A review by mkrowley
That Hair by Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida

3.0

This was 3 stars based on the premise that I can tell it just wasn’t for me but really my own experience of reading it was pretty miserable. If the phrase “Memory is a demagogue” sparks joy for you, this might be the one for you. I read this as my entry for Angola as I work my way around the world. It was not at all what I expected, not least of all because it is yet again another book I find labeled a “novel” that really stretches the definition. It’s really a series of personal recollections or essays, on different themes, just grouped together one after the other, with no narrative. The translator points out in an opening essay that Portuguese by its nature uses many more digressions and circuitous asides than English, which he found a delight to translate. I guess. I found it basically impossible to follow a paragraph or even a sentence at a time, so much so that a third of the way into the book I still wasn’t sure which set of grandparents (and thus which parent) was Portuguese and which was from Angola? So all of that is to say it’s just not for me. I’m too constrained by my English language upbringing I suppose.