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A review by amyvl93
We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I feel like a bit of a Debbie Downer with this review, as Birds of Uganda appears to be really well loved on here, but it did not really work for me (slight spoilers ahead).
Sameer, in his mid-20s, is doing very well for himself in his job as a corporate lawyer in London, and is thrilled to receive an offer to be part of the team opening the company's new office in Singapore. However, this goes directly against his parents wishes for him to return home to run the family business and after his friend is attacked and he has his first brushes with racism at work - Sameer heads to trace his family history in Uganda - and it all goes a bit Eat, Pray, Love from there.
Zayyan was the first winner of the Merky imprint's new writers prize, set-up between Penguin and Stormzy to find new voices in British writing, and I will say that initially I was very engaged in Sameer's story of living and working in London; and I felt Zayyan's writing was at its best when she was describing Uganda - the places and particularly the food really jumped off the page.
I also knew very little about the Asian expulsion from Uganda, or about how extensive migration was to African countries in the British Empire from South Asia. It was interesting to learn more about this here, and about how colonial attitudes became ingrained even within different minorities. However, this information is given to us in sporadic letters between Hasan, Sameer's grandfather who had built a retail empire in Uganda, and his deceased first wife - meaning we got a whole lot of exposition. I couldn't help but feel these events would have more impact if they were told in the moment.
The story also derailed a bit for me when we got into Sameer essentially 'finding himself' in Uganda - in the space of two weeks he has a complete u-turn on his career, what is important to him and also falls in love with a woman ten years older than him because she's...modest? It's quite strange to read, and whilst I found his reconnection to his faith interesting a lot of the rest of it had me a little bit confused. His parents are definitely antagonists in this novel I nearly threw the book across the room when his Dad rang his legal office and told them he'd be resigning but I couldn't help but feel a bit for them and his sister for expressing some quite reasonable concerns about him wanting to move country's for someone he hardly knows. It definitely felt quite...young adult in development (including a scene where he accidentally sees Maryam, his love interest, wet in a white top and black bra tehe) and I struggled to really care all that much for the central romance. There were some descriptions in here of women generally, and particularly women in larger bodies, that made me feel quite surprised that Zayyan is herself a woman - I'd like to generously say she was making a point about her male characters.
Sameer, in his mid-20s, is doing very well for himself in his job as a corporate lawyer in London, and is thrilled to receive an offer to be part of the team opening the company's new office in Singapore. However, this goes directly against his parents wishes for him to return home to run the family business and after his friend is attacked and he has his first brushes with racism at work - Sameer heads to trace his family history in Uganda - and it all goes a bit Eat, Pray, Love from there.
Zayyan was the first winner of the Merky imprint's new writers prize, set-up between Penguin and Stormzy to find new voices in British writing, and I will say that initially I was very engaged in Sameer's story of living and working in London; and I felt Zayyan's writing was at its best when she was describing Uganda - the places and particularly the food really jumped off the page.
I also knew very little about the Asian expulsion from Uganda, or about how extensive migration was to African countries in the British Empire from South Asia. It was interesting to learn more about this here, and about how colonial attitudes became ingrained even within different minorities. However, this information is given to us in sporadic letters between Hasan, Sameer's grandfather who had built a retail empire in Uganda, and his deceased first wife - meaning we got a whole lot of exposition. I couldn't help but feel these events would have more impact if they were told in the moment.
The story also derailed a bit for me when we got into Sameer essentially 'finding himself' in Uganda - in the space of two weeks he has a complete u-turn on his career, what is important to him and also falls in love with a woman ten years older than him because she's...modest? It's quite strange to read, and whilst I found his reconnection to his faith interesting a lot of the rest of it had me a little bit confused. His parents are definitely antagonists in this novel