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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
This is the second Scholastique Mukasonga book I've read, but the first fiction. The other book I'd read was 'The Barefoot Woman', which is non-fiction. There is, having done a little digging, an element of auto-fiction in this novel, but I'm not sure how much.
It is set in an all girls Catholic school in Rwanda in the 1980s where the children of the ruling classes - or the want to be ruling classes - send their daughters. With a view to making them the perfect fodder for strategic marriages: "Thanks to their daughters, these families will grow wealthy, the power of their clans will be strengthened. and the influence of the lineage will spread far and wide. The young ladies of Our Lady of the Nile know just how much they are worth."
It is really a series of interconnected incidents, almost short stories, pulled together into an over all narrative. There is a tension that builds as Tutsi/Hutu rivalry is played out and, through the machinations of Gloriosa - a Hutu and the daughter of a government official - lies and builds up hostility to the Tutsi's at the school that ends with rape, murder and escape.
Veronica and Virginia are the two Tutsi students and there's an outside chance that Virginia is Mukasonga's alter ego as Mukasonga was forced to leave her school in the 1970s. The book is really their story. They are - mostly - the centre of events even as Gloriosa who is a pretty two-dimensional bully. However, perhaps all bullies are two-dimensional.
Veronica gets exoticized and fetishized by Monsieur de Fontenaille, a Belgian artist and colonial hangover, but he can't save her from, well, horror.
The book is, despite its serious themes, quite funny at points. Father Herménégilde, the school chaplin, and resident Catholic sex pest is acidly drawn: " And the same minister sent a consignment of white shirts to replace the old yellow ones. They were practically transparent, which Father Herménégilde seemed to appreciate, despite the reticence he displayed before Mother Superior."
It is pretty scathing about the Catholic nuns, colonialism, Rwandan politics and politicians which they probably all deserve. The colonialists in this case are the Belgians and the way history is taught in the school gets a fine kicking: "Africa had no history, because Africans could neither read or write before the missionaries opened their schools. Besides, it was Europeans who had discovered Africa and dropped it into history."
A fine book. A kind of Lord of Flies, but in an school rather than on an island. Schools in literature are often terrible places full of bullies and sneaks, but in this case the bullies can get you killed.
Worth a read.
It is set in an all girls Catholic school in Rwanda in the 1980s where the children of the ruling classes - or the want to be ruling classes - send their daughters. With a view to making them the perfect fodder for strategic marriages: "Thanks to their daughters, these families will grow wealthy, the power of their clans will be strengthened. and the influence of the lineage will spread far and wide. The young ladies of Our Lady of the Nile know just how much they are worth."
It is really a series of interconnected incidents, almost short stories, pulled together into an over all narrative. There is a tension that builds as Tutsi/Hutu rivalry is played out and, through the machinations of Gloriosa - a Hutu and the daughter of a government official - lies and builds up hostility to the Tutsi's at the school that ends with rape, murder and escape.
Veronica and Virginia are the two Tutsi students and there's an outside chance that Virginia is Mukasonga's alter ego as Mukasonga was forced to leave her school in the 1970s. The book is really their story. They are - mostly - the centre of events even as Gloriosa who is a pretty two-dimensional bully. However, perhaps all bullies are two-dimensional.
Veronica gets exoticized and fetishized by Monsieur de Fontenaille, a Belgian artist and colonial hangover, but he can't save her from, well, horror.
The book is, despite its serious themes, quite funny at points. Father Herménégilde, the school chaplin, and resident Catholic sex pest is acidly drawn: " And the same minister sent a consignment of white shirts to replace the old yellow ones. They were practically transparent, which Father Herménégilde seemed to appreciate, despite the reticence he displayed before Mother Superior."
It is pretty scathing about the Catholic nuns, colonialism, Rwandan politics and politicians which they probably all deserve. The colonialists in this case are the Belgians and the way history is taught in the school gets a fine kicking: "Africa had no history, because Africans could neither read or write before the missionaries opened their schools. Besides, it was Europeans who had discovered Africa and dropped it into history."
