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causticcovercritic's review
4.0
Opens like a cynical satire on post-colonial literature and white Americans seeking some sort of redemption and authenticity through Africans, but gradually becomes something quieter and sadder and more serious. Also contains a fictional unfinished novel I would love to read.
wuraoye's review
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
bobthebookerer's review
5.0
This novel starts with a slow, drawling sarcasm that, once you've adapted to its rhythm, realise just how clever this novel is.
Our main character has published one novel, a novel he rejects and feels physically uncomfortable thinking about, and feels a failure, especially considering its print run of 50.
Having destroyed almost every copy himself, he is surprised to find that a woman in the US has not only read it, but wants to offer him a fellowship on a prestigious writing programme because of it.
He goes along, his heart not fully into it, and is a drop-out of sorts- he doesn't write anything more when there, and is bemused by the pretentious self-promotion of other writers on his programme, who all seem to think that they are writing The Next Great (insert adjective here) Novel. He has no such aspirations and becomes increasingly alienated from it all, and from himself.
However, here is where the detached tone of the book does something quite extraordinary- the narrator is an observer of these other people who are so obsessed with themselves and their own mythologies that they fail to see the ridiculousness of the whole situation, or to see how they are putting our narrator on a pedestal to be an icon or role model for the whole of Africa for their own ends, failing to understand anything apart from the confirmation of their own biases.
Although we are meant to see his inability to complete the programme as a failure, he ultimately emerges from the book perhaps the most grounded. The people he meets often want to be the one to have secured 'authenticity', whilst growing further from it every day.
I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Our main character has published one novel, a novel he rejects and feels physically uncomfortable thinking about, and feels a failure, especially considering its print run of 50.
Having destroyed almost every copy himself, he is surprised to find that a woman in the US has not only read it, but wants to offer him a fellowship on a prestigious writing programme because of it.
He goes along, his heart not fully into it, and is a drop-out of sorts- he doesn't write anything more when there, and is bemused by the pretentious self-promotion of other writers on his programme, who all seem to think that they are writing The Next Great (insert adjective here) Novel. He has no such aspirations and becomes increasingly alienated from it all, and from himself.
However, here is where the detached tone of the book does something quite extraordinary- the narrator is an observer of these other people who are so obsessed with themselves and their own mythologies that they fail to see the ridiculousness of the whole situation, or to see how they are putting our narrator on a pedestal to be an icon or role model for the whole of Africa for their own ends, failing to understand anything apart from the confirmation of their own biases.
Although we are meant to see his inability to complete the programme as a failure, he ultimately emerges from the book perhaps the most grounded. The people he meets often want to be the one to have secured 'authenticity', whilst growing further from it every day.
I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
lawbooks600's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Representation: Black main character, side Asian character
Score: Six points out of ten.
I wanted to read this for a while now and after I saw one of the two libraries I regularly go to place this on the display shelf I picked this up and finally read it. When I finished it this book didn't make me feel impressed by any means since it was incredibly similar to another novel (I'll get to that later, oh and by the way when I read the praise, it misled me.) The story starts with the main character Frank Jasper or Frank for short and already there are two attributes I'd like to point out, an author wrote a book about an author who wrote a book (Hah! Meta!) and this is supposed to satire which means it should be funny. It isn't; I didn't laugh throughout the entire book and I even found it vulgar sometimes. Shame. Frank tells me about his debut novel which only sold 50 copies implying it wasn't that successful so then he is invited to a writers' program in Boston but what I thought the author could've improved on is the pacing, it's incredibly slow and didn't help me enjoy this book since it rambles and after the main events it has no idea where it's supposed to go so it fizzles out with less of a bang and more of a whimper. Frank experiences what it's like to be in a program like this and I hoped that he would become a better writer through that but no! He only takes the opportunity to ramble even more only for him to get kicked out of the program. Counterintuitively, getting kicked out helped Frank as after some long-winded monologues filled with buzzwords which I forgot he describes his stay in America and he had plans to write a memoir which ends the book like that.
P.S. It's a lot like Yellowface.
P.P.S. In fact, Yellowface and Seesaw have a lot of similarities with each other:
Both talk about races.
Both are satires.
Both are meta.
Both are about writing.
Both main characters are obscure writers.
Now given the fact that I've heard about Yellowface through comprehensive means, I get why I had this sentiment. Still, they're so similar, much like one another and I unfortunately saw some of the latter's concepts that are strikingly analogous to the former's.
Score: Six points out of ten.
