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nicolaparty's review against another edition
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Colonisation, Death of parent, and Eating disorder
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Gaslighting, Sexual content, Fatphobia, and Body shaming
samarakroeger's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I did not vibe with the last third of the book but on the whole found it to be a pleasant take on a coming of age novel, but with a middle-aged protagonist who felt adrift in the world. Her emotional distance and numbness was effectively conveyed in the narrative style throughout. (Hard to get attached, though).
Cool themes but nothing felt hard-hitting (to me, at least). I struggled with the alternative political narrative for some reason (I can only really get around this if it is purely escapist, which this is not).
Cool themes but nothing felt hard-hitting (to me, at least). I struggled with the alternative political narrative for some reason (I can only really get around this if it is purely escapist, which this is not).
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Infidelity, Eating disorder, and Gaslighting
now_booking's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I found this interesting but it’s a little difficult to rate this. It’s a very sort of quiet and contained book that is very centered around a quiet and contained character, Anna Bain. I think I liked the story and the concept of the book, but I struggled with Anna as a vehicle for telling it, and I think in large part, my conflicted feelings about this book have to do with my conflicted feelings about Anna as a person and her very hypocritically Eurocentric perspective only occasionally relieved by flashes of self-awareness. I should also note that this perspective may be informed by a certain degree of defensiveness being myself African born and raised and having witnessed this hypercritical attitude applied in a hypocritical way myself, and also recognizing that it is craftily employed by the author here for this exact effect.
The premise is that Anna Bain has kind of been lost all her life- growing up biracial in racist England with a white mother and grandfather who lacked the cultural competence to navigate racial discourse, marrying into the most middle class Caucasian of British families, being a housewife and stay at home mom of a white-passing daughter she can’t quite connect with…. Anna has kind of floated through life without much ambition or sense of self. When her mother dies and she’s going through her things, she finds her father’s diary, and his identity is a shock to her. Thus, she embarks on a journey of discovery to find him in a small country in Africa.
Basically, in the simplest terms, this is a sort of story of self-discovery and finding one’s self and where one came from, a search for a parent and in that sense, belonging and identity. Being that Anna is a woman of a certain age, it’s almost in that lane of fiction featuring women who traipse to far off countries and find themselves and a (younger) lover there. Do not be tantalized, there are no lovers in this book, more’s the pity. Anna feels herself an outsider in the UK and hopes when she gets to Bamana, she will find the sense of home and belonging that have evaded her in England. But once she gets to Bamana, she is white in much the way in the UK she is not. Moreover, she is eminently British in her viewing of Africa. The author captured that sense of hypocritical scorn and superiority that European people often have for African coloniality. I think the author did a fabulous job in capturing perfectly the sensibility of someone viewing a country like Bamana with European eyes even when they’re desperate to belong. I understood and sympathized with Anna’s motivations to find her father and that relationship longed for all her life, but I also felt repelled by her attitude and approach. I didn’t disagree with Anna’s criticisms of this African country but I also couldn’t like her and the expectations she had on her African family to be what she expected and how she expected in a way that she never called on the family she had grown up with or married into. I think a good part of why I struggled with this book is because of my struggle with Anna.
Even though I enjoyed the pace of the book as a whole, I found the last third to be the most entertaining but also the most rushed and possessing the most Deus ex moments. Some of it was a little convenient (e.g. the resolution with her daughter) almost like the author had just lost the will to carry on that conflict and wanted to end the story. Another example is the brief excursion into spirituality at the end which seemed a bit at odds with the rest of the book and Anna’s usual ambivalent analysis of such things. The role of art in Anna’s life was also thrown in at awkward moments but never really had much direction even though it was given high significance at the end. Anna just seemed kind of feckless and sort of floating through life with judgey internal observations living in her head, and because we see the book through Anna’s eyes, it’s a little difficult for the book (especially the first 50% or so) not to seem a little floaty and not really grounded because it’s told through Anna’s sort of wishy-washy judgey perspective.
I did like several things about the book. I both read (with my eyes) and listened to (read with my ears) this book and I found it captivating and easy to read and compelling enough that I wasn’t bored even in the slower early phases of the novel. The narrator of the audiobook Sara Powell, does a great job at reproducing Anna’s character perfectly… Her reproduction of the African accents is a little on the “generic Kwame from Captain Planet” variety but I guess it works since we don’t really know where Bamana is. Besides, much of the book is in Anna’s head and the narrator really brings Anna to life. I think I read her character as more benign, before listening to the narrator’s interpretation. In addition, I liked the premise and the writing and the overall story, even Anna’s observations if I take away the connotations of the messenger, were insightful. I loved the conflict and the ethical questions this book made me ask myself to consider if I were a political leader or if I was a younger, more idealistic version of myself judging myself, or how to trust and what is truth. I liked that this book was very emotionally contained- the themes of abandonment and loss and broken trust and isolation are heavy but because of how self-contained Anna is, this was not a particularly emotional book despite the high potential for emotional drama. In a sense, I’m passionate about books that make you feel deep emotions wildly, whereas because of Anna, this was almost dispassionate and very pragmatic in the storytelling and for that reason, also emotionally an easy-ish book to read. Nonetheless content warnings for eating disorders, infidelity, parental abandonment, racism, gaslighting should be noted.
