pede Hollist<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Immigrant stories rarely interest me. There is an uninspiring pile of
them already. Anyone who’s seen the other side wants to tell some stories of
that side; of how it is different from here or of the little worth in going
there. Is such stories, what you are after are quite different from the
brilliance of the stories. You know it is always the usual stuff where dissimilar
experiences are compared. Pede’s diction saves this story for me. His
descriptions are fluid. They tangle. That is so much consolation for the
guessable storyline. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Balogun, an American citizen by sweats and hell returns home after
almost twenty years. Everything at home wears a blatant change at his arrival.
He is put off by the situation in his country and suffers a great inhospitality
by the cavalcade of a Serra Leonean Minister. At his home front, Ayo, his
deformed sister is transformed. Visitors are aplenty, his fanny pack is fast
sagging. A failed tryst and some dollars left, he boards a plane back to
America. Of some of the smooth descriptions, these court repeated reading.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“A few steps away from the
doorstep where Logan stood, a man walked up to the building, whipped out his
member, and sprayed the wall in a slow circular motion, as though he were
watering a lawn with a hose. He shuffled back a couple of times to escape the
splashback when his discharge hit a high orbit. After he finished, he
vigorously shook the member, tucked it back in with a samba dip of his butt,
and zipped up his fly. He gouged up a huge glob of spit and deposited it at the
soaked base of the wall. The man turned to leave, saw Logan, flashed him a
kola-stained grin, and skipped away, lightened and relieved.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">****</span></b><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b>The second part of the review is now available <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2013/06/2013-caine-prize-shortlist-2.html" target="_blank">Here</a></b><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-81959768403001733492013-05-19T07:14:00.000+01:002013-05-19T07:15:30.888+01:00"Tomorrow Died Yesterday" by Chimeka Garricks <br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This month, <b>CLR</b>
presents <a href="http://draft.blogger.com/ayoyebanji.blospot.com">Oyebanji Ayodele’s</a> opinion of
Chimeka Garricks’ <b><i><u>Tomorrow Died Yesterday</u></i></b>. Enjoy and do engage our guest
blogger in the comment box. We appreciate your comments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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****</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R5V5OqfZ9Jk/UZhr2svk2xI/AAAAAAAAAk4/EqCZimE3nS8/s1600/Chimeka+Garricks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R5V5OqfZ9Jk/UZhr2svk2xI/AAAAAAAAAk4/EqCZimE3nS8/s320/Chimeka+Garricks.jpg" width="221" /></a></div>
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Chimeka Garricks’ <b><i>Tomorrow Died Yesterday</i></b> is a
recountal of one of those realities that define the entity clad in the nominal
fabric, Nigeria. It is worth mentioning that its emissaries in a matter of
months would be <s>cutting</s> murdering its centenary celebration cake. They
are used to murdering cakes. And funds. And people. They do so in place of the
ill-realities that blot the country.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Chimeka Garricks’ novel
resonates with Chinua Achebe’s voice. In the proverbial way peculiar to him, he
speaks through one of his creatures in <b><i>Anthills of the Savannah</i></b>:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>“…Age gives to a man some things
with the right hand even as it takes away others with the left…”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Age is a dunce in the case of
Nigeria. It stares wide-eyed and unmoved, saliva dripping from its tongue as
the nation’s grip on the droopy breasts of its shameful history refuses to
slacken. I find myself wondering why all that could proceed from my thought
about Nigeria’s resilience in holding unto the ugly side of history, is a
quotation from Achebe’s work. It goes beyond the fact that we have just lost
him. I’m not trying to evoke a memorial. No. What I’m saying finds articulation
in the similarity of the plot of his <b><i>Anthills of the Savannah</i></b> and that of
the novel being considered. Both stories present how the private existence of a
group of friends spill into public discourse. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
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<b><i>Tomorrow Died Yesterday</i></b> tells of the reason one needs
to blind one’s eyes to a future that has been aborted before its birth.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There are times when realities
seem so bland to take in, their closeness to you notwithstanding. Such
realities easily earn the ‘<i>overflogged’ </i>tag.
