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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Murder, Colonisation
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
dark
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Puntuación 4/5
Este es un relato triste y emotivo sobre los efectos que el odio, las desigualdad y la distinción de razas puede dejar cicatrices en una población.
El autor tiene una prosa fascinante, que se distingue por la manera de mezclar los dos ambientes que gobiernan en la novela. Además el manejo de los estados de ánimo del protagonista y su declive emocional es muy realista. También es resaltante la manera en que destacó las dos perspectivas del conflicto.
Nos introduce en la vida de Njoroge un joven que tiene el sueño de mejorar su situación familiar y económica con sus estudios, ya que viene de una familia tan pobre el es el elegido para asistir a la escuela y su familia puso todas sus esperanzas en el.
Sin embargo en ese momento en su localidad la población está cansada de la injusticia que se realizó tras la segunda guerra mundial, ya que los colonos británicos impusieron sus leyes y se apropiaron de sus tierras ancestrales dejando a la población de origen en el estrato más bajo de la sociedad y sin tierras con las cuales subsistir.
Entonces la vida de Njoroge en un principio llena de esperanzas y con la ilusión de un mañana lleno de paz, se destroza de un día para otro ya que algunos integrantes de la familia son parte de ese movimiento. Y pasa a una vida sin esperanzas ya que pierde la oportunidad de estudiar y su familia es destruida en su totalidad, ya que se queda con sus dos madres. Pero los restantes se encuentran encerrados o en espera de una ejecución.
Este es un relato triste y emotivo sobre los efectos que el odio, las desigualdad y la distinción de razas puede dejar cicatrices en una población.
El autor tiene una prosa fascinante, que se distingue por la manera de mezclar los dos ambientes que gobiernan en la novela. Además el manejo de los estados de ánimo del protagonista y su declive emocional es muy realista. También es resaltante la manera en que destacó las dos perspectivas del conflicto.
Nos introduce en la vida de Njoroge un joven que tiene el sueño de mejorar su situación familiar y económica con sus estudios, ya que viene de una familia tan pobre el es el elegido para asistir a la escuela y su familia puso todas sus esperanzas en el.
Sin embargo en ese momento en su localidad la población está cansada de la injusticia que se realizó tras la segunda guerra mundial, ya que los colonos británicos impusieron sus leyes y se apropiaron de sus tierras ancestrales dejando a la población de origen en el estrato más bajo de la sociedad y sin tierras con las cuales subsistir.
Entonces la vida de Njoroge en un principio llena de esperanzas y con la ilusión de un mañana lleno de paz, se destroza de un día para otro ya que algunos integrantes de la familia son parte de ese movimiento. Y pasa a una vida sin esperanzas ya que pierde la oportunidad de estudiar y su familia es destruida en su totalidad, ya que se queda con sus dos madres. Pero los restantes se encuentran encerrados o en espera de una ejecución.
I read this book back in 2017, at that time I had committed to only reading works by authors of colour. Initially, I turned to the internet for inspiration and found a lot of suggestions were American authors albeit from very diverse backgrounds, then I found myself reading a lot of West African literature when I came upon this Kenyan gem.
I wasn’t familiar with Ngugi’s work but I quickly came to recognise him as a post colonial pioneer on whose backs many of the younger authors I know and love stand on.
This is a beautifully and uniquely crafted Kenyan narrative that draws you in, refuses to define itself and in the absence of any explanation offers you the opportunity to understand it. Reading it left me thinking of universality and what makes something universally comprehensible, which then left me laughing at myself thinking of what Chinua Achebe wrote about in ‘Colonialist Criticism’
Review also available on @the_diaspora_reader
Weep Not, Child is the tale of a boy, Njoroge, and his family.
Set against the violence and bloodshed in colonised Kenya, in a period of time when its people rebel against their invaders. Coming of age under such harrowing circumstances makes for a myriad of perspectives from one boy, turned man.
And the narration of development is occasional shared with his father, his brothers and occasionally his mothers and one true friend, Mwihaki. It is a heart wrenching and sobering tale of hopes and dreams, and where people stand when both are constantly deferred.
Its vital that I mention I really appreciated the authors narration of Ngotho’s, Njoroge’s father, connection to prophecy, land and country. I so badly wanted a sequel and was upset to realise it stood alone. So I’m very content with this book because it left me wanting.
