| Author |
Message |
    
Anita
Newbie Poster
Username: Anita
Post Number: 23
Registered: 02-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, August 19, 2004 - 09:12 pm: | 
|
Has anyone read this debut novel by Esi Edugyan? I found it in Borders today and was swept into the first chapter before I knew it.
I'd love to discuss it later with someone. |
Steve_s
Newbie Poster
Username: Steve_s
Post Number: 7
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 20, 2004 - 09:16 pm: |
|
Hi Anita, I'm called "Jzz" on the other message board. I picked up a copy too. I'd love to get your take on it later, either here or there, it makes no difference. I'm only on page 25, but the premise of an African immigrant in the Pacific Northwest (in this case, Calgary, Alberta) reminds me of a short story called "The Caretaker" by Anthony Doerr, an under-thirty first-timer who was paired with ZZ Packer in a lot of last year's publicity. In that story, which has echoes of Melville, the main character is a Liberian refugee who settles in Oregon. |
Steve_s
Newbie Poster
Username: Steve_s
Post Number: 8
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 25, 2004 - 10:48 pm: |
|
I just finished it. Very original book, I really enjoyed it. Will have to think about it for a few days. |
Anita
Newbie Poster
Username: Anita
Post Number: 24
Registered: 02-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, September 05, 2004 - 07:58 am: |
|
Steve:
Done thinking yet? :-) Let me know when you're ready to discuss. Not sure if you want to discuss here because I wouldn't want to spoil the book for anyone. |
Steve_s
Newbie Poster
Username: Steve_s
Post Number: 9
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 09, 2004 - 11:29 pm: |
|
Anita:
Haven't thought about it much because I got caught up in whole the hurricane evacuation thing.
I think that there's a lot going on beneath the surface, some of which I don't quite understand and some of which I don't think is ever really explained. For instance, is it mere coincidence that Akosua is from the same African country as Samuel and Maud? Or even something as simple as why the twins -- "Young Tragedy and Comedy" as their father calls them -- have French names: Yvette and Chloe. And there's definitely a touch of the supernatural (as there was in The Known World), but it seems like it's only hinted at for a long time. I like this book because it's so different, but if I had to criticize anything, it would be that I think it spends too much time on the twins and not enough on the history underlying the story, however, I thought the last fifty pages were extremely good.
The first thing I noticed (besides the artistic cover) were the blurbs. All (or most) are Canadian, however, two reviewers independently arrive at the adjective "befuddled" to describe Samuel. Would you say that's an accurate description? I don't think he's indecisive, if that's what it means. One blurb compares him to a typical character in a novel by Rohinton Mistry. I know that Rohinton Mistry is Canadian, but I haven't read him so I can't speak to that. But one reviewer says that "Samuel Tyne . . . is not just a black man, he's Everyman." A reviewer at Amazon.com states that this book is no more about blackness than Obscure Book by Author X is about whiteness and even admonishes us that if we think this book is about "race," we may be "misreading" the book.
I think it has an allegorical quality to it, but among other things, it describes a town with a history (and a "present" -- although the story begins in 1968) of overt racial hostilities, so I know I'm not misreading that. But it does seem like a morality tale and I was wondering about the meaning of the biblical quote in the context of the story: Let the dead bury their dead. Although my knowlege of African literature is very limited, the novel has a definite African feel to it. First, because it describes a moral dilemma (the few African novels I've read seem highly moral to me) and secondly, because there's a tension between the old and the new. I'm talking about the internal tension in the African character(s) more than the racial conflict, although both may be related.
It's an immigrant story on a couple of levels. Samuel is from the Gold Coast and he has something in common with Chanu in Brick Lane by Monica Ali in that they're both "anachronisms": their homelands achieved independence while they were abroad. But there's another interesting immigrant story about the black Oklahomans who emigrated to this part of Canada around 1910. Ironically, unlike Dickens' landsmen who did him so proud when he bumped into them on a steamship between Montreal and Quebec, these Oklahomans were not "Have Nots," as Porter explains:
"From Emerson to Winnipeg to this city, from the most refined genius to the city's worst wretch, people wanted to know how these pilgrims had come through the border check unscathed. And it was true; they'd come with riches and livestock and glorious health, so it had been impossible to detain them, though the authorities tried." |
Anita
Newbie Poster
Username: Anita
Post Number: 25
Registered: 02-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 08:07 pm: |
|
Hi Steve:
I concur with your observations. I enjoyed this original story and look forward to reading more from this author.
I would like to add that the twins' story was reminiscent of Marjorie Wallace's The Silent Twins. The more I read about Yvette and Chloe, I saw strands of June and Jennifer Gibbons in their actions. Have you read the story?
I wish the author had played up the element of witchcraft a bit more. During the last 50 pages, I felt Y and C were the only witches in town and their "supernatural" power was merely a perversion to wreak havoc on those around them. |
|
Email This Page