<b><i>Tomorrow
Died Yesterday</i></b> treads the path of stereotypes and I refuse to mark it
down for it. It hinges on one of the nondescript realities that characterize
Nigeria: the Niger Delta region issue. I have not read much Literature about
this region but, having read Garricks’ <b><i>Tomorrow Died Yesterday</i></b> and
recently, Christie Watson’s <b><i>Tiny Sunbirds Far Away</i></b>, I can
assertively say it that the Niger Delta is not only a mine for crude oil, it is
a mine for narratives too. All that matters is telling your story. And doing
it, your own way.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Chimeka Garricks has told his.
His is that of angst and pessimism:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>“…‘You still get it, Kaniye, do
you? There is no future for the children of the Niger Delta. Their tomorrow is already dead. It died
yesterday’…”<i> </i>(Page 236)<i><o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
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Remonstration,<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>“
‘Why are you crying, Amaibi? Were they crying for us in ’97? Ehn, Amaibi,
answer me. After 1997, weren’t you the one who always wrote, and I quote,
‘violence is now a justified option for dealing with the injustice in the Niger
Delta’? This is violence, Amaibi…’ “ (Page 38)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Resuscitation:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>“…After more than six
nightmarish years, who would have thought that I’d get an erection again, in
Port Harcourt Prison of all places; and they say there was no rehabilitation in
a Nigerian prison…” (Page 50)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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And a whole lot of other motifs.
The novel is complex on different grounds. The scope of its plot is wide, but
it is palpable enough that it is not a burden for the author to manage. His
four-stranded cord of Kaniye Rufus, Doye Koko, Amaibi Akassa and Joseph Tubo
are allegories of the different shades of humanity in the Niger Delta.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The novel reverses the
convention in a lot of binary relationships. The most evident are in the light
of sex and race. In the duo, the conventional ‘other’ finds a voice that either
drowns its converse or that which gives it a similar standing as the privileged.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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I remember reading Achebe’s essay, <b><a href="http://kirbyk.net/hod/image.of.africa.html" target="_blank">AnImage of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness’ </a></b>where he
alludes (though without resentment) to one Albert Schweitzer, an ‘extraordinary
missionary’ as he puts it, who says: <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>"The
African is indeed my brother but my junior brother."<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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It is in such context that one
would understand that Garricks, though indirectly, writes back to the west in
his work. Imagine these:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>“I
turned to the white man. His pink face was a blotchy and sweaty mess. Sweat
plastered his thin, fair hair to his big head, and highlighted, starkly, how
large his eyes were. He wasn’t really fat, but had a stomach that fell odiously
over his jeans. His breathing was loud, wheezing and heaving. I interpreted it
as fear.” (Page 7)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>“
‘Gentlemen, let’s focus on poor Manning, okay?” Granger said.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>We
all smiled at the description. Manning was anything but poor. He was an
arrogant, obnoxious bully, and a little more than a racist thug…’ “ (Page 17)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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What an honourable disrespect to
one’s elder brother!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Garricks does not extend his
disrespect to his female characters. In a situation where the African society
has always rendered the male in the guise of a hegemonic entity, Garricks’ female
characters refuse to be relegated to the background. Not even when ‘victim-hood’
looms. Kaniye’s mother and Dise typify this. Deola, even more. <o:p></o:p></div>
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That a male writer presents this
is something tangible to note about how contemporary African Literature
engineers a novel mode of treating gender issues. For instance, one would
wonder what kind of feminist statement Doreen Baingana makes with her
characters in <b><i><a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2012/08/tropical-fish-by-doreen-baingana.html" target="_blank">Tropical Fish</a>. </i></b>Hers is a different approach to the issue of
gender, in that her female characters take responsibility for their actions and
not that they ascribe them to some domineering males. Here are some instances:<o:p></o:p></div>
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Rosa says this:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 55.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b>“…For
swaying my hips deliberately, enticingly, as I danced with you, with others.