I’m still trying to decide what future Njoroge has in my imagination.
Weep Not, Child is the tale of a boy, Njoroge, and his family.
Set against the violence and bloodshed in colonised Kenya, in a period of time when its people rebel against their invaders. Coming of age under such harrowing circumstances makes for a myriad of perspectives from one boy, turned man.
And the narration of development is occasional shared with his father, his brothers and occasionally his mothers and one true friend, Mwihaki. It is a heart wrenching and sobering tale of hopes and dreams, and where people stand when both are constantly deferred.
Its vital that I mention I really appreciated the authors narration of Ngotho’s, Njoroge’s father, connection to prophecy, land and country. I so badly wanted a sequel and was upset to realise it stood alone. So I’m very content with this book because it left me wanting.
I’m still trying to decide what future Njoroge has in my imagination.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Superb storytelling by Ngugi in interweaving perspectives of the challenges of defying or bowing to colonialism and the shift and complexities of both.
*spoiler alert!
Ngugi gives us an intimate account of how real people and families were effected by the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya in the 1950's and how the same interests of preserving land rights got cast as vastly different and racialized interests, resulting in the deaths of many. Following Njoroge through his coming of age,we see him first as a young boy who believes that through education and learning, he can save his country, then as a devout Christian who sees himself as God's chosen one to deliver his people from the evils of the war, and finally as a disillusioned young man who can't even hold on to the woman he loves and attempts suicide on the last pages of the novel. Ngugi's ability to interweave the stories of Mr. Howlands, a white expatriate originally from Great Britain, but who claims Kenya as his home, Jacobo, a black land owner who "sells out" and supports the white cause in the conflict, and Ngotho, a traditional Gikuyu man who believes the prophecy of his people long ago that blacks will reclaim ownership of the land that was stripped from them when white European settlers arrived. Ngugi complicates the story by focusing on two generations involved in the battle over land rights. Njoroge's brazen brothers Kumau, Kori, and Boro, are hostile, reckless supporters of the Mau Mau, while younger and more innocent Njoroge remains steadfast in his ideas that education is the answer. While his brothers support strikes and Boro becomes a plotted murderer, Njoroge remains in school, excelling in his class. Mwihaki, the gentle daughter of Jacobo, becomes the unfailing companion of Njoroge from a young age, but because of the differences in their families' beliefs and the ultimate deaths of both of their fathers, they cannot be together in the end. Ngugi fills the rest of the novel with other archetypal revolutionary figures such as the barber and Teacher Isaka who both get assassinated because of their fundamental belief that the Gikuyu people should claim right to their land, as their ancestors did. At the same time; however, we get an intimate portrayal of Mr. Howlands and how he passionately sees Kenya as his home, the land rightfully his. Surely, he believes "the blacks" to be "savages" and intends to pit them against each other to better his cause, but he is human just like they are, desiring to hold his fragile family together as it fractures like Ngotho's family. The background of World Wars I and II in the novel help to establish the historical context of the Mau Mau Rebellion. There existed an entire generation of Kenyan veterans who were not given proper compensation for their role in helping the British fend off the Germans and other world powers, thus fueling their desire to take back their rights. The first half of this novel is less palatable to me than the second; perhaps because Ngugi is setting up the context and the players. The second half of the novel traces the mental and ideological downfall of his major players and is much more affecting to read. I did feel a hint of Achebe's Things Fall Apart at the end when Njoroge tries to commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree, but Ngugi's new contribution to this ending is that Njoroge was never of the generation who valued tradition and the ancestral spirits, pointing to the fact that colonialism inflicts potentially brutal consequences on younger generations as well. The fact that Njoroge does not go through with the act could either point to a hope that he will go on to serve as a savior to his people or a scathing critique that the newer generation is not as courageous and masculine as its father's. I was searching for more female voices in here, and though Ngugi gives Ngotho's wives Njeri and Nyokabi some space in which to speak about the tragedies of the war, and Mwahiki occupies a lot of lines in the novel, this is what is really lacking for me as a reader. Certainly there were female revolutionaries who supported the rebellion, but we don't see any of them here.
