The Heart Of The Matter
The Heart Of The Matter by Graham Greene was my Book Club's choice this month. It is the third Graham Greene novel I have read after The End Of The Affair and The Human Factor. Having read those novels, I had some idea of what to expect here, and indeed the novel shares a number of deep similarities to The End Of The Affair.
Having since googled this, four of Greene's novels, including Heart Of The Matter and End Of The Affair examined Catholic themes with Heart Of The Matter being the final one. Some at my Book Club could not understand why the protagonist becomes so deeply religious towards the end, but I, having grown up in modern Catholicism with an awareness of its history, could.
The unforgiving Catholicism on show here, in the days of the Tridentine Rite and prior to the Second Vatican Council is one I think not easily understood by a lay reader, which I think makes the book lose something in translation to the non-religious or non-Catholic.
Aside from this issue the novel covers a number of other themes. First and foremost it is a novel about Colonials and Colonial society. Various Brits abroad, largely public school educated, despairing of the heat and disparaging of the natives, illustrating as they go via their behaviour the levels to which the British Empire damaged various nations and their peoples with their sense of paternalistic right and entitlement.
Our protagonist is Scobie, and our colony is a "West African State" later revealed by Greene to be Sierra Leone. Scobie is that rare thing, an honest man who likes the people and seeks to do the job well, something which makes he and his wife objects of unpopularity and scorn. As the novel turns, and Scobie is forced to act in an unprincipled way, his popularity increases, a remark perhaps aimed by Greene at the corrupt nature of those who enter Foreign Service.
It is a very male book set in a man's world and I found myself frustrated that we only see women in this book in the way Scobie views them, as needy and a burden. The two main female characters Helen and Louise are two-dimensional with only merest hints that they are more than Scobie is allowing them to be. Other men like Wilson, Bagster and Harris are priggish and annoying, and perhaps in some respects, stereotypes.
Despite this the prose itself is engaging, though the novel does not really become consistently readable until perhaps mid-way through. It has dated, but is also an interesting portrait of its time, both historically speaking and in terms of comparative literature.
It is an interesting book, and I enjoyed certain lines of prose very much, but this being my third Greene, I feel like I've got a certain handle now on the type of novel he wrote and can't say I'm eager to read his complete works.
Verdict 7/10
Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts
Tuesday, 3 June 2014
Friday, 31 January 2014
Book #4 Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi
Ghana Must Go
At the beginning of Ghana Must Go, Kweku Sai dies in his garden. A Ghanian immigrant who was once successfully pursuing the American Dream, he ran and abandoned his wife and four children when that dream crumbled. The novel is about the impact of both his disappearance and subsequent death on his estranged family, and is told in present day terms with his children as adults and in flashback to their youth.
I read Ghana Must Go on the train over two days and found I couldn't wait for the next installment. There was something very lyrical about it, poetic.
For Kweku's four children : Olu, Taiwo, Kehinde and Sadie - as they separate out into the world, failure, or lack of success is their common enemy and they all strive to leave the ghost of the man who was their father behind.
The four characters themselves have each been impacted by Kweku in different variations on a similar theme which tie in and unify quite well. The novel is a family saga about a disconnected family really.
The most particularly difficult aspect of the story is the experience that the twins have during their unexpected exile in Lagos; but it is not done in a too heavy handed manner, but in a manner where you slowly guess yourself and it sends a shiver down your spine. It doesn't feel crudely executed for shock value.
Books that somehow touch on the countries or continent of Africa are one of my special interests as a Reader and have been since I was in my teens. Ghana Must Go is a sophisticated and pleasurable addition to the novels of this kind that I have read.
I was moved and intrigued by Ghana Must Go and found it very realistically human throughout in terms of the psychology behind relationships.
I do recommend this hugely and would give it a 10/10
At the beginning of Ghana Must Go, Kweku Sai dies in his garden. A Ghanian immigrant who was once successfully pursuing the American Dream, he ran and abandoned his wife and four children when that dream crumbled. The novel is about the impact of both his disappearance and subsequent death on his estranged family, and is told in present day terms with his children as adults and in flashback to their youth.
I read Ghana Must Go on the train over two days and found I couldn't wait for the next installment. There was something very lyrical about it, poetic.
For Kweku's four children : Olu, Taiwo, Kehinde and Sadie - as they separate out into the world, failure, or lack of success is their common enemy and they all strive to leave the ghost of the man who was their father behind.
The four characters themselves have each been impacted by Kweku in different variations on a similar theme which tie in and unify quite well. The novel is a family saga about a disconnected family really.