For those jeans I bought that hugged my buttocks so tightly men turned to watch
and whistle as I walked by. I am mocked for saying yes. <u>I am guilty</u>…” (Page75)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
Christine has this to say too:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 55.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 55.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b>“…Why
did I always seem to have my legs spread open before kind men poking things
into me? <u>I let them</u>.” (Page 98)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
Chimeka Garrick’s prose is
scrumptious. His ability to invoke images is alluring. Here are my favourites:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 55.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 55.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b>“From
<i>Juju</i> Island, Asiama River surges on,
in elaborating crooks and turns, expanding at every mile. Then, a few hundred
miles from the ocean, the curves stop, and the river suddenly opens out – the
swollen head of a king cobra. The river can now sense the ocean and flows
faster to meet it. The only obstruction, right in the middle of its path, is
Asiama Island. The river is divided by the island. Two hydra heads are formed,
but the river flows on nonetheless. It glides round the island, and finally,
embraces the roaring ocean.” (Page 32)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 55.3pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><br />
“I stared at the beautiful body I worshipped for the past months of my life.
The body I knew so well. The breasts were full, firm, big nippled, the aureoles
the colour of dark honey. The tuft of hair between her legs was shaved in a
neat triangle, one of Dise’s quirks. Her legs were long, slightly knock-kneed.
My unborn son slept in the small bulge of her tummy.”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
Such is the best compensation
for the time a reader spends on a bulky paperback.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
The book is bulky (429 pages in
all). So are its editorial issues so innumerable that the reader feels like
demanding the head of the editor that does a book like this such disservice. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
As much as I acknowledge the
author’s cultural background, I won’t spare him and whosoever helps him with
his Yoruba translations the rod for allowing this in the book:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 55.3pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 55.3pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<b>“ ‘…It’s the neighbourhood with
the best <i><u>bole</u></i> and fish in
town…’ …<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 55.3pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<b>“<i><u>Bole</u></i> with dry groundnuts?” I shook my head in disbelief.” (Page
62)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
For someone to have written <i>booli</i> as <i>bole </i>is a signal that our indigenous languages are on a fast track
into extinction. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
Chimeka Garricks is a writer to
watch out for. His prose is luminous one cannot but anticipate other offerings
of his. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">***<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oyebanji
Ayodele blogs at <a href="http://www.ayoyebanji.blogspot.com/">www.ayoyebanji.blogspot.com</a></span>
<span style="font-family: Century Gothic, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-67015328880519937372013-04-21T21:34:00.002+01:002013-04-21T21:39:18.646+01:00Hairdressing and Controversy<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eynwqYT9370/UXRMIZe682I/AAAAAAAAAGo/-Kufd0Ed_kU/s1600/The-Hairdresser-of-Harare.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eynwqYT9370/UXRMIZe682I/AAAAAAAAAGo/-Kufd0Ed_kU/s1600/The-Hairdresser-of-Harare.jpg" /></a><b>Critical Literature Review presents, Nigerian author, Ayodele Olofintuade's review of Tendai Huchu's debut novel ‘The Hairdresser of Harare’. We hope you enjoy reading it.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘The Hairdresser of Harare’,
Tendai Huchu’s debut novel, is about beautiful hair, family and love. It is an easy read which I
devoured less than 24hrs after it was handed to me by a friend. I enjoyed it so
much that when I got to the end I was faintly surprised.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is engaging, fun and fast
paced. The author manages to convey emotions, thoughts and actions of the
characters with as few words as possible, which is an art in itself. It also
helps that the chapters are short and to the point. There is no
dilly-dallying or the inclusion of long, philosophical passages, which make reading some books a tedious exercise.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Hairdresser of Harare is a
story of deception; a woman’s journey into the inner workings of her mind; of
revenge and the havoc that intolerance can wreak on relationships.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Vimbai is a single-parent struggling
to pay her bills, and until Dumi barges into her well-ordered world, she is the
queen bee at Khumalo Hair and Beauty Treatment Salon in Harare. A village girl,
with a village ‘world’ view and a set way of doing things, she does not take
kindly to this invasion and dislikes him from the get go.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not only is he male, in the
female dominated world of hairdressing, he also knows his onions. Unlike Vimbai, who believes that any female
who walks into the salon wants to leave ‘feeling like a white woman’ (as she
puts it ‘white is a state of mind’), Dumi works from the angle that women want
to feel beautiful, he has magic fingers that can change a woman from dowdy to
sophisticated just by snipping a couple of inches off her hair.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dumi is good looking, confident
(a bit overbearing), well groomed and charming. He is completely unlike most
men in Vimbai’s experience and all the clients who, hitherto, would have only Vimbai
attend to their hair, now book appointments to see Dumi. To add insult to
injury, within the first three months of his employment he is chosen overVimbai
(in spite of her long service, loyalty and dedication) as the manager of the
salon.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a twist of fate (truthfully,
the twist is of the writer’s keyboard) Dumi and Vimbai become housemates. From
there it was a short step away from love, romance and a ticket
‘happily-ever-after’, as Dumi charms his way into the hearts of Vimbai and her
young daughter. For a while everything appears to be perfect, for the first
time in a long while, everything is lined up in obeisance to Vimbai’s every