Overall, I actually really liked this. I thought it was interesting and thought-provoking and well-written and eminently readable. Like the author’s previous book Welcome To Lagos, this kind of reveals the author’s innate skill for understanding human nature and creating imperfect characters who you feel quite strongly about. I think if Anna wasn’t so “Anna” and maybe a little more “Nana,” I would have rated this higher. But then if Anna wasn’t so “Anna,” this would be a totally different book and I might not feel the same way about it overall. I do recommend this and would definitely read more from this author.
I had the opportunity to read this via ebook and audiobook thanks to a complimentary ebook from Catapult (via NetGalley) and a complimentary audiobook from Libro.
The premise is that Anna Bain has kind of been lost all her life- growing up biracial in racist England with a white mother and grandfather who lacked the cultural competence to navigate racial discourse, marrying into the most middle class Caucasian of British families, being a housewife and stay at home mom of a white-passing daughter she can’t quite connect with…. Anna has kind of floated through life without much ambition or sense of self. When her mother dies and she’s going through her things, she finds her father’s diary, and his identity is a shock to her. Thus, she embarks on a journey of discovery to find him in a small country in Africa.
Basically, in the simplest terms, this is a sort of story of self-discovery and finding one’s self and where one came from, a search for a parent and in that sense, belonging and identity. Being that Anna is a woman of a certain age, it’s almost in that lane of fiction featuring women who traipse to far off countries and find themselves and a (younger) lover there. Do not be tantalized, there are no lovers in this book, more’s the pity. Anna feels herself an outsider in the UK and hopes when she gets to Bamana, she will find the sense of home and belonging that have evaded her in England. But once she gets to Bamana, she is white in much the way in the UK she is not. Moreover, she is eminently British in her viewing of Africa. The author captured that sense of hypocritical scorn and superiority that European people often have for African coloniality. I think the author did a fabulous job in capturing perfectly the sensibility of someone viewing a country like Bamana with European eyes even when they’re desperate to belong. I understood and sympathized with Anna’s motivations to find her father and that relationship longed for all her life, but I also felt repelled by her attitude and approach. I didn’t disagree with Anna’s criticisms of this African country but I also couldn’t like her and the expectations she had on her African family to be what she expected and how she expected in a way that she never called on the family she had grown up with or married into. I think a good part of why I struggled with this book is because of my struggle with Anna.
Even though I enjoyed the pace of the book as a whole, I found the last third to be the most entertaining but also the most rushed and possessing the most Deus ex moments. Some of it was a little convenient (e.g. the resolution with her daughter) almost like the author had just lost the will to carry on that conflict and wanted to end the story. Another example is the brief excursion into spirituality at the end which seemed a bit at odds with the rest of the book and Anna’s usual ambivalent analysis of such things. The role of art in Anna’s life was also thrown in at awkward moments but never really had much direction even though it was given high significance at the end. Anna just seemed kind of feckless and sort of floating through life with judgey internal observations living in her head, and because we see the book through Anna’s eyes, it’s a little difficult for the book (especially the first 50% or so) not to seem a little floaty and not really grounded because it’s told through Anna’s sort of wishy-washy judgey perspective.
I did like several things about the book. I both read (with my eyes) and listened to (read with my ears) this book and I found it captivating and easy to read and compelling enough that I wasn’t bored even in the slower early phases of the novel. The narrator of the audiobook Sara Powell, does a great job at reproducing Anna’s character perfectly… Her reproduction of the African accents is a little on the “generic Kwame from Captain Planet” variety but I guess it works since we don’t really know where Bamana is. Besides, much of the book is in Anna’s head and the narrator really brings Anna to life. I think I read her character as more benign, before listening to the narrator’s interpretation. In addition, I liked the premise and the writing and the overall story, even Anna’s observations if I take away the connotations of the messenger, were insightful. I loved the conflict and the ethical questions this book made me ask myself to consider if I were a political leader or if I was a younger, more idealistic version of myself judging myself, or how to trust and what is truth. I liked that this book was very emotionally contained- the themes of abandonment and loss and broken trust and isolation are heavy but because of how self-contained Anna is, this was not a particularly emotional book despite the high potential for emotional drama. In a sense, I’m passionate about books that make you feel deep emotions wildly, whereas because of Anna, this was almost dispassionate and very pragmatic in the storytelling and for that reason, also emotionally an easy-ish book to read. Nonetheless content warnings for eating disorders, infidelity, parental abandonment, racism, gaslighting should be noted.
Overall, I actually really liked this. I thought it was interesting and thought-provoking and well-written and eminently readable. Like the author’s previous book Welcome To Lagos, this kind of reveals the author’s innate skill for understanding human nature and creating imperfect characters who you feel quite strongly about. I think if Anna wasn’t so “Anna” and maybe a little more “Nana,” I would have rated this higher. But then if Anna wasn’t so “Anna,” this would be a totally different book and I might not feel the same way about it overall. I do recommend this and would definitely read more from this author.
I had the opportunity to read this via ebook and audiobook thanks to a complimentary ebook from Catapult (via NetGalley) and a complimentary audiobook from Libro.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Death of parent, Infidelity, Racism, Dementia, and Eating disorder
Moderate: Gaslighting, Grief, Police brutality, Murder, and Xenophobia
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, and Fatphobia
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