A review by steveatwaywords
Ambiguous Adventure by Cheikh Hamidou Kane

4.0

A surprisingly philosophical and abstract novel, Kane nonetheless offers a compelling alienation motif where our protagonist is sent to learn the West but ends up belonging nowhere. As a reader, a fair amount of work to fill in the narrative space between chapters; we see instead critical moments across years of study and thinking--and only anecdotes allow us to realize how he has arrived at his latest conclusions. The broad strokes of political/religious philosophy, too, require readers to slow and consider the references and how they fit the rhetorical exchanges: should we accept one character's portrayal of Hume? of pragmatism? It is not always clear. Nonetheless, the characters are truly compelling: the righteous knight father, the practical Royal Lady, the idealistic teacher, and the negotiating chief, the Westerners who at varying levels are well-intended, intolerant, or merely lost... Each is offered in realistic and understandable dimensions, which makes the novel's end all the more bitter.