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barbarabarbara's review
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
serendipitysbooks's review
challenging
dark
relaxing
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
3.0
Passage of Tears first appears to be a sort of spy novel/political thriller with strong epistolary elements. Yet as you read further it becomes clear that the novel is less action packed and more an unravelling of the struggles faced by Djibouti and its people, the cost of colonialism and globalisation, the lure of fundamentalism. There are two main narrative threads. The first of these is from Djibril’s perspective. He’s a young Djibouti man now living in Canada who has returned to his homeland to prepare a report for a shady sounding American economic intelligence organisation. His sections include plenty of details about the current social and economic situation in the country, as well as personal thoughts and memories - of his grandfather’s wisdom, his estrangement from his twin brother, a close friendship. Alternating with this are sections written from a prison cell. These are rife with Islamic fundamentalism and show the writer knows Djibril’s every move. Interwoven with this are excerpts from the life and works of Walter Benjamin, a German Jewish philosopher which the prisoner begins engaging with. I knew little about Benjamin and I suspect I lost a little as a result.
For me this book was both thought provoking and challenging, offering some interesting insights into this small nation with the strategically important location.
For me this book was both thought provoking and challenging, offering some interesting insights into this small nation with the strategically important location.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Violence, and Religious bigotry
elenasquareeyes's review
2.0
I’m not sure what to make of this book to be perfectly honest. It’s a whole mixture of genres and I’m not sure that works a lot of the time. There are elements of a spy novel, of epistolary novel with Djibril’s notes on his findings in Djibouti, and of political thriller and crime fiction.
Djibril has returned to his home country about fifteen years after he left and made a life for himself in Canada. He’s had little to no contact with his family in all that time. Now back in Djibouti, he’s researching the political landscape for his firm as it’s an area of strategic importance for the transportation of the world’s oil supply.
There are little insights into what Djibouti and its people are like, however at the same time it feels like it could be any impoverished country. Djibril reflects on what the country was like when he was growing up and what he’s seeing now, but it’s written by and for someone who already knows the place. I’m not saying every book that’s set in a different country to my own needs to give a lot of descriptions or back story, but having gone into Passage of Tears knowing nothing about of Djibouti, it feels a shame that I have learnt nothing about the country – or at least nothing that has stuck with me.
I think it’s Passage of Tears’ writing style that I struggled with. The chapters alternate between Djbril’s point of view where his thoughts often jump back and forth between what he’s looking into now for his company, and his childhood memories, and an unnamed person who is imprisoned and appears to be talking to the reader, or Djibril. As the story progresses you can piece together who the imprisoned person is likely to be, but he too starts to go onto different tangents and it’s hard to focus in on the present narrative and what is supposed to be happening in this meandering plot. Extracts of writing about Walter Benjamin appear in the imprisoned man’s section and Walter Benjamin is a name I recognised but didn’t know who he was so that was a bit confusing as well, especially when towards the end of the book, half of each chapter seemed to be about him, not what’s currently happening in Djibouti.
I think they’re themes in Passage of Tears, but they often seemed muddled due to the characters voices not being strong. Themes of the effects of post-colonialism, terrorism and globalisation are there but the only one that really stood out is how America has historically meddled in so many countries history’s and politics that it’s no wonder there’s reactionary action from extremist groups.
Overall for such a reasonably short book (just over 200 pages), Passage of Tears was a drag to read a lot of the time and didn’t have characters that were easy to engage with.
Djibril has returned to his home country about fifteen years after he left and made a life for himself in Canada. He’s had little to no contact with his family in all that time. Now back in Djibouti, he’s researching the political landscape for his firm as it’s an area of strategic importance for the transportation of the world’s oil supply.
There are little insights into what Djibouti and its people are like, however at the same time it feels like it could be any impoverished country. Djibril reflects on what the country was like when he was growing up and what he’s seeing now, but it’s written by and for someone who already knows the place. I’m not saying every book that’s set in a different country to my own needs to give a lot of descriptions or back story, but having gone into Passage of Tears knowing nothing about of Djibouti, it feels a shame that I have learnt nothing about the country – or at least nothing that has stuck with me.
