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A review by libbysbookshelf
Oil on Water by Helon Habila
challenging
dark
fast-paced
OIL ON WATER by HELON HABILA
Set in Nigeria, this book is about the pollution and corruption caused by the oil industry.
It is both eco-criticism and a coming of age story that reads - at times - like a thriller.
The pacing is just so that it’s difficult to put the book down. It goes from past to present with ease until the reader has the full picture of this desolate landscape that has been overrun by the oil industry, the military and the rebels.
The novel is told from the point of view of a young journalist who is trying to find the white kidnapped wife of a British oil engineer. That in itself tells you that white lives are worth more than black lives in this corrupt world, and that women are often no more than bargaining chips.
The real hideous beauty of this book comes from the theme of humans vs nature; a theme prevalent in a lot of Romantic poetry from the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Back when poets were afraid that industry was going to destroy nature. In a sense, then, this is almost a post-Romantic novel. The world has been destroyed - oil pipes crack through the earth like tree roots but bring toxicity and death instead of air and life.
It’s devastating and it’s all true. Don’t shy away from it, though. We must be educated and we must do something about it. About all of it.
#oilonwater #helonhabila #nigerianliterature #book #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booklover #bookrecommendations #bookreview #bookreviewer #bookrecommendation
Set in Nigeria, this book is about the pollution and corruption caused by the oil industry.
It is both eco-criticism and a coming of age story that reads - at times - like a thriller.
The pacing is just so that it’s difficult to put the book down. It goes from past to present with ease until the reader has the full picture of this desolate landscape that has been overrun by the oil industry, the military and the rebels.
The novel is told from the point of view of a young journalist who is trying to find the white kidnapped wife of a British oil engineer. That in itself tells you that white lives are worth more than black lives in this corrupt world, and that women are often no more than bargaining chips.
The real hideous beauty of this book comes from the theme of humans vs nature; a theme prevalent in a lot of Romantic poetry from the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Back when poets were afraid that industry was going to destroy nature. In a sense, then, this is almost a post-Romantic novel. The world has been destroyed - oil pipes crack through the earth like tree roots but bring toxicity and death instead of air and life.
It’s devastating and it’s all true. Don’t shy away from it, though. We must be educated and we must do something about it. About all of it.
#oilonwater #helonhabila #nigerianliterature #book #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booklover #bookrecommendations #bookreview #bookreviewer #bookrecommendation