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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Rich with such well woven twine as to make it a quintessential colonial folklore. Perfect.. beautiful… resonant. What lives have I lived to make this so resonant? I breathed the same air as this book for months and I leave as a friend. Thank goodness. Thank goodness for such as this. Thank goodness.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Een heerlijke familieroman(?). Het thema van migratie en afstand is prachtig uitgewerkt. De verbinding tussen deel 1 en deel 2/3 is een beetje onlogisch, maar storend vond ik het niet.
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
“Rehana herself never heard any of these remarks but she could imagine they were to do with her mother not being Indian, and she heard him ranting about the children being chotara. She did not know what the word meant, but she knew it was something ugly. She could see that in the way Indian men looked at her when she was a child, disdaining. Later she understood that the word meant bastard, an improper child of an Indian Man with an African woman”.
- Rehana, Desertion by Abdulrazakgurnah
.
.
This is a beautiful writing - poetic and lyrical. prose. However, it is kinda tricky as the story is hard to get into. The narration is shifted from one character to another character with each chapter giving readers an access to their thought process and perception of others. I only started to enjoy the writing when we reached to Rehana chapter. Ultimately this is the multigeneration family sage divided into 3 parts in this book. The first part of the story in the early days of colonial era in East Africa and you can see the colonialist perspective portrayed by Frederick and Burton towards the country they currently resides in. Their conversation on implying that the european settlement is required to bring civilization for the natives in Mombasa is seriously infuriating. The white supremacy mentality is demonstrated in some of the chapters featuring the conversation of these british officials. The major theme seems to be a forbidden love across these 3 parts but there are other themes like discrimination, racism and the colonialist pov in justifying their land occupation. Overall, i will recommend this if you have time to read it slowly, let yourself immersed in the story as the plot is not the main strength of this book. This book won me over with how evocative the writing is. This is my first book of Tanzanian Author and i will definitely looking out for more books from him. Rehana’s narration on her skin color and identity reminded me of one documentary that i watched when Indian woman and Black South African man decided to get married, they knew it wont be easy for their family to accept the union. Despite having almost the same brown and black shade as the skin color, Interracial marriage is pretty much being frowned upon even though we are already lived in the year of 2021. Hence, you can imagine Rehana predicament when the setting of the story is around 1890-ish, when she has to reconcile her identity as both Indian and African at the same time. The story is simple - Rehana’s brother, Hassanali saved a stranger while he is on the way to the mosque. This stranger turned out to be Martin Pearce, an english traveler who is fluent in Arabic and Swahili. Once martin has recovered, he decided to go back to Hassanali to thank him in a person. Martin then fell in love with Rehana and their relationship blooming over many letters exhanged between them. The second part followed the journey of Farida, Rashid and Amin. Rashid describing his growing up being overshadowed by Amin and somewhat being recognised by others as a troubled child. However, the focus is shifted to Jamila, (the granddaughter of Rehana and Martin Pearce although it was not mentioned right away) as Amin loves her, a woman who is much older than him. For me, i was more interested with Farida as her tale was being narrated via her mother’s pov whose profession is a teacher but failed to inculcate the value of education in her own daughter. Farida’s mother was frustrated as she remembered that she herself has defied her parents so that she can get an education and eventually become a teacher but Farida, her own daughter doomed to fail in school and enjoyed doing house chores like washing, cooking and cleaning. Second part also pointed out the time setting for it as European imperialism still gripping African Map at this time, whereby African continent was divided into 4 as occupied by these colonizers - British, Belgian, French and Portuguese. Part 3 is where all these disjointed chapters make sense and it ties the story altogether.
.
- Rehana, Desertion by Abdulrazakgurnah
.
.
This is a beautiful writing - poetic and lyrical. prose. However, it is kinda tricky as the story is hard to get into. The narration is shifted from one character to another character with each chapter giving readers an access to their thought process and perception of others. I only started to enjoy the writing when we reached to Rehana chapter. Ultimately this is the multigeneration family sage divided into 3 parts in this book. The first part of the story in the early days of colonial era in East Africa and you can see the colonialist perspective portrayed by Frederick and Burton towards the country they currently resides in. Their conversation on implying that the european settlement is required to bring civilization for the natives in Mombasa is seriously infuriating. The white supremacy mentality is demonstrated in some of the chapters featuring the conversation of these british officials. The major theme seems to be a forbidden love across these 3 parts but there are other themes like discrimination, racism and the colonialist pov in justifying their land occupation. Overall, i will recommend this if you have time to read it slowly, let yourself immersed in the story as the plot is not the main strength of this book. This book won me over with how evocative the writing is. This is my first book of Tanzanian Author and i will definitely looking out for more books from him. Rehana’s narration on her skin color and identity reminded me of one documentary that i watched when Indian woman and Black South African man decided to get married, they knew it wont be easy for their family to accept the union. Despite having almost the same brown and black shade as the skin color, Interracial marriage is pretty much being frowned upon even though we are already lived in the year of 2021. Hence, you can imagine Rehana predicament when the setting of the story is around 1890-ish, when she has to reconcile her identity as both Indian and African at the same time. The story is simple - Rehana’s brother, Hassanali saved a stranger while he is on the way to the mosque. This stranger turned out to be Martin Pearce, an english traveler who is fluent in Arabic and Swahili. Once martin has recovered, he decided to go back to Hassanali to thank him in a person. Martin then fell in love with Rehana and their relationship blooming over many letters exhanged between them. The second part followed the journey of Farida, Rashid and Amin. Rashid describing his growing up being overshadowed by Amin and somewhat being recognised by others as a troubled child. However, the focus is shifted to Jamila, (the granddaughter of Rehana and Martin Pearce although it was not mentioned right away) as Amin loves her, a woman who is much older than him. For me, i was more interested with Farida as her tale was being narrated via her mother’s pov whose profession is a teacher but failed to inculcate the value of education in her own daughter. Farida’s mother was frustrated as she remembered that she herself has defied her parents so that she can get an education and eventually become a teacher but Farida, her own daughter doomed to fail in school and enjoyed doing house chores like washing, cooking and cleaning. Second part also pointed out the time setting for it as European imperialism still gripping African Map at this time, whereby African continent was divided into 4 as occupied by these colonizers - British, Belgian, French and Portuguese. Part 3 is where all these disjointed chapters make sense and it ties the story altogether.
.