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gabitr31's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
dedication's review against another edition
5.0
Güzel bir kitabı bitirmenin hüznü ile yazıyorum. Uzun zamandır kimlik, ırk ve aidiyet üzerine bir eser okumamıştım, dolayısıyla ne kadar özlediğimi fark ettim bu eserde.
Yazarın kimliğine değinmeden doğrudan eserine değineceğim. Ana karakterimiz isimsiz Zanzibar'dan İngiltere'ye göç eden birisi. Hem ana vatanı Zanzibar kültürüne hem de 20 yıldan fazla İngiltere'de yaşadığı için İngiliz kültürüne hakim fakat gelgelelim bu dostumuz iki kültüre de ait değil. Sıkışmış bir kimlik. Ne kendini İngiliz hissediyor ne de yıllar sonra döndüğü memleketi Zanzibar'da kendine ait bir şey bulabiliyor.
Satır aralarında ülkelerdeki cinsiyet rollerine karşı bakış açılarını görmek de pek mümkün. Satirik bir dille kaleme alınmış bu eser beni üniversite yıllarında okuduğum kültürel çeşitlilik metinlerine götürdü.
Günümüzün hala sık karşılaşılan sorunlarından bazıları olan bu konularda okuma yapmak isteyenler için Abdulrazak Gurnah kesinlikle önemli bir yazar.
Yazarın kimliğine değinmeden doğrudan eserine değineceğim. Ana karakterimiz isimsiz Zanzibar'dan İngiltere'ye göç eden birisi. Hem ana vatanı Zanzibar kültürüne hem de 20 yıldan fazla İngiltere'de yaşadığı için İngiliz kültürüne hakim fakat gelgelelim bu dostumuz iki kültüre de ait değil. Sıkışmış bir kimlik. Ne kendini İngiliz hissediyor ne de yıllar sonra döndüğü memleketi Zanzibar'da kendine ait bir şey bulabiliyor.
Satır aralarında ülkelerdeki cinsiyet rollerine karşı bakış açılarını görmek de pek mümkün. Satirik bir dille kaleme alınmış bu eser beni üniversite yıllarında okuduğum kültürel çeşitlilik metinlerine götürdü.
Günümüzün hala sık karşılaşılan sorunlarından bazıları olan bu konularda okuma yapmak isteyenler için Abdulrazak Gurnah kesinlikle önemli bir yazar.
tenhogui's review against another edition
5.0
Enquanto lia percebi que o autor não só não era confiável, mas que ele zombava de mim. Não era algo proposital, era na verdade o que ele mesmo gostaria de acreditar, não como uma mentira boba que facilita as coisas, mas por ser o único caminho num plateau interminável. É uma história de sutilezas que abrange o íntimo de um homem desgraçado a história de uma nação, da vida de um país insignificante a história da nossa humanidade de terceiro mundo.
reesethedonut's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
sofietintenhertz's review against another edition
4.0
(4.5)
Hvor hører vi til og hva kan vi egentlig kalle hjem? Defineres det av de du er glad i eller hvor du kommer fra, og hva skjer når linjene blir tynnere?
Interessante temaer dukker opp når du leser denne boka og jeg sitter fortsatt og tenker på den en måned i etterkant.
Denne knuste hjertet mitt litt.
Hvor hører vi til og hva kan vi egentlig kalle hjem? Defineres det av de du er glad i eller hvor du kommer fra, og hva skjer når linjene blir tynnere?
Interessante temaer dukker opp når du leser denne boka og jeg sitter fortsatt og tenker på den en måned i etterkant.
Denne knuste hjertet mitt litt.
lmarck's review against another edition
3.0
I both entirely understand why this book won the nobel prize and feel that every character in this book was highly unlikeable and the plot highly limited. I thought there was some incredible thought provoking ideas but since the writing style was so intellectual I struggled through this. Not personally for me but inarguably a very quality novel.
hanntastic's review against another edition
Global Read 171- Tanzania
This was a well told story about being an outsider in a new place and the place you thought was home. All the secondary characters were interesting and well developed. I was frustrated with the main character and his passivity and felt like he wasn't as clearly drawn as those around him. I also felt like the ending was a little pat, but I don't want to get into spoilers. The contrast between the UK and Zanzibar was really well done.
