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ushashib 's review for:
At Night All Blood Is Black
by David Diop
Winner of the International Booker 2021
Welcome to the mind of a man deranged by the violence of war! At Night All Blood is Black is one of the most shocking books I've read. It's visceral, raw, harrowing and utterly amazing.
This novella can be divided into two sections. At first, we meet Alfa Ndiaye, a young Senegalese man, in the trenches of WWI. He just lost his closest friend, Mademba Diop, to a gruesome death and failed to spare him the agony even though he begged for it. The guilt of letting his friend suffer till the end pushes him over the edge. He goes on a spree of macabre enemy killing ritual to avenge his friend. Later on, the story moves to a calmer setting where we see Alfa's life in Senegal and how his friendship with Mademba developed. The ending is strange and ambiguous, but did nothing to let the book down. It might also make more sense if the original French title is kept in mind whose literal translation is 'Soul-brother'.
This book must come with a trigger warning for graphic violence. Some scenes in the first parts made me shut the book and wonder exactly what I just read and I have a rather high tolerance for book violence. And not once is it meant to be gratuitous. The violence shows the shattering effect war can have on the human mind.
The first person POV of Alfa, gives a matter-of-fact view on all of his actions. The storytelling is repetitive, with some phrases being used over and over again. The overall effect is oddly unsettling. The parts set in Senegal are peaceful and vibrant in comparison, albeit not perfectly happy. It puts the war in contrast to their village life perfectly.
This book deals with so much more than war. There's racism, interpretation of masculinity, survivor's guilt, interpretation in general. Before this book, I did not know that African soldiers fought in WWI, but about two million of them did. Diop shows how these 'Chocolat' soldiers were used as 'savages' or 'cannibals' with machetes to scare the German soldiers by France. So much of history has been lost or been hidden from popular knowledge!
This book is disturbing, gut-wrenching and scary. Everything being in the trenches of WWI must have been.
Welcome to the mind of a man deranged by the violence of war! At Night All Blood is Black is one of the most shocking books I've read. It's visceral, raw, harrowing and utterly amazing.
This novella can be divided into two sections. At first, we meet Alfa Ndiaye, a young Senegalese man, in the trenches of WWI. He just lost his closest friend, Mademba Diop, to a gruesome death and failed to spare him the agony even though he begged for it. The guilt of letting his friend suffer till the end pushes him over the edge. He goes on a spree of macabre enemy killing ritual to avenge his friend. Later on, the story moves to a calmer setting where we see Alfa's life in Senegal and how his friendship with Mademba developed. The ending is strange and ambiguous, but did nothing to let the book down. It might also make more sense if the original French title is kept in mind whose literal translation is 'Soul-brother'.
This book must come with a trigger warning for graphic violence. Some scenes in the first parts made me shut the book and wonder exactly what I just read and I have a rather high tolerance for book violence. And not once is it meant to be gratuitous. The violence shows the shattering effect war can have on the human mind.
The first person POV of Alfa, gives a matter-of-fact view on all of his actions. The storytelling is repetitive, with some phrases being used over and over again. The overall effect is oddly unsettling. The parts set in Senegal are peaceful and vibrant in comparison, albeit not perfectly happy. It puts the war in contrast to their village life perfectly.
This book deals with so much more than war. There's racism, interpretation of masculinity, survivor's guilt, interpretation in general. Before this book, I did not know that African soldiers fought in WWI, but about two million of them did. Diop shows how these 'Chocolat' soldiers were used as 'savages' or 'cannibals' with machetes to scare the German soldiers by France. So much of history has been lost or been hidden from popular knowledge!
This book is disturbing, gut-wrenching and scary. Everything being in the trenches of WWI must have been.