A fine book. A kind of Lord of Flies, but in an school rather than on an island. Schools in literature are often terrible places full of bullies and sneaks, but in this case the bullies can get you killed.
Worth a read.
Som roman skulle jag inte ge den här boken många stjärnor - särskilt inte i sin översatta form. Språket känns kantigt (i.e: orden"killen" och "tjejen" skorrar helt fel på flera ställen) och oanpassat till vad som egentligen berättas (det känns hela tiden som jag missar en underliggande känsla). Dessutom är berättelsen lite för fragmentarisk för att jag ska lära känna dess huvudpersoner; jag kan inte förrän mot slutet urskilja vem som är vem och då är det lite sent att börja bry sig om dem som individer.
Men om vi bortser från läsupplevelsen som fiktionsflykt... så är det här en bra bok att läsa. Nu är visserligen folkmordet i Rwanda ett av de (förmodligen alldeles för få) folkmord jag redan hade lite koll på, men det Mukasonga gör här är något annat än att, som brukligt är, berätta historien om under och efter. Hon berättar om historien före, och dessutom med utgångspunkt i en avlägsen flickskola, där det till en början mest känns som oviktigt tjejtjafs (ja, nu använde jag ordet - men här passade det!) bland privilegierade döttrar.
Jag kommer aldrig att gå igång på sånt här rent litterärt (så länge jag inte lär mig franska?) - men cudos till Tranan som enträget ger ut böckerna vi borde läsa istället för/vid sidan av amerikanska bestsellers.
Men om vi bortser från läsupplevelsen som fiktionsflykt... så är det här en bra bok att läsa. Nu är visserligen folkmordet i Rwanda ett av de (förmodligen alldeles för få) folkmord jag redan hade lite koll på, men det Mukasonga gör här är något annat än att, som brukligt är, berätta historien om under och efter. Hon berättar om historien före, och dessutom med utgångspunkt i en avlägsen flickskola, där det till en början mest känns som oviktigt tjejtjafs (ja, nu använde jag ordet - men här passade det!) bland privilegierade döttrar.
Jag kommer aldrig att gå igång på sånt här rent litterärt (så länge jag inte lär mig franska?) - men cudos till Tranan som enträget ger ut böckerna vi borde läsa istället för/vid sidan av amerikanska bestsellers.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
emotional
reflective
This one is a bit difficult to comment on since I recommend it overall, but I think a harder editing hand could have let it become truly great. The overall bones of this are solid, Mukasonga has a great observational eye and the novel is teeming with amusing anecdotes (smuggled snacks from home! gifting a child to the Belgian queen! a nose job on a statue!) so you get a strong impression of both the youth and malleability of these girls, to the point where when the denouement happens with sudden acceleration (this is Rawanda fifteen years before the genocide after all) the hysteria, superstition, and violence have been set up all along.
When this book is good, it’s fantastic. For instance a seemingly throwaway gag about Dian Fossey (!?!?) suddenly comes back in a surreal and emotional way. It also has an understanding of the nature of collective violence: clumsy and yet terrifying. But unfortunately there are some very jarring transitions, and the dialogue is often extremely bad, in contrast to her mostly buoyant prose. Some of this awkwardness could possibly be laid at the feet of the translator, but a lot of it is structural: characters explaining themselves in a stilted authorial way or relating events in monologues indistinguishable from one another or the narration. Three quarters marks.
When this book is good, it’s fantastic. For instance a seemingly throwaway gag about Dian Fossey (!?!?) suddenly comes back in a surreal and emotional way. It also has an understanding of the nature of collective violence: clumsy and yet terrifying. But unfortunately there are some very jarring transitions, and the dialogue is often extremely bad, in contrast to her mostly buoyant prose. Some of this awkwardness could possibly be laid at the feet of the translator, but a lot of it is structural: characters explaining themselves in a stilted authorial way or relating events in monologues indistinguishable from one another or the narration. Three quarters marks.
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Even on the eve of Rwandan genocide, noone can be cruel we than children.
sad
tense
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes