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stephy_3's review
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
literary_hazelnut's review
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
scoobydoe's review
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
aegagrus's review
5.0
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
evilyn's review
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
khaos's review
4.0
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!
sdc's review
4.0
The stink of corruption. Ayi Kwei Armah uses shit as a metaphor cleverly and completely.
I'm on an African lit binge and TBANYB is sure to be one of the most memorable I'll read. It's one of the major post-independence books, set in Ghana in the 1960s. Since I read it after [b:Things Fall Apart|37781|Things Fall Apart|Chinua Achebe|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1352082529s/37781.jpg|825843], I couldn't resist but comparing the two, though about the only thing they have in common is an African setting and an omniscient narrator. I prefer Armah's prose to Achebe's. Part of this owes to the more modern setting of TBANYB, but it is mostly to Armah's decision to symbolize corruption with shit. Yes, it smells, but once it gets on you, it doesn't come off. And it's everywhere. The nameless protagonist would blanch at the notion that we all must play the corruption game, but perhaps by the end of the book, he's changed his mind.
TBANYB sags a bit in the middle, rudderless before the unforgettable climax. Corruption, like most things that happen every day, eventually becomes mundane and Armah is wise to not belabor that point.
My other critique is in regards to the narrator and point of view. There were times when the narrator seemed to take the main character's point of view and in a couple of key scenes--which I won't reveal--that matters, but perhaps that was Armah's intention.
A final point as to the book's relevance to the present. I've not been to Ghana (note: I visited in December 2018) so I can't speak to whether it still rings true nearly fifty years after publication, but it's the theme of corruption will never be far from the headlines.
I'm on an African lit binge and TBANYB is sure to be one of the most memorable I'll read. It's one of the major post-independence books, set in Ghana in the 1960s. Since I read it after [b:Things Fall Apart|37781|Things Fall Apart|Chinua Achebe|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1352082529s/37781.jpg|825843], I couldn't resist but comparing the two, though about the only thing they have in common is an African setting and an omniscient narrator. I prefer Armah's prose to Achebe's. Part of this owes to the more modern setting of TBANYB, but it is mostly to Armah's decision to symbolize corruption with shit. Yes, it smells, but once it gets on you, it doesn't come off. And it's everywhere. The nameless protagonist would blanch at the notion that we all must play the corruption game, but perhaps by the end of the book, he's changed his mind.
TBANYB sags a bit in the middle, rudderless before the unforgettable climax. Corruption, like most things that happen every day, eventually becomes mundane and Armah is wise to not belabor that point.
My other critique is in regards to the narrator and point of view. There were times when the narrator seemed to take the main character's point of view and in a couple of key scenes--which I won't reveal--that matters, but perhaps that was Armah's intention.
A final point as to the book's relevance to the present. I've not been to Ghana (note: I visited in December 2018) so I can't speak to whether it still rings true nearly fifty years after publication, but it's the theme of corruption will never be far from the headlines.
harryr's review
4.0
The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born is a novel set during the last days of the Nkrumah government in Ghana. It’s about a man resisting corruption, quixotically in the view of most of those around him. The scathing portrayal of a corrupt society is all the sharper because of the contrast with the optimism that came with independence; it’s a novel, among other things, about the loss of hope. A kind of Animal Farm of post-colonialism.
It’s a slim book, less than 200 pages, but it took me quite a long time to read because it required focussed attention: eventually I took it on a long train journey where there were no distractions. It’s just densely written, with detailed, closely observed descriptive passages that are very effective; but also with some convoluted sentences that simply do not allow for skimming. This is the kind of thing:
I know it’s hardly Finnegans Wake, but it’s a bit of a speed bump when you’re reading.
Incidentally, the cover of the Heinemann edition really seems like a terrible choice for a novel which is dark and spiky and intricate. I should know by now: don’t read too much into the cover design. But I think it’s unavoidable that it affects your expectations, and I was really startled by the mismatch between the cover and the content.
The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born is my book from Ghana for the Read The World challenge. I tried to find a short passage to quote to give you a flavour, but it doesn’t really lend itself to quoting. So I’ll just say it’s sharp, bitter, evocative, sometimes for my taste slightly overwritten, but often beautiful.
It’s a slim book, less than 200 pages, but it took me quite a long time to read because it required focussed attention: eventually I took it on a long train journey where there were no distractions. It’s just densely written, with detailed, closely observed descriptive passages that are very effective; but also with some convoluted sentences that simply do not allow for skimming. This is the kind of thing:
But along the streets, those who can soon learn to recognize in ordinary faces beings whom the spirit has moved, but who cannot follow where it beckons, so heavy are the small ordinary days of the time.
I know it’s hardly Finnegans Wake, but it’s a bit of a speed bump when you’re reading.
Incidentally, the cover of the Heinemann edition really seems like a terrible choice for a novel which is dark and spiky and intricate. I should know by now: don’t read too much into the cover design. But I think it’s unavoidable that it affects your expectations, and I was really startled by the mismatch between the cover and the content.
The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born is my book from Ghana for the Read The World challenge. I tried to find a short passage to quote to give you a flavour, but it doesn’t really lend itself to quoting. So I’ll just say it’s sharp, bitter, evocative, sometimes for my taste slightly overwritten, but often beautiful.
almostannette's review
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
A Ghanaian classic, quite depressing at times, spectacular writing + great metaphors found throughout the novel!