The most particularly difficult aspect of the story is the experience that the twins have during their unexpected exile in Lagos; but it is not done in a too heavy handed manner, but in a manner where you slowly guess yourself and it sends a shiver down your spine. It doesn't feel crudely executed for shock value.
Books that somehow touch on the countries or continent of Africa are one of my special interests as a Reader and have been since I was in my teens. Ghana Must Go is a sophisticated and pleasurable addition to the novels of this kind that I have read.
I was moved and intrigued by Ghana Must Go and found it very realistically human throughout in terms of the psychology behind relationships.
I do recommend this hugely and would give it a 10/10
Monday, 31 December 2012
Book #4 The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing
The Grass Is Singing
Length Of Time In Possession Before Being Read : 1 Week
The Grass Is Singing is the debut novel of Nobel Prize for literature winning Doris Lessing, set in Southern Rhodesia, where Lessing was born, there is a deliberate attempt to make the area represent all South Africa as a whole.
I've always had a "thing" for Africa and always enjoy finding novels set in the continent. This particular novel is the story of Mary Turner, and begins with reports of her murder, from there it traces Mary's story from her childhood to her untimely demise.
On one level The Grass Is Singing is interesting from the point of view of how much Lessing used autobiographical content, I wondered if the young Mary freed from her parents by education represented young Doris whereas the older frustrated farmers wife Mary who wishes for a less impoverished lifestyle represented her mother Emily, and essentially the fear, which is sadly realised for Mary, of "ending up just like her mother".
The other level is the examination of Apartheid society, and the shocking yet entirely acceptable in its day, bigotry and racism, it's quite eye-popping.
Doris Lessing is someone who "I've been trying to get along with" for some time, because someone I admire is a great fan, but this is the third book of hers I have now read with four others yet to go on my Book Mountain and I still haven't clicked with her.
My problem with The Grass Is Singing in the end is how grim it is. A relentlessly depressing, hopeless sinking of a woman who married because she felt like she had to. It's very well written of course, but not really the kind of novel one reads for enjoyment, and instead "an issues based thing" which are nevertheless good to read from time to time for the point of being cultured, but many novelists manage to both make you think and enjoy the plot and this doesn't do that really.
Verdict : 7/10
Destination : Ebook storage
Length Of Time In Possession Before Being Read : 1 Week
The Grass Is Singing is the debut novel of Nobel Prize for literature winning Doris Lessing, set in Southern Rhodesia, where Lessing was born, there is a deliberate attempt to make the area represent all South Africa as a whole.
I've always had a "thing" for Africa and always enjoy finding novels set in the continent. This particular novel is the story of Mary Turner, and begins with reports of her murder, from there it traces Mary's story from her childhood to her untimely demise.
On one level The Grass Is Singing is interesting from the point of view of how much Lessing used autobiographical content, I wondered if the young Mary freed from her parents by education represented young Doris whereas the older frustrated farmers wife Mary who wishes for a less impoverished lifestyle represented her mother Emily, and essentially the fear, which is sadly realised for Mary, of "ending up just like her mother".
The other level is the examination of Apartheid society, and the shocking yet entirely acceptable in its day, bigotry and racism, it's quite eye-popping.
Doris Lessing is someone who "I've been trying to get along with" for some time, because someone I admire is a great fan, but this is the third book of hers I have now read with four others yet to go on my Book Mountain and I still haven't clicked with her.
My problem with The Grass Is Singing in the end is how grim it is. A relentlessly depressing, hopeless sinking of a woman who married because she felt like she had to. It's very well written of course, but not really the kind of novel one reads for enjoyment, and instead "an issues based thing" which are nevertheless good to read from time to time for the point of being cultured, but many novelists manage to both make you think and enjoy the plot and this doesn't do that really.
Verdict : 7/10
Destination : Ebook storage
Monday, 24 September 2012
Book #80 The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
The Other Hand
I picked up The Other Hand in a charity shop and I said to my friend: Isn't this the best blurb you've ever read? For the record the blurb goes something like this:
This is really clever, and I've never seen it before, but this book goes further still. Inside the cover there's a letter from the Editor utterly effusive in its praise for the book and compares it to David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark in terms of the global impact it's going to have.
Impressive, no? Then suddenly you realise that both the blurb and the letter are just part of a marketing strategy, designed to make you buy the book and talk about it, and that's all. But there's a problem here, if you're going to make this kind of extreme over the top guarantee that this novel will be a modern classic, that it will be one of the best books that you the Reader, will ever read, then it damn well better live up to it in every sense, or you look utterly ridiculous.
For the record, the assertion is utterly ridiculous.