Ngugi gives us an intimate account of how real people and families were effected by the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya in the 1950's and how the same interests of preserving land rights got cast as vastly different and racialized interests, resulting in the deaths of many. Following Njoroge through his coming of age,we see him first as a young boy who believes that through education and learning, he can save his country, then as a devout Christian who sees himself as God's chosen one to deliver his people from the evils of the war, and finally as a disillusioned young man who can't even hold on to the woman he loves and attempts suicide on the last pages of the novel. Ngugi's ability to interweave the stories of Mr. Howlands, a white expatriate originally from Great Britain, but who claims Kenya as his home, Jacobo, a black land owner who "sells out" and supports the white cause in the conflict, and Ngotho, a traditional Gikuyu man who believes the prophecy of his people long ago that blacks will reclaim ownership of the land that was stripped from them when white European settlers arrived. Ngugi complicates the story by focusing on two generations involved in the battle over land rights. Njoroge's brazen brothers Kumau, Kori, and Boro, are hostile, reckless supporters of the Mau Mau, while younger and more innocent Njoroge remains steadfast in his ideas that education is the answer. While his brothers support strikes and Boro becomes a plotted murderer, Njoroge remains in school, excelling in his class. Mwihaki, the gentle daughter of Jacobo, becomes the unfailing companion of Njoroge from a young age, but because of the differences in their families' beliefs and the ultimate deaths of both of their fathers, they cannot be together in the end. Ngugi fills the rest of the novel with other archetypal revolutionary figures such as the barber and Teacher Isaka who both get assassinated because of their fundamental belief that the Gikuyu people should claim right to their land, as their ancestors did. At the same time; however, we get an intimate portrayal of Mr. Howlands and how he passionately sees Kenya as his home, the land rightfully his. Surely, he believes "the blacks" to be "savages" and intends to pit them against each other to better his cause, but he is human just like they are, desiring to hold his fragile family together as it fractures like Ngotho's family. The background of World Wars I and II in the novel help to establish the historical context of the Mau Mau Rebellion. There existed an entire generation of Kenyan veterans who were not given proper compensation for their role in helping the British fend off the Germans and other world powers, thus fueling their desire to take back their rights. The first half of this novel is less palatable to me than the second; perhaps because Ngugi is setting up the context and the players. The second half of the novel traces the mental and ideological downfall of his major players and is much more affecting to read. I did feel a hint of Achebe's Things Fall Apart at the end when Njoroge tries to commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree, but Ngugi's new contribution to this ending is that Njoroge was never of the generation who valued tradition and the ancestral spirits, pointing to the fact that colonialism inflicts potentially brutal consequences on younger generations as well. The fact that Njoroge does not go through with the act could either point to a hope that he will go on to serve as a savior to his people or a scathing critique that the newer generation is not as courageous and masculine as its father's. I was searching for more female voices in here, and though Ngugi gives Ngotho's wives Njeri and Nyokabi some space in which to speak about the tragedies of the war, and Mwahiki occupies a lot of lines in the novel, this is what is really lacking for me as a reader. Certainly there were female revolutionaries who supported the rebellion, but we don't see any of them here.
Wow. That was rough. Solid book that, at first, is about power dynamic between classes, and how our narrator wanted to use his own education to bridge those differences. Ultimately, however, forces greater than he conspired against him, despite his optimism.
"'You are always talking about tomorrow, tomorrow. You are always talking about the country and the people. Whats is tomorrow? And what is the People and the Country to you?'
'If you knew that all your days life will always be like this with blood flowing daily and men dying in the forest, while others daily cry for mercy; if you knew even for one moment that this would go on forever, then life would be meaningless unless bloodshed and death were a meaning. Surely this darkness and terror will not go on forever. Surely there will be a sunny day, a warm sweet day after all this tribulation when we can breathe the warmth and purity of God...'"
It was quite dismaying to see that optimism crushed. Can't decide if the ending is cynical or just realistic.
"'You are always talking about tomorrow, tomorrow. You are always talking about the country and the people. Whats is tomorrow? And what is the People and the Country to you?'
'If you knew that all your days life will always be like this with blood flowing daily and men dying in the forest, while others daily cry for mercy; if you knew even for one moment that this would go on forever, then life would be meaningless unless bloodshed and death were a meaning. Surely this darkness and terror will not go on forever. Surely there will be a sunny day, a warm sweet day after all this tribulation when we can breathe the warmth and purity of God...'"
It was quite dismaying to see that optimism crushed. Can't decide if the ending is cynical or just realistic.
challenging
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated