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literarycrushes's review against another edition
4.0
No Place to Call Home by JJ Bola is a gorgeous mediation on what makes a home – is it where you live? Where you were born? Or is it the people who love you?
The Selfless Act of Breathing might be the top book I’ve read this year, so when I saw the author had another book out, I rushed to read it. While this one didn’t pack quite the same punch as that one (seriously, that book broke me in the best way!), it was still incredible. It’s told from the perspective of Jean, a rebellious middle-schooler in North London, born in Kinshasa in Congo. While adolescence is tough on everyone, Jean has the added burden of feeling torn between two identities as he weaves together stories of his life with those of his parents’ history. Bola writes like a poet. Every sentence is so beautiful that it begs to be read over and over (which is probably why it took me so long to read this one). An important reminder that everyone’s story is important.
“If you are lucky, you will never have to remember home through your mother’s tears or the rage in your father’s voice when it shakes. Home will be somewhere you run to, never away from. It will never chase you away- a rabid dog hot on your heels with teeth like a shark, teeth so sharp you can already feel it cutting into you. If you are lucky, home will never up and leave you, and up and leave you, and up leave you, to the point where whenever anyone up and leaves you, it feels like home. You will look for them, as if they are home, because we all need somewhere to stay, even if it is a person; somewhere safe, somewhere warm.”
The Selfless Act of Breathing might be the top book I’ve read this year, so when I saw the author had another book out, I rushed to read it. While this one didn’t pack quite the same punch as that one (seriously, that book broke me in the best way!), it was still incredible. It’s told from the perspective of Jean, a rebellious middle-schooler in North London, born in Kinshasa in Congo. While adolescence is tough on everyone, Jean has the added burden of feeling torn between two identities as he weaves together stories of his life with those of his parents’ history. Bola writes like a poet. Every sentence is so beautiful that it begs to be read over and over (which is probably why it took me so long to read this one). An important reminder that everyone’s story is important.
“If you are lucky, you will never have to remember home through your mother’s tears or the rage in your father’s voice when it shakes. Home will be somewhere you run to, never away from. It will never chase you away- a rabid dog hot on your heels with teeth like a shark, teeth so sharp you can already feel it cutting into you. If you are lucky, home will never up and leave you, and up and leave you, and up leave you, to the point where whenever anyone up and leaves you, it feels like home. You will look for them, as if they are home, because we all need somewhere to stay, even if it is a person; somewhere safe, somewhere warm.”
debfictionista's review against another edition
4.0
Ah, this book will forever hold a special place in my heart. Took me a few days to gather my thoughts to post a review. it was poetic, moving, educational, and heart-rending. A good reminder that our stories truly matter. my immigrant self will never get tired of immigrant stories.
"We put up barriers around the world, because we put up barriers around ourselves, sometimes physical but almost always not. And in the end, we are all looking for the same place: somewhere to call home."
"We put up barriers around the world, because we put up barriers around ourselves, sometimes physical but almost always not. And in the end, we are all looking for the same place: somewhere to call home."
manaledi's review against another edition
3.0
Good meditation on what home means through the perspective of a DRC family in the UK.
crankylibrarian's review against another edition
3.0
From my blog post in Global Literature in Libraries, https://glli-us.org/2020/11/27/literature-of-exile-the-refugee-activist-poet-j-j-bola/
We came here to find refuge / They called us refugees / So we hid ourselves in their language / until we sounded just like them. / Changed the way we dressed / to look just like them / Made this our home / until we lived just like them. — from J.J.Bola’s poem “Refuge”
The refugee experience is integral to poet JJ Bola’s art and life. His family fled violence and chaos in Congo for London when he was six years old, where they lived the shadow existence of undocumented refugees. His dreams of playing professional basketball went unfulfilled; without a British passport he wasn’t able to travel to international competitions. His writing examines concepts of displacement and belonging, as well as black masculinity.