wish. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This book is a strong debut from
the Zimbabwean author. He was able to use simple, everyday language and gentle
humour to address a vast array of issues, which in other books might end up sounding
repetitive and boring.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His characters are well rounded,
with the usual human flaws; nobody was over or underdone. There is the Minister
who has a mean streak a mile wide and would not hesitate to sic her thugs on
you if she feels you’ve insulted her; but who on the other hand is kind and does
not condescend to people. There was Mrs. Khumalo; a hard-headed business woman,
who displays a motherly heart. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The story is tight knit and fast
paced. Unlike a lot of books written recently about Africa, there are no long
chapters where the author uses a character to pontificate on one issue or the
other. There are no superfluous chapters or loose ends. Every chapter was a
step taken towards the conclusion of the novel.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The story is set in present day
Harare, which Huchu manages to paint so realistically with words that the
reader can easily follow Vimbai on her daily journey from her home to the salon.
An example is the way Vimbai gives directions to the salon in the first
chapter, “Go up from Harare Gardens, skip two roads, take a left, skip another
road and look for the blue house on your right, not the green one and you’re
there. You’d have to be a nincompoop to miss it.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The author touches on a wide range
of problems that has plagued African nations for years; corruption, lack of
infrastructures, poverty, etc., but these facts are not used to evoke pity. Rather
they are skilfully manipulated to move the story forward. This book is neither
a cry for a ‘white saviour’ or an attack on colonialism (neo- or otherwise). The
characters walk onto the pages, deal with their problems and move on. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Hairdresser of Harare is
written in the first person narrative, and the author is able to resist the
temptation to delve into the thoughts of the other characters. Everything is
written through the narrator’s eyes and world view (in this case, a
semi-literate opinionated view). Yet, he manages to give the reader an insight
into how the minds of the other characters work.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The book is the embodiment of the
saying ‘less is more’. It gives its reader a chance to reflect on what has been
said without thrusting its opinion down your throat. It manages to present each
character in all their flawed glory without passing judgement or compelling the
writer to form an opinion one way or another.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The book starts out with the
words “I knew that there was something not quite right about Dumi the very
first day I ever laid eyes on him.” This sentence draws the reader in, it is a
big sign that you’re about to go for a ride full of suspense. You jump in and
four chapters later you know exactly what was ‘not right’ about Dumi.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately, Vimbai doesn’t get
‘it’; all the signs and clues dropped by Dumi and the members of his family are
totally ignored by her (or as the writer would have us believe, she is ignorant
of the signs) and against her gut instinct she goes ahead to fall in love with
him. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although the author tries to
maintain the suspense of the yarn by peppering the book with other sentences
like “If I’d known what I discovered three weeks later...” etc., it falls flat,
leaving the reader rather annoyed and with the uneasy feeling that the author
is somehow implying that one is almost as blind as the protagonist. If Huchu
wanted to stretch out the suspense, he should not have given so much away from
the beginning of the book. There are so many of these ‘signposts’ that one is
tempted to yell ”We know already!” at him each time one reads another sentence leaning
to the fact that the book is supposed to be suspenseful.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The story should have simply been
left as what it is; a simple story of love, loss and acceptance, instead of trying
to make out that the plot is more complex than it really is.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Aside from making the protagonist
almost stupidly blind, the author also bases the crisis and its resolution on
almost improbable circumstances which could be torn apart with a few, well-placed
observations.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the whole The Hairdresser of
Harare is an enjoyable read. It is one
of the brave new books being written these days by Africans, about Africa and
tackles issues that are still considered taboo on the continent.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You can follow Critical Literature review
on Twitter using @CriticalLitRev.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Book Title: The Hairdresser of Harare<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Author: Tendai Huchu<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Publisher: Freight Books<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No of pages: 236<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>About the Reviewer<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ayodele Olofintuade is a Nigerian
author of children’s literature. She lives in Ibadan, Nigeria.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-33648391366044513412013-03-31T19:20:00.001+01:002013-03-31T19:20:28.375+01:00African Roar 2012<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US">©<a href="http://www.josephomotayo.blogspot.com/">Joseph Omotayo</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.twitter.com/omotayome">@omotayome</a> </span></b><span lang="EN-US">For Twitter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m4ms7cxmnCQ/UVh717G0Z5I/AAAAAAAAAjQ/eExwROm9fFo/s1600/African+Roar+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m4ms7cxmnCQ/UVh717G0Z5I/AAAAAAAAAjQ/eExwROm9fFo/s320/African+Roar+2.jpg" width="198" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">Some of the stories in this anthology portray bleak
situations but moving all the same. My description of them is not confused, I
write with a keen mind having read <b><i>African Roar’s</i></b> two previous
offerings (Read my reviews of the 2010 and 2011 editions <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2010/06/literary-world-quakes-with-african.html">here</a>
and <a href="http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2011/10/african-roar-2011-anthology-of-14-short_15.html">here</a>).
