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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
I liked the part where hes hanging out with his teacher
I often struggle to connect with material considered satirical. While The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born is satirical, it is also distinctively earnest and introspective and subtle. Its primary mission feels almost psychoanalytic; simultaneously diagnosing, lampooning, and lamenting the lingering aftereffects of war and colonization on the human body and on the body politic. Corruption in post-colonial states is a common theme. The psychological treatment it receives here is an uncommon achievement.
Our unnamed protagonist is a fascinating creation. In some ways he is an extremely passive character. In some ways, he is extremely headstrong. Small and impulsive acts of resistance create delicious tension, set against the melancholy backdrop of a more general acquiescence. Importantly, Armah takes full advantage of both sides of his protagonist. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born is an arresting satire because it is so two-faced; because it satirizes idealism as much as it satirizes defeatism.
Armah's prose, in and of itself, is extraordinary. His descriptions are often elliptical but also precise and intensely evocative. His writing is beautiful but also revolting, elegiac but also visceral and even carnal. I am generally not drawn to the literary grotesque, but the putrid, noirish atmosphere he creates is endlessly captivating.
It has been suggested that The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born does post-colonial Ghana a disservice, dwelling upon corruption and malfunction to the exclusion of a more complete picture. To me, Armah isn't attempting a complete picture. There is more than a little Kafka in the way Armah handles bureaucratic worlds, and like Kafka he is working from a palette bearing an only indirect relation to the world we know. Unlike Kafka, though, Armah is genuinely hopeful. His choice of title is deeply meaningful and not fully sarcastic. The hopeful undercurrent is essential; it is, in the final analysis, what distinguishes this book.
Our unnamed protagonist is a fascinating creation. In some ways he is an extremely passive character. In some ways, he is extremely headstrong. Small and impulsive acts of resistance create delicious tension, set against the melancholy backdrop of a more general acquiescence. Importantly, Armah takes full advantage of both sides of his protagonist. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born is an arresting satire because it is so two-faced; because it satirizes idealism as much as it satirizes defeatism.
Armah's prose, in and of itself, is extraordinary. His descriptions are often elliptical but also precise and intensely evocative. His writing is beautiful but also revolting, elegiac but also visceral and even carnal. I am generally not drawn to the literary grotesque, but the putrid, noirish atmosphere he creates is endlessly captivating.
It has been suggested that The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born does post-colonial Ghana a disservice, dwelling upon corruption and malfunction to the exclusion of a more complete picture. To me, Armah isn't attempting a complete picture. There is more than a little Kafka in the way Armah handles bureaucratic worlds, and like Kafka he is working from a palette bearing an only indirect relation to the world we know. Unlike Kafka, though, Armah is genuinely hopeful. His choice of title is deeply meaningful and not fully sarcastic. The hopeful undercurrent is essential; it is, in the final analysis, what distinguishes this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Excrement
Moderate: Suicide
Armah’s writing requires a great deal of effort to grasp initially but his impressive treatment of corruption makes up for it.
Ghana in this period was on the precipice of change from socialism to another economic model. The characters express their absence of hope in these changes because they are not gaining in any meaningful way. The main character (left unnamed) disabuses commonly held notions of surreptitiously acquiring wealth on moral grounds and is repeatedly derided for it.
I appreciated the fact that The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born wasn’t an addition to the African-returning-from-abroad/African-traveling-abroad series of novels that deluged this literary period.
If you can handle the tedium of reading long paragraphs, I recommend checking it out.
Ghana in this period was on the precipice of change from socialism to another economic model. The characters express their absence of hope in these changes because they are not gaining in any meaningful way. The main character (left unnamed) disabuses commonly held notions of surreptitiously acquiring wealth on moral grounds and is repeatedly derided for it.
I appreciated the fact that The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born wasn’t an addition to the African-returning-from-abroad/African-traveling-abroad series of novels that deluged this literary period.
If you can handle the tedium of reading long paragraphs, I recommend checking it out.
Depressing expose of post-colonial Africa... illustrates how the liberation struggle(s) merely removed one set of masters (white) for another (black) – despite promises made by the liberators themselves denouncing all things white and colonialist and promising a return to African values.
It describes the new bourgeoisies/elites' neocolonialism –everything European is aped and desired by the elites or those who have ‘made it’, everything African is primitive, cheap and only for those who cannot afford better. This ‘wealth’ is not attained through hard-work, but through corruption - endemic throughout- from the watchman at the berths, the clerks at the railway office, to the ministers. Those who are uncorrupted, are viewed with pity, and considered failures. Depressing.
It describes the new bourgeoisies/elites' neocolonialism –everything European is aped and desired by the elites or those who have ‘made it’, everything African is primitive, cheap and only for those who cannot afford better. This ‘wealth’ is not attained through hard-work, but through corruption - endemic throughout- from the watchman at the berths, the clerks at the railway office, to the ministers. Those who are uncorrupted, are viewed with pity, and considered failures. Depressing.
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book takes a lot of energy to get into with language that isn't easily approachable. Once you get about seven chapters in the wording is more fluid and tries less to stretch out metaphors. I appreciate the protagonist's view of questioning the insidiousness of white supremacy in a majority African country. I definitely left this book with ideas to pursue later.
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read this book in school and truth be told it was one of the best books that I found my self using again and again.
moreover the symbolism in the book, and setting and plot defines what a great author Ayi Kwei Armah really is.
Fantastic read and a great imagery....
moreover the symbolism in the book, and setting and plot defines what a great author Ayi Kwei Armah really is.
Fantastic read and a great imagery....
challenging
slow-paced
An excellent novel highlighting powerlessness, moral decay and relentless status-seeking in post-independence Ghana. Taking place over the course of about a week, the book follows a nameless man battling chronic feelings of inadequacy and dissatisfaction as he both fails to have meaningful relationships and to fit into the culture of corruption seemingly endemic to Ghanaian society. And all of this takes places through the extended metaphor of excrement, filth and rot. Don't read while snacking!