I think it’s Passage of Tears’ writing style that I struggled with. The chapters alternate between Djbril’s point of view where his thoughts often jump back and forth between what he’s looking into now for his company, and his childhood memories, and an unnamed person who is imprisoned and appears to be talking to the reader, or Djibril. As the story progresses you can piece together who the imprisoned person is likely to be, but he too starts to go onto different tangents and it’s hard to focus in on the present narrative and what is supposed to be happening in this meandering plot. Extracts of writing about Walter Benjamin appear in the imprisoned man’s section and Walter Benjamin is a name I recognised but didn’t know who he was so that was a bit confusing as well, especially when towards the end of the book, half of each chapter seemed to be about him, not what’s currently happening in Djibouti.
I think they’re themes in Passage of Tears, but they often seemed muddled due to the characters voices not being strong. Themes of the effects of post-colonialism, terrorism and globalisation are there but the only one that really stood out is how America has historically meddled in so many countries history’s and politics that it’s no wonder there’s reactionary action from extremist groups.
Overall for such a reasonably short book (just over 200 pages), Passage of Tears was a drag to read a lot of the time and didn’t have characters that were easy to engage with.
rosseroo's review
2.0
In my quest to read at least one book from every country in the world, I picked up this slim novel by a Djiboutian expatriate author. I'm glad is was slim, because its mix of obvious post-colonialism and hyper-intellectualism totally failed to move or connect with me in any way.
The story (not that there really is one) is about expat Djibril, who managed to do well in school, emigrate to Canada, and works in risk assessment (basically economic espionage) for a bland Western corporation (Adorno Location Services) that might be front for the CIA or something like that. He's been sent back to his native Djibouti to report on the political conditions there, and his thoughts are recorded in diary entries.
Meanwhile, in alternating chapters, comes the voice of his twin brother, Djamal. He didn't excel at school, drifted into the orbit of Islamic fundamentalist recruiters, and now sits in a jail cell where he tends to the ailing leader of his particular group and receives reports of his brother's arrival and movements. His writing is a fanatic's screed of visceral hatred for his brother and what will happen to him. But the paper he's writing on is apparently pages from a book or letters to Walter Benjamin, which he then starts to ingest. I have to confess that with only glancing familiarity with Benjamin, I was hard-pressed to connect his life with the thin narrative here.
By the end, the book's path felt like a rather obvious metaphor for the effects of colonialism, globalization, and reactionary forces, with the brothers representing the two extremes of a country struggling to find its own identity. There's plenty of regret and anger between the two voices, but I didn't get much depth from any of it.
The story (not that there really is one) is about expat Djibril, who managed to do well in school, emigrate to Canada, and works in risk assessment (basically economic espionage) for a bland Western corporation (Adorno Location Services) that might be front for the CIA or something like that. He's been sent back to his native Djibouti to report on the political conditions there, and his thoughts are recorded in diary entries.
Meanwhile, in alternating chapters, comes the voice of his twin brother, Djamal. He didn't excel at school, drifted into the orbit of Islamic fundamentalist recruiters, and now sits in a jail cell where he tends to the ailing leader of his particular group and receives reports of his brother's arrival and movements. His writing is a fanatic's screed of visceral hatred for his brother and what will happen to him. But the paper he's writing on is apparently pages from a book or letters to Walter Benjamin, which he then starts to ingest. I have to confess that with only glancing familiarity with Benjamin, I was hard-pressed to connect his life with the thin narrative here.
By the end, the book's path felt like a rather obvious metaphor for the effects of colonialism, globalization, and reactionary forces, with the brothers representing the two extremes of a country struggling to find its own identity. There's plenty of regret and anger between the two voices, but I didn't get much depth from any of it.
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