<b><i>Africa
Roar 2012</i></b> is the third anthology since it started out in 2010. And so
far, the yearly anthology has not wavered in standard. The quality of its
entries always holds its readers spellbound. It is with that experience you
know you have come to reading unmixed African writings. To help fellow hitherto
unpublished writers and open them to wide readership are some of the
reasons StoryTime initiated <b><i>African Roar</i></b>. And it has been doing
that good in that regard. There is no being superfluous about it; what StoryTime is doing for
African writing remains (arguably)</span> to be rivalled<span lang="EN-US">. It is in its third year now and the strength
behind it still strong. Through <b><i>African Roar</i></b>, I have come to know
writers whose creativity still dazzles me till present. <b><i>African Roar</i></b> story-select
has always been near perfect. A proof of that is in the array of its yearly
entries. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">Let me tell you, in my own little observation,
what African Roar has been able to do in these three years; it has told the
continent’s stories unreservedly. However gloomy some of them might come; they
are still ours, Africa’s. To maintain a positive pretense by sticking only to
the unsullied side of Africa is to go maliciously one-sided: our African world
is a mix of both the evil and the routine (if you could call ‘the routine’
good). <b><i>Africa Roar</i></b> does not cower to portray Africa in a fake present modern-day
reality. Aside the little spoilers characterizing individual pieces, this yearly
anthology is a good read anytime. Go read its archives, <b><i>Africa Roar</i></b> has paid its
due. It has taken our stories trans-continentally. And Africa is the better for
it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">I wouldn’t know the reason for the biographic annotation
that graces the end of each story. It is a good thing in some instances but
shallow nonetheless. For one, the biographic snippets spoil the critical mind
of the reader to relate with the themes of the stories in the manner he sees
fit. That publishing style only intrudes on the reader’s mind. I don’t give a
hoot if what inspires Onyenezi’s <b><i>You Smile</i></b> is some Fela’s music as
the authors goes on reeling about cultism being the main theme of his story.
Laughably, he fails even in identifying his story’s main theme, which isn’t
cultism. The best thing is to scroll over those disturbing annotations or only
read them when curious to know the writer’s mind for a particular story. This
attempt almost spoils my reading of the anthology. I found it particularly watery having to know
an individual view of his story in the mid-process of my making sense of his
piece. That does not do it for me as a reader to say the least.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">The entries for the 2012 edition are few, fewer
than past editions. Know now, some of the entries in this 2012 edition lack
optimism, their views are quite grim. And this makes you wonder if they are not
intentionally forced to be that way. I hold this belief because some of them
are so unconvincing in their portrayal of the realities they write on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi;">Experiencing
Africa; Some Lives</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi;">.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US">“The Colours of
Silence” – Ifesinachi Okoli<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">For Mum and Dad, 10 million naira changes
everything. I find it hard to believe the cause of the domestic trouble in this
story. However, the manner Ifesinachi uses colours to represent every turn the
domestic abuse takes is splendid. The 10 million naira is the money which Mum
wins in a lottery Aunty Melissa introduces to her. What questions belief is the
suddenness of the luck in the winning. Ifesinachi does little to make her story
believable. That Mum quite believes she will win the money even before she
plays the lottery just seems far from reality and quite unoriginal. Lotteries
are games of thin luck. Nobody knows when they will win.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-US">“You Smile” – Chika
Onyeneze<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">The “You” pronoun make a story so you-beaut. As common as this style has
become, when properly used, it could make a piece good. It is how you relate
with it that adds to its exceptionality. In <b><i>You Smile</i></b>, nothing is
working as the lead character, <i>You</i>,
suffers on. <b><i>You Smile </i></b>relates the
socio-ills we always smiled off. Even in this piece, <i>You</i> only remains sane as he smiles on. He can’t act otherwise,
everything is insane already. The constant smiles are the only thing that
humanizes his sufferings. Various contrived reprieves maintain his smiles:
religion, the usual banter amongst neighbours and Nduka, the bottles, and
Nduka’s teenage pleasure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>“Soldiers of the Stone” – Uko Bendi Udo<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kulaja Giri is constantly
rattled by the ghosts of his marshy pasts. He can’t forget them easily; the
ghosts breathe hard on him, on his present, even when he relocates to New York.
When Marco gangsterism spites Kulaja in New York, he wishes he could wake his
past ghosts up, get back his Serra Leone militancy and assume his fearless
self, the one he daily runs away from.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>“The Revenge of Kamalaza Mayele” – Vukani G. Nyirenda<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Kamalaza desires Kampeteu,
but first he must battle the custom that bars out his sexual desire. When he
fails in his pursuit, he will pick a newer pursuit with the flute as he seeks
to even his misfortune with a misplaced revenge. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>“We Can See You” – Abdul Adan<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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This is very much akin to the
commonplace immigrant story and its usual after-trauma of home coming. If the
foregoing were the only fascinations in this piece, then the reader might not
be excited. Conversely, what this piece drives at are more than the limitedness
in the usual telling and retelling of immigrant experiences. <b><i>We
Can See You</i></b> ordinarily, yet remarkably, tells the individual trouble of
a life that is liberated but imprisoned in the misfortunes of his kinsmen and friends.
When Mahmud Yare comes home from America, he is everyone’s bread and so will
suffer their ambush. Nothing will save him. But let’s see what Maghrib prayers
will do in his dire difficulty. Beside all this, Abdul cursorily uses this
piece as a commentary on the corrupt Kenya Telekom Company;<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>“Mahmud thought back to the days he before he left for America when he
ran a phone centre for himself. He offered cheap calls to far places…but with
the emergence of cheap cell phones, his service had become unnecessary and he
expanded it to include international calls. He received no bills from Telekom,
the government parastatal in charge of landlines. All he had to do was make a
deal with one of the directors, and offer him a fixed sum, or something to wet
his throat…and he was exempted from paying any bills whatsoever” </i> (pg. 19)<o:p></o:p></div>
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****<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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With Ivor
Hartmann, the publisher of <b><i>African Roar</i></b>, combining this with
the publication of AfroSF (a new and also a yearly anthology of science
fictions by African writers), I hope <b><i>African Roar</i></b> will not be the worst
for it. One can only hope <b><i>African Roar</i></b> maintains its standard,
or even surpasses it, in times to come. We, the readers, can only watch, read
and hope <b><i>Africa Roar</i></b> won’t soon go under for AfroSF.<o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388711307756687286.post-80912159002152870832013-03-14T16:36:00.000+00:002013-03-14T17:09:15.067+00:00“Excuse Me!” by Victor Ehikhamenor<br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US">©<a href="http://www.josephomotayo.blogspot.com/">Joseph Omotayo</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.twitter.com/omotayome">@omotayome</a> </span></b><span lang="EN-US">For Twitter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aodvImWEjTk/UUH1aJilMXI/AAAAAAAAAiw/RwRACPfjfTc/s1600/Excuse+Me+by+Victor+E.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aodvImWEjTk/UUH1aJilMXI/AAAAAAAAAiw/RwRACPfjfTc/s320/Excuse+Me+by+Victor+E.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
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<b><u><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></u></b></div>
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<b><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Of Humour, a Slip-on Shoe
and Witches</span></u></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Excuse Me!, I spend hours reading every day.
