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Reviews tagging 'Murder'
Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth by Wole Soyinka
1 review
aegagrus's review
3.0
Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth arises from a satirical tradition focused on the abuse of power and the devaluation of human life. This novel differs from an intuitive point of comparison, Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, in that the latter is primarily interested in diffuse, pervasive, enduring political dysfunction. Soyinka's work, by contrast, is interested in the brazen machinations of powerful individuals -- along with the downstream effects their schemes can have on a political culture. Soyinka's perspective here is welcome, but the comparison is not all favorable. Armah's famous novel is sparsely constructed but tonally complex, ending on a note of simultaneous rage, elegy, and hope. Soyinka's latest novel is more elaborately constructed but ends on a less nuanced emotional note.
The satire here is extremely dense. Sometimes the sardonic asides and digressions feel a little extraneous. The world these characters inhabit is obsessed with brands and labels and titles and sobriquets, which contributes to the sense of conceptual density. Soyinka plays fast and loose with chronology and often describes things in an erudite, sideways way. This tactic is often effective, as the reader does not realize the depravity in what is happening until thoroughly in media res. It does, however, lead to a book which it took me some time to be fully invested in, which sets up its key plot points slowly, and which feels somewhat anticlimactic at its end.
Soyinka is a genius and justly regarded as a giant of literature, and there are many things he does well here. At times he pulls of beautiful, creative, and evocative prose descriptions, or sly sarcastic jokes, or tense and engrossing madcap sequences in which characters are working at cross purposes. His righteous anger at the casual way in which humans are made to suffer is entirely authentic and, coming from him, authoritative. The book taken in sum, however, struck me as somewhat unwieldy and undisciplined, sacrificing coherence and resonance for freewheeling and lengthy satirical diatribes and indictments of varying levels of importance.
The satire here is extremely dense. Sometimes the sardonic asides and digressions feel a little extraneous. The world these characters inhabit is obsessed with brands and labels and titles and sobriquets, which contributes to the sense of conceptual density. Soyinka plays fast and loose with chronology and often describes things in an erudite, sideways way. This tactic is often effective, as the reader does not realize the depravity in what is happening until thoroughly in media res. It does, however, lead to a book which it took me some time to be fully invested in, which sets up its key plot points slowly, and which feels somewhat anticlimactic at its end.
Soyinka is a genius and justly regarded as a giant of literature, and there are many things he does well here. At times he pulls of beautiful, creative, and evocative prose descriptions, or sly sarcastic jokes, or tense and engrossing madcap sequences in which characters are working at cross purposes. His righteous anger at the casual way in which humans are made to suffer is entirely authentic and, coming from him, authoritative. The book taken in sum, however, struck me as somewhat unwieldy and undisciplined, sacrificing coherence and resonance for freewheeling and lengthy satirical diatribes and indictments of varying levels of importance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Moderate: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, and Police brutality
Minor: Racial slurs
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