This was a well told story about being an outsider in a new place and the place you thought was home. All the secondary characters were interesting and well developed. I was frustrated with the main character and his passivity and felt like he wasn't as clearly drawn as those around him. I also felt like the ending was a little pat, but I don't want to get into spoilers. The contrast between the UK and Zanzibar was really well done.
gpettey19's review against another edition
5.0
I wanted to read this book because I wanted to read something by Gurnah after he won the Nobel Prize for Literature last year, but I was not expecting to love it so much.
Gurnah dances along the fine line between rightful criticism and blame, and the shortcomings of victimization and dependence—both in terms of the post-colonial politics of his home country Zanzibar but also his personal life. I couldn't stop thinking about and discussing his points with CEL; I related in some ways, empathized with CEL in others, and overall felt challenged by the narrative.
Currently resisting the urge to just spend the year reading the rest of his work...
And our part of the deal was to be colonized, assimilated, educated, alienated, integrated, suffer clashes of culture, win a flag and a national anthem, become corrupt, starve and grumble about it all.
And after so many years away, my days were full of impact, full of intricate negotiations with people and places I had known differently.
Whose history was it they were renovating? Then suddenly it came to me that they were talking like this for my benefit, that it didn’t matter what was being said because it all amounted to the same thing: project, sponsors, UNESCO, the work of nations. Not to impress me as the visitor from Europe, but as an expression of their engagement with pressing and urgent problems of the world they lived in, we lived in. I don’t know.
Perhaps calling it funding made it seem less like begging and dependence, less like taking the guilty money of our betters to throw away on trinkets and petty exhibitionism. Funding. Words like that transcend hypocrisy. They become like liturgical language, solemn and layered with intimations, but no longer precise enough to resist proliferating meanings.
Words are like that. Even taken in in bulk, they lodge themselves in the infinite corners of recall, and then return in their full regalia in ones and twos and threes, each little bunch stepping forward to corrode the heart with venom again and again.
It’s true we have had to kill a few thousand hooligans, and imprison other thousands, and rape and mutilate several dozens, and force a handful of women to marry some old codgers, and we don’t allow anyone to so much as fart without permission, humiliation and bullying, let alone vote, travel or speak the sedition that is in their minds. But unlike before, now everyone is in the same situation. Everybody is short of food, everybody is short of water, everybody has to creep and crawl for the smallest thing, and every school has no books, and nobody has two pennies to rub together, and of course, everybody’s toilet is blocked – except for the senior officers of the government who have to keep the country running, and obviously they couldn’t do that if they were hungry, thirsty, poor and unable to use a clean toilet.
Gurnah dances along the fine line between rightful criticism and blame, and the shortcomings of victimization and dependence—both in terms of the post-colonial politics of his home country Zanzibar but also his personal life. I couldn't stop thinking about and discussing his points with CEL; I related in some ways, empathized with CEL in others, and overall felt challenged by the narrative.
Currently resisting the urge to just spend the year reading the rest of his work...
And our part of the deal was to be colonized, assimilated, educated, alienated, integrated, suffer clashes of culture, win a flag and a national anthem, become corrupt, starve and grumble about it all.
And after so many years away, my days were full of impact, full of intricate negotiations with people and places I had known differently.
Whose history was it they were renovating? Then suddenly it came to me that they were talking like this for my benefit, that it didn’t matter what was being said because it all amounted to the same thing: project, sponsors, UNESCO, the work of nations. Not to impress me as the visitor from Europe, but as an expression of their engagement with pressing and urgent problems of the world they lived in, we lived in. I don’t know.
Perhaps calling it funding made it seem less like begging and dependence, less like taking the guilty money of our betters to throw away on trinkets and petty exhibitionism. Funding. Words like that transcend hypocrisy. They become like liturgical language, solemn and layered with intimations, but no longer precise enough to resist proliferating meanings.
Words are like that. Even taken in in bulk, they lodge themselves in the infinite corners of recall, and then return in their full regalia in ones and twos and threes, each little bunch stepping forward to corrode the heart with venom again and again.
It’s true we have had to kill a few thousand hooligans, and imprison other thousands, and rape and mutilate several dozens, and force a handful of women to marry some old codgers, and we don’t allow anyone to so much as fart without permission, humiliation and bullying, let alone vote, travel or speak the sedition that is in their minds. But unlike before, now everyone is in the same situation. Everybody is short of food, everybody is short of water, everybody has to creep and crawl for the smallest thing, and every school has no books, and nobody has two pennies to rub together, and of course, everybody’s toilet is blocked – except for the senior officers of the government who have to keep the country running, and obviously they couldn’t do that if they were hungry, thirsty, poor and unable to use a clean toilet.