The more I read, the more embattled I am. The more I am embattled, the more I
hate overbeaten themes and plots. When you are a consistent book blogger, you
suffer several headaches from reading junks by
fame-seeking-and-instant-publishing-upcoming writers. Life is too short for
such insignificant wahala. I already have problems of my own. Any breather will
just do; a big relief I wouldn’t lose. <b>“Excuse
Me!”</b> provided that opportunity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Humour is a great gift in the face of nippy
tribulation. Nigeria is presently a mess and we all are partly too. This book
can’t have been timelier than now. We indeed need humour to ford the muddy water
Nigerian is in. Honestly, you are missing out on a lot of humour if you have
not, by some unlucky fate, read <b>“Excuse
Me!”</b>. You really are. That may be a pointer that your life is being
threatened by your village witches. And village witches are real, that’s no
cheap stereotype. Take that from me. Take that from <b>“Excuse Me!”</b>, but don’t quote this:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US">“I was born…in a village full of
gods”</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> <b><span style="color: red;">{witches}</span></b><span style="color: red;"> </span>– (“Forgive Me Father For I Have Sinned” pg. 20) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I had saved on getting a slip-on shoe before
parting the money on <b>“Excuse Me!”.</b> I am still angry though. However, <b>“Excuse Me!”</b> could really be a good
substitute. But I will save again and get the shoe. I love books, I love shoes.
I am no geek. Simple!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">“Excuse Me!”</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> creatively simplifies complex
matters and the conscious manner this is done makes the very writing a rousing
read. Wars are changing us. The troubles we carry around are ageing us. What
makes all those bearable are spices of affective humour. <b>“Excuse Me!”</b> has got an overdose of that. You should read this
book. If nothing spurs you to, at least, know you would be walloping your
village witches for doing so. By reading this book, you would be triumphing
over them; over their plans not to make you to. Remember I said village witches
are real? But don’t tell them I said so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Anger, Resignation and Language<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Language is brought to magnificent use in this
book. The words are all at once serenading and enthusing. <b>“Excuse Me!”</b> giddy word craft elevates simplicity with grace; the
reading is light but the art in them refuses to tediously trundle. Words lively
speak in this book, you will feel it. And suddenly, that will almost seem
heavenly. Check out Lagos on a rainy day;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US">“When it rained in Lagos, it doesn’t
pour. Broken sewers rise and things long forgotten resurrect in a fetid
regatta. Dolls and dung float lazily in tar water. Men and women take turns in
increasing the water level by pissing into stagnant waters… The only thing
moving in the traffic is the incessant wiper blades clearing the tears off
crying windscreens… Conductors’ lips are condensed, gripping tight unlit sodden
cigarettes… Okada riders have no holiday as they submerge in broken drainages
and emerge seasoned swimmers… Shoprite plastic bags take the place of helmets
passengers holding dearly to nothingness. Move. Stop. Move. Stop. Between two
to twenty the okada riders form a colony of vultures seeking dead carcasses in
wetlands, happy that the hyenas, Nigeria police, don’t dampen their feast” </span></i><span lang="EN-US">(“When It Rains In Lagos” Pg. 150)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">You read some other essays and the humour is
lost, giving way to deep-seated anger and resignation. Not everything could be
so taken lightly when reality bits, even Victor Ehikhamenor’s flair fails fun
in this one. Nothing could be bleaker than this is;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"> <i>“Your child’s mouth is wide open. You wiggle to seek and give comfort.
None seems available in the jam-packed metal scrap called molue you transit in.
In this blurry journey, you seek food and future but nothing is within reach.
The bus windows are broken for they can’t be rolled up, a situation akin to our
GDP.” </i> (“A Blurry Journey” pg. 103)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Slouchy-Fading Generations:
Hasty Conclusions</span></u></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Highly unfitting is Victor’s imbalanced obsessiveness
of the past over the present. Victor’s reminiscences are absorbing, you are
easily drawn to them. Humour could be that deceptive, you swiftly flung your opinion
as if you never really had one. When Victor writes in <b><i>Love Letters</i></b>, I was taken
in by the memory. Memories of my exploit at the craft quickly flooded me. I am a veteran at love letter writing. Being born in the very early 90’s has its
joys and pains. For the joys, you straddle the worlds before and after the
internet. But the lines at which these two worlds blur into each other are your
pains. There was a level of writing confidence that came with love letter
writing then. I wrote many. Some never really made it to the recipients. Others
got my palms blistered and kneecaps' skin bruised when nemesis overtook me. This was
before mobile phones and its SMSes. I would still not know why I never scored
an A in my O’level English paper. I will just take it that the exam marker
never had the head for my dictions (as if that is the only thing needed to pass
an English paper. Lol) I knew dictionary, friend. I was a walking one. Love
Letter writing taught me good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">However, having gone through that world and
still experiencing the presently cyber driven, I won’t easily accept Victor’s
careless conclusion. His and many others of the fading generations always come
out clumsily. Scorning the internet for the present days’ malaises is nothing
near genuineness and that incenses me. Victor’s drive to quickly make rubbish
of this internet age in <b><i>Love Letters</i></b> falls tiredly supine.
