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A review by iarlais
The River Between by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
An incredibly compelling tale especially considering how surprisingly short the story is - Thiong'o is quite the economical storyteller.
While feeling incomplete in areas, and ending sooner than I'd have liked it too, The River Between nevertheless masterfully explores the themes of colonialism, religious clashes, and the loss of one's home. Waiyaki is an incredibly likeable protagonist - even when you feel he's going in the wrong direction, you still understand where he's coming from - and that applies to pretty much every character in the story too. There's a cast of characters with widely differing views and while they're not all the most sympathetic, they all feel genuinely passionate and righteous.
I especially like the relative lack of focus on the white colonisers - this is a story about colonialism infecting a region and causing things to fall apart, and such stories, in my opinion, work best when they focus primarily on the people that colonialism acts upon, as opposed to those who practice it.
I do think the romance subplot could have been fleshed out more, and I would have liked a few extra chapters in the end to show how everything ends up - even if the book gives us an idea of what happens - so it's not a perfect story, but it's an incredibly absorbing and memorable one.
While feeling incomplete in areas, and ending sooner than I'd have liked it too, The River Between nevertheless masterfully explores the themes of colonialism, religious clashes, and the loss of one's home. Waiyaki is an incredibly likeable protagonist - even when you feel he's going in the wrong direction, you still understand where he's coming from - and that applies to pretty much every character in the story too. There's a cast of characters with widely differing views and while they're not all the most sympathetic, they all feel genuinely passionate and righteous.
I especially like the relative lack of focus on the white colonisers - this is a story about colonialism infecting a region and causing things to fall apart, and such stories, in my opinion, work best when they focus primarily on the people that colonialism acts upon, as opposed to those who practice it.
I do think the romance subplot could have been fleshed out more, and I would have liked a few extra chapters in the end to show how everything ends up - even if the book gives us an idea of what happens - so it's not a perfect story, but it's an incredibly absorbing and memorable one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation