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A review by variousfictions
Seesaw by Timothy Ogene
4.0
While working in a post office in the fictional city of Port Jumbo, Nigeria, Frank Jasper's commercially unsuccessful book, amounting to a run of just 50 copies, is plucked from obscurity by a visiting American, who encourages him to enrol in the William Blake programme for Emerging Writers in Boston, MA. What unfolds is a kind of hybrid campus/road novel that pokes fun at, and seriously challenges, the stereotypes created within Western academia. Stereotypes that only help perpetuate a neat, singular story of a continent and its people, and an expectation for 'ethnic writers' to conform to Western ideals of what constitutes post-colonial literature.
Frank Jasper is awkward in his new surroundings, unable to fit in with his fellow enrolees, particularly Barongo Akello Kabumba who plays up his Africanness, much to Frank's annoyance. Feeling like a literary imposter and unwilling to carry out the role required of him, Frank abandons the idea of the programme altogether (ultimately being kicked off for non-performance) to seek out experiences of the real America — an irony not lost on the reader — when a chance discovery sends him on a journey West.
Overall Seesaw is an incredibly enjoyable book that had me laughing on occasions, and at all times caring about its protagonist during their period of dislocation, self-discovery and reflection. Timothy Ogene's debut is engaging, satirical, smart, and in the end something quite touching and beautiful. I'm intrigued to see what he comes up with next.
Frank Jasper is awkward in his new surroundings, unable to fit in with his fellow enrolees, particularly Barongo Akello Kabumba who plays up his Africanness, much to Frank's annoyance. Feeling like a literary imposter and unwilling to carry out the role required of him, Frank abandons the idea of the programme altogether (ultimately being kicked off for non-performance) to seek out experiences of the real America — an irony not lost on the reader — when a chance discovery sends him on a journey West.
Overall Seesaw is an incredibly enjoyable book that had me laughing on occasions, and at all times caring about its protagonist during their period of dislocation, self-discovery and reflection. Timothy Ogene's debut is engaging, satirical, smart, and in the end something quite touching and beautiful. I'm intrigued to see what he comes up with next.