A review by blessing_aj
Open City by Teju Cole

adventurous challenging informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Each person must on some level, take himself as the calibration point for normalcy, must assume that the room of his own mind is not, cannot be entirely opaque to him. Perhaps this is what we mean by sanity: that whatever our self-admitted eccentricities might be, we are not the villains of our own stories.

In Open City, Teju Cole writes about life and how human beings perceive it with fervent curiosity and interrogates it through Julius, a Nigerian-German doctor who has a deep appreciation of classical music, photography and painted artwork. 

It takes a great deal of courage alongside exceptional skill and knowledge of the craft to take a roving, meandering, plotless manuscript that this must have been at some point and make it into the timeless novel that I found this to be. 

Except for those brief paragraphs and sentences where Julius paused to make his reflections - which I really enjoyed reading - Julius came across a complete enigma. 
He had such interesting perspectives on life and history but appeared to have subconsciously suppressed memories from his past that could have led to a clearer self-image and a deeper understanding of his personality and life’s trajectory. This is more ironic when you consider the fact that he psycho analyzes people for a living, yet has never confronted the foundational issue that is responsible for the awkward situations that manifest in his relationship with the women in his life. As a result, I honestly know what to make of Moji’s accusation, nor his reaction, nor his relationship with Nagede and the one-nightstand in Berlin. 

I’m inclined to think that this is another instance of male authors not writing women well. But given how intentional TJ was in crafting this character, I want to go against my instinct and blame it on Julius, after all some Men really do treat women like this IRL. 
Looking forward to figuring out what’s what as I explore more of his books, in the near future.