Scan barcode
A review by blacksentai
The Prophet of Zongo Street by Mohammed Naseehu Ali
2.0
So this is a book of short stories, the first one I've come across on the shelf. I hope it isn't the last because I really like these. They're a breeze to read. The backbone to this entire book is that someone in the stories is probably from Ghana.
Anyway, this book is a mixed bag of goodies. Oh the whole, I enjoyed it. When the book is dealing with issues of race or colonialization or imperialism and religion, it's pretty on point. When the book touches on gender issues it's not as cohesive. That stuff clearly isn't the authors bag, but problems are problems.
So most of these short stories are very conversational. People talking about life and stuff. Since almost all the protagonists are men, you come across a few male gazey scenes. Those are whatever, and then there's the representation. We get the single moms and the mean women and the needy queen bee and the poor maid and the big fat ugly domineering wife.
Not all of these are 'negative' or intended to be that way, but there isn't the scholar or shop owner or leader to balance anything out, and the ones that are negative definitely get their full time.
The positives are that the stories are all generally well written, and the language is good. I feel that he's at his personal best doing the thoughtful conversation stuff (even though one of those stories goes off rails in the worst way possible). It's a quick read and if a story doesn't hit you in a page or two you miss nothing by hopping to the next one.
And the more I thought about it the more I changed my mind. The story Rachmaninov is so bad and so disgusting that it invalidates everything else this book tries to do.
Anyway, this book is a mixed bag of goodies. Oh the whole, I enjoyed it. When the book is dealing with issues of race or colonialization or imperialism and religion, it's pretty on point. When the book touches on gender issues it's not as cohesive. That stuff clearly isn't the authors bag, but problems are problems.
So most of these short stories are very conversational. People talking about life and stuff. Since almost all the protagonists are men, you come across a few male gazey scenes. Those are whatever, and then there's the representation. We get the single moms and the mean women and the needy queen bee and the poor maid and the big fat ugly domineering wife.
Not all of these are 'negative' or intended to be that way, but there isn't the scholar or shop owner or leader to balance anything out, and the ones that are negative definitely get their full time.
The positives are that the stories are all generally well written, and the language is good. I feel that he's at his personal best doing the thoughtful conversation stuff (even though one of those stories goes off rails in the worst way possible). It's a quick read and if a story doesn't hit you in a page or two you miss nothing by hopping to the next one.
And the more I thought about it the more I changed my mind. The story Rachmaninov is so bad and so disgusting that it invalidates everything else this book tries to do.