Scan barcode
A review by alisonjfields
GraceLand by Chris Abani
4.0
7.0/10
Strictly speaking, I'd like to give this book a 3.5, but Goodreads won't let me do that, so I'm rounding up here. There's a lot going on in this book, which is generally something I enjoy, but it jumped from strain to strain so quickly that I missed being able to go back and pick up on details (the question of Elvis' sexuality. his fetish for make-up, the witchy grandmother, the missing Efua). Sections of this are written beautifully (eg: the physical descriptions of the slums, especially the slums by night floating across the lagoon from the monied parts of Lagos were gorgeous) and I really liked some of the characters, even if they tended to go a bit outside of themselves at moments (the King of Beggars' speech about the IMF and the World Bank, for example, feels like it's coming directly from the author and the King of Beggars is otherwise too rich and complex a character to be used as an avatar). All that said: I sincerely look forward to reading some of Abani's newer books to see where he's gone (fictionally-speaking) and the likely remarkable journeys he's taken to get there
Strictly speaking, I'd like to give this book a 3.5, but Goodreads won't let me do that, so I'm rounding up here. There's a lot going on in this book, which is generally something I enjoy, but it jumped from strain to strain so quickly that I missed being able to go back and pick up on details (the question of Elvis' sexuality. his fetish for make-up, the witchy grandmother, the missing Efua). Sections of this are written beautifully (eg: the physical descriptions of the slums, especially the slums by night floating across the lagoon from the monied parts of Lagos were gorgeous) and I really liked some of the characters, even if they tended to go a bit outside of themselves at moments (the King of Beggars' speech about the IMF and the World Bank, for example, feels like it's coming directly from the author and the King of Beggars is otherwise too rich and complex a character to be used as an avatar). All that said: I sincerely look forward to reading some of Abani's newer books to see where he's gone (fictionally-speaking) and the likely remarkable journeys he's taken to get there