Oromay (1983) by Baalu Girma

 Book Review

Oromay (1983)

by Baalu Girma

   Oromay is an Amharic language novel written by a member of the Ethiopian Communist elite circa 1980.  It proved, let us say, controversial in his native Ethiopia, where the Communist Derg were not known for their sense of humor, and where Girma was allegedly murdered by said Communist government of which he was a member.  Easy come, easy go! Oromay is about the lengthy, unsuccessful and ultimately pointless war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Historically, Eritrea was a province of the Ethiopian empire, and independence was tied to the Italian colonization of the area (the title of the novel is an Ethiopianisation of an Italian expression), but it was basically a decades long civil war that Ethiopia eventually lost.

   In this particular book, Girma covers one unsuccessful campaign among what had to be dozens, and adds an interesting entry to the shelf of books set in 20th century Communist dictatorships.  Honestly, the Ethiopian Communists don't sound half bad, so far as books like this one go. 

Behold the Dreamers (2016) by Imbolo Mbue

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Behold the Dreamers (2016)

by Imbolo Mbue

Lehman Brothers Building, Wall Street, Manhattan

Manhattan: 33/33 

New York: 86/105

   Woop Woop that is all for Manhattan, baby.  I won't miss the rat infested apartments and swarthy immigrant families- of all races, genders and socioeconomic status.  The immigrant experience has been at the fore of the Manhattan sub-chapter of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America- I count 9 out of the 33 books located on the island of Manhattan.  Fitting then, we finish with a 10th book about the immigrant experience- and one of my favorites, Imbolo Mbue's debut novel, Behold the Dreamers, about an economic migrant from West Africa and his family, and his job as the chauffeur for a partner at Lehman Brothers, just before and during their collapse.

  It's not the first time Lehman Brothers has popped up this year.  I recently read The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave Breeding Industry (2017)  by Ned and Constance Sublette and the Lehman Brothers were a whole chapter as the example, par excellence, of the links between 20th century high finance and the slave trade in the American South (Lehman Brothers got their start as slave-trading middle men.)  I was mildly surprised not to see this fact established by any of the characters, and I was left wondering if it was the author himself who didn't know, or if he did know, picked Lehman Brothers for that purpose, and then decided none of his characters would know about that fact, so decided to omit any further discussion.  Anyway, that would be the first thing I would point out in a book about the relationship between an African immigrant chauffeur and a Lehman partner in the early ought's.

  Beyond that incongruity I quite liked Behold the Dreamers both in terms the characters and the mechanics of the book which center around the experience of an African immigrant that time and place. I also liked his treatment of the immigration legal system which I found to be sophisticated and nuanced in a book written by a non-lawyer.  At the same time, the writing wasn't overly technical or erudite, his portrayal of his aspirational immigrant family, living in a quasi-legal state while they actively try to defraud the US Immigration System (which is just treated as a fait accompli.) was also well executed.

  I was just generally impressed by the technical acuity of the prose writing, if not by the characters themselves, who are all morally culpable for various reasons. 

No One Dies Yet (2023) by Kobby Ben Ben

Ghanian author Kobby Ben Ben

Book Review

No One Dies Yet (2023)

by Kobby Ben Ben

   This is a debut novel by an exciting new voice in literature, Ghanian author Kobby Ben Ben.  No One Dies Yet was released in the UK last year, but the US edition just dropped.    Set in 2019, Ghana's Year of Return, No One Dies Yet is many things at once:  A fierce depiction of the difficulties of LGBT life inside Africa, the book culture of social media, a satire of African-Americans and others who arrive as tourists in Ghana expecting a transformative experience no matter the reality/truth of the matter, a wry commentary of the expectations of the western publishing industry as it relates to emerging African voices and a riff on world of literary serial killers/murders found in books like the Talented Mr. Ripley, American Psycho and yes, My Sister the Serial Killer.  

      No One Dies Yet is both an astute work of literature that can be read on its own terms and a sly work of meta-fiction that provides a cogent critique of the literary world itself and its expectations.  I found it to be astonishing, so much so that after reading a library copy on my Kindle I went out and bought the book itself so I could recommend it to friends and acquaintances.  I loved everything about No One Dies Yet except the many hot gay sex scenes, but I'm sure many readers would love those bits, and it's not like I disliked them, since they very much relate to the themes of the book and play a significant role therein. 

  Without belaboring the point, I want to give No One Dies Yet my highest recommendation- check it out for sure!!!

Tremor (2023) by Teju Cole

 Book Review

Tremor (2023)

by Teju Cole

  I'm a big Teju Cole fan- I like the way he mixes up fiction, art criticism and biographical detail in a way that reminds me of W.G. Sebald- one of my favorites.  The New York Times reviewer agreed:

He has written admiringly about, and frequently been compared to, the German writer W.G. Sebald; they share among other things a capacity to tunnel back from a single image or artifact to scenes of historical barbarism. (I almost wrote that Cole seems like a postcolonial version of Sebald — but Sebald is already the postcolonial Sebald.)

  

  There are quite a few Sebaldian takes in Tremor, notably the initial chapter where Tunde, a Nigerian-American professor who serves as the Teju Cole figure, and his Japanese wife, go antiquing in Southern Maine and come across a poorly maintained African artifact.  Later there is a chapter length "lecture" on the JMW Turner painting, "Slave Ship," which depicts a historical episode where the captain of a slave ship through his human cargo overboard in an attempt to save his vessel during a storm.

   There are also some non-Sebaldian features in Tremors, like the part in the middle where he voices 24 different people who live in Lagos, Nigeria. All of it is very entertaining to readers interested in the kind of art criticism/fiction pioneered by Sebald, but perhaps less so to those unfamiliar with that world.

Hangman (2023) by Maya Binyam

Author Maya Binyam

 

Book Review

Hangman (2023)

by Maya Binyam

  I checked the Audiobook version out of the library after seeing a couple of reviews of this book by Ethiopian-American author Maya Binyam- it's a debut novel, written by a woman and- surprise- it isn't about being a mom, not being a mom, being single, not being single etc.  That is pretty much an automatic read for me- a book written by a woman that isn't about motherhood or the travails of being an educated, upper-class white woman who lives in a city in NYC, LA, SF or London.  I'm looking for a breath of fresh air, in other words, and Hangman, an intriguing tale about an expatriate who returns to his unnamed country of origin because he believes his brother is dying, is precisely that, a book, written by a young, American author that isn't just about a stand in for the author complaining about her life for three hundred pages.

    Hangman was great- even though the country is unnamed I noticed similarities to Africa and Ethiopia.  The narrator of the Audiobook had such a distinct African accent that it seemed like a tacit admission that the book is set in Africa.  At times the writing reminded me of Kafka, Naipaul and Coetzee- a book filled with lower case p politics but also with intriguing narrative development and memorable supporting characters and locations.  Hangman has much to recommend it, and I recommend it highly!