It is just so lazy to be that hasty in linking what was obtainable then to the
woes youths battle with now. The present system may have been corroded, but
that is just the singleness of the total good internet has given to this age.
Believe it, it really is. Excerpts like these below are rather frivolous:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US">“Unfortunately we no longer write
love letters – this vital learning class
that helped raise future poets has given way to text messages (txt
msgs), which is the biggest threat to the English Language as we know it.”</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> (pg. 7)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">It sounds ridiculous to think that text
messaging singularly wrecked that evil. There is no conclusiveness as regard
that. So, when Victor haphazardly
includes it there, I am disgusted. It is time somebody started talking about
the creativity of words that came with this innovation too? Who will show how
Text Messaging has also helped erase verbosity? Certainly, this will not be
with the likes of Victor of the fast fading-slouchy generation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And this too:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US">“A contemporary village girl would
rather accept a txt msg with rchge crd than a well written love letter that
can’t boast of one minute call credit” </span></i><span lang="EN-US">(pg. 7)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The above is another attempt to commonly bring
many under a lazy speculative mirror. The thrill that comes with love SMSing
overrides what Victor attached to the recharge card power. Many a lady would
admire a guy’s pert SMSes over flimsy exhaustible recharge vouchers. But
Victor’s single view wouldn’t accept that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US">“When was the last time you wrote a
love letter? No, I don’t mean those headless and tailless ones on Blackberry
chat, Twitter flirts and other forms of instant messaging; those are like
pissing in the wind.” </span></i><span lang="EN-US"> (pg. 3)</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Only in Victor’s world are those (Tweets, BBMs,
etc) seen as such. How piteous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Victor never ceases to amuse me and he does
hastily jumps again in <b><i>Ever Jolly Valentine</i></b>. It is a great
worry when an over-contented memory-drunk elder speaks. In his world,
everything is pristine and nothing of yours could stand up to his. He doesn’t
want any other memory cleaning his out and so, he faithfully holds on to his,
running down your own. <b><i>Ever Jolly Valentine</i></b> is very much
akin to that attitude. Victor’s reliving and tail-end creative analogy is
outstanding though. His messages are not rushed until they hit you at the very
last paragraph, but that could come off as a dogma too, with Victor leaving you
with little room to disagree. Narcissistic Romanticism so plagues many pieces
in this book, so when Victor put it this way again in <b><i>Ever Jolly Valentine</i></b>, I
wasn’t comfortable:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US">“Ekpoma still has the Ever Jolly Supermarket but it has lost its glamour
(and the monopoly) it enjoyed back then. Ambrose Alli University has also lost
its innocence. The place is filled with fakes now. Facebook and text messages
have replaced the greeting cards that made Olu great<span style="color: red;">.<b> I shudder to imagine the Valentine Day
celebrated there now and in many of our Federal run-down universities today</b></span>.”
</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> (“Ever Jolly Valentine” pg. 10)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The past may have been heavenly and the present
hellish, but please save us that tired mantra. This present is different with
its innovations in good ways. In the above excerpt, there is once again a
subtle attack on the two mediums of Facebook and text messages. Victor will
have to do better than making languid connection between what constitute morals
and otherwise with the popular use of the new media. What does one call that attitude
if not a blind glorification of the rustic past over this dynamic present? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Well, humour may easily buy Victor a pardon
when he misses his points and come to marshy conclusions on many matters, but
an observant mind wouldn’t when he goofs. I love this book, <b>“Excuse Me!”</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5