The novel is average at best, and is yet another novel set amongst the crashingly tedious London Media and Social Elite which occupy about 1% of this country, but seem to occupy a lot of its novels.
There's the obligatory affair, the Home Office shindigs, the working mum who loves her son SOO SOO MUCH but is content to ship him off to a nursery which is literally described as airless and smelling like toilets, whilst she tells other women what to care about in a glossy magazine whilst agonising over whether she's obeyed that days dress code. Her cowardly husband is one of those right on broadsheeters who writes condescending articles telling other people they need to have a social conscience (yah, yah, etc) but can't muster himself to have one when the time comes, and the actually vile lover who is the ultimate "someone else's problem NIMBY" all for donating to Oxfam but god forbid one actually helps an actual African!!!
Also, at one point, David Blunkett gets called a twat, for no reason essential to the overall story. Does Chris Cleave know David Blunkett? Does he know him personally? Why single him out amongst a plethora of politician twats? It seems almost vindictive. Though, I'm sure had it been Darth Mandelson few would have objected!!
Yes, the actual event which unites the 2 main female characters is utterly harrowing, but then with our Nigerian protagonist, who has all the hallmarks of a character one could come to care about; the author uses her voice to beat his target audience with the stick of "white guilt". It's all the fault of your ancestors, BE ASHAMED, sins of the fathers.
Ultimately the message is - you people who read books like this aren't you all self important, first world problems shits just like my awful awful characters. It's hard not to feel like the author is preaching on a soap box. There are some nice pieces of prose now and then, but the characters are by and large ugly, which makes it hard to like or care.
The lesson here with regard to its essentially artificially generated hype is: don't write a cheque your product can't cash 4.5/10
I picked up The Other Hand in a charity shop and I said to my friend: Isn't this the best blurb you've ever read? For the record the blurb goes something like this:
"We don't want to tell you what happens in this book. It's a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it...once you have read it you'll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens either"
This is really clever, and I've never seen it before, but this book goes further still. Inside the cover there's a letter from the Editor utterly effusive in its praise for the book and compares it to David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark in terms of the global impact it's going to have.
Impressive, no? Then suddenly you realise that both the blurb and the letter are just part of a marketing strategy, designed to make you buy the book and talk about it, and that's all. But there's a problem here, if you're going to make this kind of extreme over the top guarantee that this novel will be a modern classic, that it will be one of the best books that you the Reader, will ever read, then it damn well better live up to it in every sense, or you look utterly ridiculous.
For the record, the assertion is utterly ridiculous.
The novel is average at best, and is yet another novel set amongst the crashingly tedious London Media and Social Elite which occupy about 1% of this country, but seem to occupy a lot of its novels.
There's the obligatory affair, the Home Office shindigs, the working mum who loves her son SOO SOO MUCH but is content to ship him off to a nursery which is literally described as airless and smelling like toilets, whilst she tells other women what to care about in a glossy magazine whilst agonising over whether she's obeyed that days dress code. Her cowardly husband is one of those right on broadsheeters who writes condescending articles telling other people they need to have a social conscience (yah, yah, etc) but can't muster himself to have one when the time comes, and the actually vile lover who is the ultimate "someone else's problem NIMBY" all for donating to Oxfam but god forbid one actually helps an actual African!!!
Also, at one point, David Blunkett gets called a twat, for no reason essential to the overall story. Does Chris Cleave know David Blunkett? Does he know him personally? Why single him out amongst a plethora of politician twats? It seems almost vindictive. Though, I'm sure had it been Darth Mandelson few would have objected!!
Yes, the actual event which unites the 2 main female characters is utterly harrowing, but then with our Nigerian protagonist, who has all the hallmarks of a character one could come to care about; the author uses her voice to beat his target audience with the stick of "white guilt". It's all the fault of your ancestors, BE ASHAMED, sins of the fathers.
Ultimately the message is - you people who read books like this aren't you all self important, first world problems shits just like my awful awful characters. It's hard not to feel like the author is preaching on a soap box. There are some nice pieces of prose now and then, but the characters are by and large ugly, which makes it hard to like or care.
The lesson here with regard to its essentially artificially generated hype is: don't write a cheque your product can't cash 4.5/10
Saturday, 9 June 2012
Book #54 Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Things Fall Apart
Things Fall Apart, the title taken as a quote from a Yeats poem is the story of tribesman Okonkwo, a man who has worked hard within his tribe to achieve recognition having suffered the burden of an embarrassing father. A number of unfortunate incidents befall Okonkwo and he is forced into exile. Upon his return white colonialists have come to his village, and nothing will ever be the same again.
A relatively short novel by any standards, Things Fall Apart shows tribal life before European colonisation reflects upon morality, belonging and social standing within different cultural norms to our own. It also shows the beginning of what became the almost total erosion of tribal culture due to Western interference. This gives cause for reflection because whilst the West generally had a negative impact in its dealings with Africa, certain horrible cultural acts based upon superstition such as leaving twins to die of exposure in the forest vanish too.
It reminded me of a somehow reverse Heart Of Darkness, however I did not feel that the ending rang true to Okonkwo's character of spirit. A good book, and given its brevity worth the time it takes to read it. Part of me would have liked a longer, more detailed novel, which said more and followed history as it had developed over time 7/10
Things Fall Apart, the title taken as a quote from a Yeats poem is the story of tribesman Okonkwo, a man who has worked hard within his tribe to achieve recognition having suffered the burden of an embarrassing father. A number of unfortunate incidents befall Okonkwo and he is forced into exile. Upon his return white colonialists have come to his village, and nothing will ever be the same again.
A relatively short novel by any standards, Things Fall Apart shows tribal life before European colonisation reflects upon morality, belonging and social standing within different cultural norms to our own. It also shows the beginning of what became the almost total erosion of tribal culture due to Western interference. This gives cause for reflection because whilst the West generally had a negative impact in its dealings with Africa, certain horrible cultural acts based upon superstition such as leaving twins to die of exposure in the forest vanish too.
It reminded me of a somehow reverse Heart Of Darkness, however I did not feel that the ending rang true to Okonkwo's character of spirit. A good book, and given its brevity worth the time it takes to read it. Part of me would have liked a longer, more detailed novel, which said more and followed history as it had developed over time 7/10
Sunday, 29 April 2012
Book #40 Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson
Tiny Sunbirds Far Away
When I was 14, Alan Paton's Cry, The Beloved Country became my favourite novel. Nothing's changed. A South Africa set novel, I have always wanted to go to the continent of Africa since (never have) and when I come across an African novel look forward to reading it.
Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson is set in Nigeria. Siblings Blessing and Ezikiel live in Lagos, they have a comfortable apartment, a driver, and attend the International School. But, when their father suddenly leaves their mother for another woman, they find they must move to their grandparents compound in a small village.
The compound has no running water, no electricity, and the local school is cramped. Their grandfather Alhaji has converted to Islam and so must they. The life they lead is under constant financial strain and their safety is threatened by armed gangs that roam the jungle.
Blessing from whose perspective the novel is told makes a likeable protagonist as we see the events in their world and family life through her perspective. Alhaji is a bombastic frustrated man and yet he is loved by his family even with his flaws. Socio-political issues in Nigeria are dealt with with a somewhat "light" hand from armed militia groups, to the petroleum industry to the practice of female genital mutilation, and I would have preferred to have seen more depth of reflection here.
What didn't quite work for me was the level of culture shock and adjustment for these privileged city children, who seem to adapt to their circumstance a little too easily and without much complaint. However I loved the ongoing story arc of Blessing's relationship with her Grandmother and the portrait of loopy junior wife Celestine.
Overall it was engrossing enough to be considered a good read. Not the best I've read this year, but moving, enjoyable, and unusual nonetheless 8/10
When I was 14, Alan Paton's Cry, The Beloved Country became my favourite novel. Nothing's changed. A South Africa set novel, I have always wanted to go to the continent of Africa since (never have) and when I come across an African novel look forward to reading it.
Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson is set in Nigeria. Siblings Blessing and Ezikiel live in Lagos, they have a comfortable apartment, a driver, and attend the International School. But, when their father suddenly leaves their mother for another woman, they find they must move to their grandparents compound in a small village.
The compound has no running water, no electricity, and the local school is cramped. Their grandfather Alhaji has converted to Islam and so must they. The life they lead is under constant financial strain and their safety is threatened by armed gangs that roam the jungle.
Blessing from whose perspective the novel is told makes a likeable protagonist as we see the events in their world and family life through her perspective. Alhaji is a bombastic frustrated man and yet he is loved by his family even with his flaws. Socio-political issues in Nigeria are dealt with with a somewhat "light" hand from armed militia groups, to the petroleum industry to the practice of female genital mutilation, and I would have preferred to have seen more depth of reflection here.
What didn't quite work for me was the level of culture shock and adjustment for these privileged city children, who seem to adapt to their circumstance a little too easily and without much complaint. However I loved the ongoing story arc of Blessing's relationship with her Grandmother and the portrait of loopy junior wife Celestine.
Overall it was engrossing enough to be considered a good read. Not the best I've read this year, but moving, enjoyable, and unusual nonetheless 8/10
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