Bola recounts many of his childhood experiences, and those of his parents in his novel No Place To Call Home. Like Bola, the protagonist Jean Ntanga escapes Congo with his parents as a young child, his parents giving up family and careers for somewhat stable poverty in Britain. However, without passports the threat of deportation is an ever present threat.
Jean’s family is part of a close knit community of African refugees, mostly centered around the ministry of Pastor Kaddi, whose sole qualification for ministry is that he has been blessed from the heavens: he has received papers: “His fortune was no random act of chance but a manifestation of his faith; proof “Nzambe azali awa”, God is here, alive and present and at work, for those who believed”.
In fact, the desperate need for citizenship is the principle component of Pastors Kaddi’s theology:
The most resonating was the prayer for citizenship; an incantation for those without papers…The question on the edge of everyone’s lips was often “Ozui mukanda?” It was the climb to the top of the mountain, it was Daniel Escaping the Lion’s Den, or Jonah being freed from the stomach of the Whale, it was reaching the Promised Land after years of wandering in the desert, a miracle on equal par, as it was sign there was a higher power who showed eternal grace and favor toward you.
To have papers is to be blessed and find holy favor; to be deported is to be curse to Hell, whereas the daily life of a refugee is purgatory. Young Jean discovers the repercussions of this purgatory when he wins a school trip to France but learns that he can not participate; like the author his dreams are dashed because he has no passport.
Bola sensitively portrays the pain of cultural assimilation: when Jean meets a newly arrived refugee family from Congo, they have difficulty communicating:
Jean spoke mostly English now but understood French while his Lingala decrescendoed into the background like the end of a beautiful song. Christelle spoke Lingala, she spoke as if she had been for a long time, watering the seeds planted on her tongue.
As he tells his own story, Bola also recounts the traumas of his parents’ generation. Tonton, the family’s alcoholic lodger, is initially seen by Jean as a pathetic figure of contempt; only later do we learn that he drinks to blot out the horror of seeing his wife and daughters slaughtered by “Les Soldats” of the corrupt Congolese military. Jean’s parents, like Bola’s parents were once idealistic lovers; on their first date his father says of his mother:
Her dark eyes resembled two marbled containing a myriad of galaxies, and her cheekbones were thrones upon which desire sat.
Yet their lives in Kinshasa become untenable, as “Mami” finds herself alone, at the mercy of roaming gangs and increasing violence, and Papa is forced to abandon his studies and his dream of becoming a doctor to escape with her to Europe. In London, they create a new home and new dreams, but this home does not welcome them:
If you are lucky you will never have to remember home through your mother’s tears or the rage in your father’s voice when it shakes. Home will be somewhere you run to, never away from. It will never chase you away–a rabid dog hot on your heel with teeth like a shark, teeth so sharp you can already feel it cutting into you.
Bola currently works as an advocate for refugees, speaking for Africa Writes and Amnesty International, and as an ambassador for the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. To hear him read from his poetry, see
TED Talk: Reaching for a Place to Call Home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK-6EnYCwgg
We came here to find refuge / They called us refugees / So we hid ourselves in their language / until we sounded just like them. / Changed the way we dressed / to look just like them / Made this our home / until we lived just like them. — from J.J.Bola’s poem “Refuge”
The refugee experience is integral to poet JJ Bola’s art and life. His family fled violence and chaos in Congo for London when he was six years old, where they lived the shadow existence of undocumented refugees. His dreams of playing professional basketball went unfulfilled; without a British passport he wasn’t able to travel to international competitions. His writing examines concepts of displacement and belonging, as well as black masculinity.
Bola recounts many of his childhood experiences, and those of his parents in his novel No Place To Call Home. Like Bola, the protagonist Jean Ntanga escapes Congo with his parents as a young child, his parents giving up family and careers for somewhat stable poverty in Britain. However, without passports the threat of deportation is an ever present threat.
Jean’s family is part of a close knit community of African refugees, mostly centered around the ministry of Pastor Kaddi, whose sole qualification for ministry is that he has been blessed from the heavens: he has received papers: “His fortune was no random act of chance but a manifestation of his faith; proof “Nzambe azali awa”, God is here, alive and present and at work, for those who believed”.
In fact, the desperate need for citizenship is the principle component of Pastors Kaddi’s theology:
The most resonating was the prayer for citizenship; an incantation for those without papers…The question on the edge of everyone’s lips was often “Ozui mukanda?” It was the climb to the top of the mountain, it was Daniel Escaping the Lion’s Den, or Jonah being freed from the stomach of the Whale, it was reaching the Promised Land after years of wandering in the desert, a miracle on equal par, as it was sign there was a higher power who showed eternal grace and favor toward you.
To have papers is to be blessed and find holy favor; to be deported is to be curse to Hell, whereas the daily life of a refugee is purgatory. Young Jean discovers the repercussions of this purgatory when he wins a school trip to France but learns that he can not participate; like the author his dreams are dashed because he has no passport.
Bola sensitively portrays the pain of cultural assimilation: when Jean meets a newly arrived refugee family from Congo, they have difficulty communicating:
Jean spoke mostly English now but understood French while his Lingala decrescendoed into the background like the end of a beautiful song. Christelle spoke Lingala, she spoke as if she had been for a long time, watering the seeds planted on her tongue.
As he tells his own story, Bola also recounts the traumas of his parents’ generation. Tonton, the family’s alcoholic lodger, is initially seen by Jean as a pathetic figure of contempt; only later do we learn that he drinks to blot out the horror of seeing his wife and daughters slaughtered by “Les Soldats” of the corrupt Congolese military. Jean’s parents, like Bola’s parents were once idealistic lovers; on their first date his father says of his mother:
Her dark eyes resembled two marbled containing a myriad of galaxies, and her cheekbones were thrones upon which desire sat.
Yet their lives in Kinshasa become untenable, as “Mami” finds herself alone, at the mercy of roaming gangs and increasing violence, and Papa is forced to abandon his studies and his dream of becoming a doctor to escape with her to Europe. In London, they create a new home and new dreams, but this home does not welcome them:
If you are lucky you will never have to remember home through your mother’s tears or the rage in your father’s voice when it shakes. Home will be somewhere you run to, never away from. It will never chase you away–a rabid dog hot on your heel with teeth like a shark, teeth so sharp you can already feel it cutting into you.
Bola currently works as an advocate for refugees, speaking for Africa Writes and Amnesty International, and as an ambassador for the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. To hear him read from his poetry, see
TED Talk: Reaching for a Place to Call Home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK-6EnYCwgg
lailai78's review against another edition
5.0
I really really enjoyed this debut novel from JJ Bola.
It had the right mix of humour and poignant moments taking us from London, to Kinshasa to Brussels.
I would definitely recommend and I hope JJ continues to write novels.
It had the right mix of humour and poignant moments taking us from London, to Kinshasa to Brussels.
I would definitely recommend and I hope JJ continues to write novels.
atnmitch's review against another edition
5.0
This was very well written, a quite lovely read. At the beginning I felt some of the similes and metaphors were a little overbearing but this grew on me.
The story kind of centres on Jean, and his family and community, as well as his parents early life. a
As the title suggests the question of home is paramount, what this means and represents, both literally and metaphorically. The story moves through different people, and explores their relationship with their home, or attempts to build one, and highlights the precarity and that this can be, especially for displaced people.
The book really brings to light how life can be for displaced people in a different country, we go through the joys, frustrations, tragedies and constant tension that Jean and his family live with.
The story kind of centres on Jean, and his family and community, as well as his parents early life. a
As the title suggests the question of home is paramount, what this means and represents, both literally and metaphorically. The story moves through different people, and explores their relationship with their home, or attempts to build one, and highlights the precarity and that this can be, especially for displaced people.
The book really brings to light how life can be for displaced people in a different country, we go through the joys, frustrations, tragedies and constant tension that Jean and his family live with.
k_tea_o_cake's review against another edition
4.0
Moving and heartfelt this slice of a world I know nothing of feels so real and grounded. Thank you for your beautiful book
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