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zefrog's reviews
1026 reviews
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
2.0
Under the Udala Trees purports to be a testimony of what lesbian and gay lives are like in Africa (and more specifically in Nigeria), a way to bring them to light, to give them the visibility they lack or tend to only gain in a negative and/or tragic way.
This is laudable and rather ambitious task that Okparanta sets herself. And one that I think she doesn't quite manage to complete. Although there are over 300 pages to the book that plot seems very basic and thin, and could be summarised in a couple of sentences, I'm sure. My level of interest both with the story and the characters waned as the book progressed to become virtually null by the welcomed end.
The language is ok although sometimes a little odd, presumably because it isn't the author's first language. The inclusions of quotes in Igbo are not particularly helpful I found.
Under the pen of another writer this could have become a thing of beauty. To me this just fell a little flat.
This is laudable and rather ambitious task that Okparanta sets herself. And one that I think she doesn't quite manage to complete. Although there are over 300 pages to the book that plot seems very basic and thin, and could be summarised in a couple of sentences, I'm sure. My level of interest both with the story and the characters waned as the book progressed to become virtually null by the welcomed end.
The language is ok although sometimes a little odd, presumably because it isn't the author's first language. The inclusions of quotes in Igbo are not particularly helpful I found.
Under the pen of another writer this could have become a thing of beauty. To me this just fell a little flat.
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
2.0
"What is the truth of any life [...]? I doubt even the man who lives it can say. [...] You cannot know the true nature of another's suffering." (p415)
Coming at the very end of the book as it does this seemingly profound pronouncement would appear to be the message Edugyan wants her readers to take away. This is however hardly an original thought and another 419 pages are an unnecessary addition to an already long corpus of works making that very point, probably much better.
As a work shortlisted for the Booker Price, one would expect Washington Black to be much meatier than it is. The first half reads like a straight-forward, very conventional YA adventure book. All the elements are there, told in a simple linear narrative, all nicely tied together and full of "amazing" and lucky coincidences. The second half is sadly but a slow petering out of the book's momentum, right to the anti-climactic final breath of wind.
The writing, both beautiful and imbued of clear simplicity, is what redeems a book that doesn't know what it is, as if the narrative is pulling in one direction while the author is pushing in another. The eponymous character is interesting and so is the rest of the protagonists but in the end I didn't get to care for them.
On the whole it is an enjoyable read, sometimes gripping, but mostly it is rather a let down. The material could have lent itself to something much more rewarding than the present offering. I could easily see this as a successful TV mini-series though.
Coming at the very end of the book as it does this seemingly profound pronouncement would appear to be the message Edugyan wants her readers to take away. This is however hardly an original thought and another 419 pages are an unnecessary addition to an already long corpus of works making that very point, probably much better.
As a work shortlisted for the Booker Price, one would expect Washington Black to be much meatier than it is. The first half reads like a straight-forward, very conventional YA adventure book. All the elements are there, told in a simple linear narrative, all nicely tied together and full of "amazing" and lucky coincidences. The second half is sadly but a slow petering out of the book's momentum, right to the anti-climactic final breath of wind.
The writing, both beautiful and imbued of clear simplicity, is what redeems a book that doesn't know what it is, as if the narrative is pulling in one direction while the author is pushing in another. The eponymous character is interesting and so is the rest of the protagonists but in the end I didn't get to care for them.
On the whole it is an enjoyable read, sometimes gripping, but mostly it is rather a let down. The material could have lent itself to something much more rewarding than the present offering. I could easily see this as a successful TV mini-series though.
The Cockroach by Ian McEwan
3.0
Reading this short novella provided a pleasurable extra dash of Schadenfreude, as the third designated day for the UK's departure from the EU came and went. For the text is very openly a satire of the Brexit process.
McEwan's premise, I think, was to ask himself who would profit from the implementation of highly destructive policies. He answer was cockroaches, who thrive when human society embraces darkness, as the protagonist puts it at the end of the book. "Where they have embraced poverty, filth and squalor, we have grown in strength." They also present the advantage, for McEwan, of being hated creatures.
From there he images a reversal of Kafka's Metamorphosis, which in turn possibly gives him his proxy for Brexit: Reversalism, a half-baked and totally unconvincing economic set up whereby cash flow is reversed and people have to buy their jobs and are paid for their shopping.
The whole British Cabinet becomes the host of a delegation of plucky cockroaches normally residents of the Palace of Westminster, who drive the implementation of the Reversal, as a lacklustre Prime Minister suddenly "appears to undergo a personality change to emerge as a modern Pericles, artful and ferocious in driving Reversalism through, do or die", something that noticeably failed to happen with Brexit, one might note.
This central elements of the plot are particularly unconvincing and McEwan never even attempt to explain how cockroaches can swap bodies with humans, but once disbelief was duly suspended, the book is amusing enough. It is well written, quick and easy to read. It is certainly entertaining but is unlikely to be remembered in the annals of political satire.
McEwan's premise, I think, was to ask himself who would profit from the implementation of highly destructive policies. He answer was cockroaches, who thrive when human society embraces darkness, as the protagonist puts it at the end of the book. "Where they have embraced poverty, filth and squalor, we have grown in strength." They also present the advantage, for McEwan, of being hated creatures.
From there he images a reversal of Kafka's Metamorphosis, which in turn possibly gives him his proxy for Brexit: Reversalism, a half-baked and totally unconvincing economic set up whereby cash flow is reversed and people have to buy their jobs and are paid for their shopping.
The whole British Cabinet becomes the host of a delegation of plucky cockroaches normally residents of the Palace of Westminster, who drive the implementation of the Reversal, as a lacklustre Prime Minister suddenly "appears to undergo a personality change to emerge as a modern Pericles, artful and ferocious in driving Reversalism through, do or die", something that noticeably failed to happen with Brexit, one might note.
This central elements of the plot are particularly unconvincing and McEwan never even attempt to explain how cockroaches can swap bodies with humans, but once disbelief was duly suspended, the book is amusing enough. It is well written, quick and easy to read. It is certainly entertaining but is unlikely to be remembered in the annals of political satire.