I wanted to read this for a while now and after I saw one of the two libraries I regularly go to place this on the display shelf I picked this up and finally read it. When I finished it this book didn't make me feel impressed by any means since it was incredibly similar to another novel (I'll get to that later, oh and by the way when I read the praise, it misled me.) The story starts with the main character Frank Jasper or Frank for short and already there are two attributes I'd like to point out, an author wrote a book about an author who wrote a book (Hah! Meta!) and this is supposed to satire which means it should be funny. It isn't; I didn't laugh throughout the entire book and I even found it vulgar sometimes. Shame. Frank tells me about his debut novel which only sold 50 copies implying it wasn't that successful so then he is invited to a writers' program in Boston but what I thought the author could've improved on is the pacing, it's incredibly slow and didn't help me enjoy this book since it rambles and after the main events it has no idea where it's supposed to go so it fizzles out with less of a bang and more of a whimper. Frank experiences what it's like to be in a program like this and I hoped that he would become a better writer through that but no! He only takes the opportunity to ramble even more only for him to get kicked out of the program. Counterintuitively, getting kicked out helped Frank as after some long-winded monologues filled with buzzwords which I forgot he describes his stay in America and he had plans to write a memoir which ends the book like that.
P.S. It's a lot like Yellowface.
P.P.S. In fact, Yellowface and Seesaw have a lot of similarities with each other:
Both talk about races.
Both are satires.
Both are meta.
Both are about writing.
Both main characters are obscure writers.
Now given the fact that I've heard about Yellowface through comprehensive means, I get why I had this sentiment. Still, they're so similar, much like one another and I unfortunately saw some of the latter's concepts that are strikingly analogous to the former's.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism
Minor: Slavery, Child abuse, and Sexual assault
Full trigger warnings: Sexist slur, assault, slavery and an abusive family mentionedtomaxhull's review
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
"And somewhere in my spontaneous lecture, I feared there was something truly wrong with me, an irreparable flaw, a gap in my thinking and being; I feared they all had access to some pure and morally correct knowledge that I did not."
A book I liked more and more the further into it I got, always a pleasant surprise. Ogene's Frank Jasper is an excellent protagonist who's sometimes hard to stick with, but worth the journey - characterised by inaction, often making such notable toe-curling blunders that I'd have to close the book and close my eyes, and wonderfully human.
It takes a while to get where it's going, and the pace is somewhat slow at the start, although you're settled into it as a reader by the end. Described on its back cover as a satire of academia and what it is to 'represent' a culture, which I didn't find entirely accurate. While Seesaw does achieve its satirical aims with aplomb, I found it much more interesting when the story drifted further from this fish-out-of-water world and more into Frank's aimless journey across America after he fails out of his fellowship - a journey filled with little lies and human mundanity, written with effortless poetry.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism and Sexual assault
currantlyreading's review
funny
reflective
slow-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? It's complicated
4.25
beancity's review
challenging
funny
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
versaatchi_'s review
dark
emotional
funny
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
4.0
fiendfull's review
4.0
Seesaw is a novel about a Nigerian writer whose failing novel is discovered by a white American woman who suggests he apply to the William Blake Program for Emerging Writers in Boston. Frank leaves Port Jumbo for America, where it becomes apparent he is expected to be an 'African' writer and talk about post-colonialism, and Frank doesn't want to be the stereotype, but being expelled turns out to be quite helpful for a writing career.
The book is both a satire of literary culture and what is expected of authors, and the story of a somewhat lost man finding direction. It is told with hindsight, and the pacing wasn't quite what I expected, but I liked the parts that paralleled Frank's experiences with what he later uses in his reinvigorated career commenting on America. There was also some good light-hearted mockery of academic and literary language and how it can both mean nothing and specific things. Because Frank was the narrator, a lot of the book was more focused on what he did and saw than these elements, and for me I would've preferred more of them.
A comic novel about a writer going in a strange journey to and around America, Seesaw is a light read that still delves into cultural difference and what diversity in literature really means, albeit in a satirical way.
The book is both a satire of literary culture and what is expected of authors, and the story of a somewhat lost man finding direction. It is told with hindsight, and the pacing wasn't quite what I expected, but I liked the parts that paralleled Frank's experiences with what he later uses in his reinvigorated career commenting on America. There was also some good light-hearted mockery of academic and literary language and how it can both mean nothing and specific things. Because Frank was the narrator, a lot of the book was more focused on what he did and saw than these elements, and for me I would've preferred more of them.
A comic novel about a writer going in a strange journey to and around America, Seesaw is a light read that still delves into cultural difference and what diversity in literature really means, albeit in a satirical way.