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webjoram's review against another edition
4.0
Suele ocurrir que cuando empiezas un libro sin expectativas acabas disfrutando mucho de su lectura y esto es lo que me ha pasado con Gravel heart. No sé si la historia es en parte autobiográfica o no pero lo que el autor deja claro es que sabe cómo transmitir las emociones y los pensamientos de sus personajes. Es un libro que toca muchos temas, el colonialismo, la inmigración y por supuesto la familia que creo que es el centro de la historia. Como personas somos el producto de nuestro entorno y nuestra familia y eso es algo que autor ha sabido plasmar en la historia de Salim. Un joven que se ha criado en un ambiente difícil, con unos padres separados, sin saber a quién culpar, y que condiciona su vida y sus decisiones. Obligado a emigrar, sus propios miedos y el entorno extraño en el que tiene que vivir hace que convierta en un joven retraído, al que le es complicado mantener relaciones estables y que acaba asumiendo que no pertenece realmente a ningún lugar.
Una historia triste pero también muy real y cercana.
Una historia triste pero también muy real y cercana.
ridgewaygirl's review against another edition
5.0
This is the story of boy growing up and coming to terms with his family's story. It's also the story of his parents and how an act of love destroyed their marriage. It's about a young man, taken away from all he knows to study in a foreign country, living with relatives who expect constant gratitude, then building his own life. It's about a fraught relationship between a father and a son and how Salim comes to understand his father.
Gurnah is a talented writer who builds a vivid picture of Zanzibar in the 1970s and of what life was like for an African in London. His writing is both clear and understated. There's a feeling of telling a tale and of grounding the story firmly in the world as it is. I'm very interested in reading more by this author.
Gurnah is a talented writer who builds a vivid picture of Zanzibar in the 1970s and of what life was like for an African in London. His writing is both clear and understated. There's a feeling of telling a tale and of grounding the story firmly in the world as it is. I'm very interested in reading more by this author.
hedread's review against another edition
3.0
I am very curious to read more from international authors. I found many parts of this book to be interesting. I would like to know more about the history of Zanzibar.
scarletohhara's review against another edition
4.0
Written in first person narrative, this story of Salim as he lives with his parents and Uncle Amir in Zanzibar, moves away for college to London and continues living there while finding his footing in the then-London, finding love and losing it, is a great book. I loved reading it because of all these reasons - it felt like I knew Salim personally, maybe coz of his living in a colonial country or his family relationships or him being an immigrant.
I loved how Gurnah casually slips in the various facets of colonialism in the book - at how the textbooks paint an English summer but those in the colonies don't really have the same summers, how the civil war happens at the wake of independence or how each of his grandfathers was well educated abroad and moved back - all of this felt very familiar, similar stories exist from India as well. I also liked his prose for how easy it was, and how he deals with complex emotions in simple English.
Salim getting to know his father and the story of his parents via his father, dealing with Uncle Amir's betrayal and his own adulthood and love make for a great story.
I loved how Gurnah casually slips in the various facets of colonialism in the book - at how the textbooks paint an English summer but those in the colonies don't really have the same summers, how the civil war happens at the wake of independence or how each of his grandfathers was well educated abroad and moved back - all of this felt very familiar, similar stories exist from India as well. I also liked his prose for how easy it was, and how he deals with complex emotions in simple English.
Salim getting to know his father and the story of his parents via his father, dealing with Uncle Amir's betrayal and his own adulthood and love make for a great story.
dani7silver's review against another edition
5.0
In my goal to read more books from African writers in 2022, I am very happy I picked up this book from Abdulrazak Gurnah, Tanzanian author and winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature. This book was a great introduction to the author's work, and I felt as though the style throughout truly mirrored the experience of alienation both internally, from within the home, and externally, as an immigrant in a foreign country. The pace of the book felt unrushed, despite being a rather short book. Additionally this book covers around a decade in the protagonist's life, but walks the line between life unfolding slowly and happening all at once. I thought that there was a great juxtaposition with how slow and relatively unsuccessful the protagonist's progress in the U.K. was compared to the letters he received from home from his mother, specifically the constant notice of the increasing age of his younger half-sister. It makes one feel as though time really is passing in different and mysterious ways, and almost acts as a reversed metaphor for the perhaps perception of "backwardness" of his country of origin and its actual conception in his country of immigration. I loved the prose, and I felt as though this story was a truly realistic story of not only immigration, but the place all individuals have between different spheres in life, and how we are unable to balance or control these all at once. One relates to the protagonist in the sense that we are always making these missed connections in life, either too late to see a family member for the last time, not appreciating a moment as it unfolds in front of us, regretful of connections of love that either could not or never did manifest, and feeling pressure under the slowness, weight, and unpredictability of the future. The future and the progression of life in general as presented in this story is a realistic entity; it is one which unfolds the way it should, not in accomplishments but in days, and perhaps never does so in the way we anticipated it. It is a life which makes us wonder if things were different and if only we had more time.
hsrudolph's review against another edition
3.0
Quietly paced slow ride through the life of Salim, a young man who grows up in Zanzibar and migrated to England. His young life is profoundly impacted by a rift between his parents that he doesn’t understand. His is not a particularly notable character, he’s a bit sad and tragic but strong at the same time. It wasn’t an especially compelling story but it was interesting to view the life of someone whose experiences are so different from my own.
marissabarcza's review against another edition
3.0
DNF -- This book was SO HARD to read - so detailed with perpetual sense of doom that something terrible was about to happen. With everything going on the world, I opted to leave this one unfinished. May return to it when things are a bit easier IRL.
stitching_ghost's review against another edition
3.0
The last 30% of the book were pretty great but I felt like there was a lot of lengths where there really wasn't much of anything of interest happening or being said just rather mundane events and maybe I just missed the point?
gilmoreguide's review against another edition
3.0
(2.5)
The fact that Gravel Heart is set in 1970s Zanzibar means it is already steeped in mystery for me as I had to look up where its located (an island off the coast of Tanzania). From the very opening the plot itself is intriguing, with Salim, a young man, being offered a chance to emigrate to England to stay with his much loved and charismatic uncle Amir. Amir will pay for everything, he will study business and become a success. The choice is an easy one as Salim does not have much of a life in Zanzibar. His father left him and his mother when he was a little boy and it isn’t until he is a teenager and his mother his pregnant that he realizes it was because she was having an affair. That his father is shamed and now his mother has agreed to be a second wife, makes leaving easy for Salim.
Except that once in London he finds adapting difficult and decides that business is boring. He wants to study literature. This enrages his uncle who cuts him off and leaves him to find his own way. For the rest of the novel Salim does just that, including going home to try and find answers to the things he never understood about his mother and father.
The rest of this review is available at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://wp.me/p2B7gG-2po
The fact that Gravel Heart is set in 1970s Zanzibar means it is already steeped in mystery for me as I had to look up where its located (an island off the coast of Tanzania). From the very opening the plot itself is intriguing, with Salim, a young man, being offered a chance to emigrate to England to stay with his much loved and charismatic uncle Amir. Amir will pay for everything, he will study business and become a success. The choice is an easy one as Salim does not have much of a life in Zanzibar. His father left him and his mother when he was a little boy and it isn’t until he is a teenager and his mother his pregnant that he realizes it was because she was having an affair. That his father is shamed and now his mother has agreed to be a second wife, makes leaving easy for Salim.
Except that once in London he finds adapting difficult and decides that business is boring. He wants to study literature. This enrages his uncle who cuts him off and leaves him to find his own way. For the rest of the novel Salim does just that, including going home to try and find answers to the things he never understood about his mother and father.
The rest of this review is available at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://wp.me/p2B7gG-2po
ruthie_wk's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0