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A review by danni_faith
Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujila
5.0
This translation is spectacular! This novel is a triumph of language, sound, and movement. He captures exquisitely the overwhelmingness of living in a city; it's dirty, hopeless, fun, exhilarating, and holds all the lives and ambition of the tourists, residents, random passersby, criminals, politicians, lovers, and enemies.
I cannot recommend this novel/jazz album/political poetry slam piece enough.
9/15/19
How do you write about a country? Do you focus on a single character? A cast of characters? A family? Do you tell a multigenerational story? Fiston Mwanza Mujila decides to focus on the background, the goings-on around his characters in the foreground of this slim novel. Tran 83 is a bombardment of language. As language is largely representational, we are thus plunged into the actions of so many residents of the City-State as they scrape against, manipulation, influence, and subvert the actions of those in the foreground, Lucien and Requiem. Through this, we are treated to a deeper understanding of the characters by assault of the environment in which their ambitions, sorrow, triumphs, schemes, revelations, and turning points happen.
I think many readers deem this a plotless novel because they assume that the main characters are Requiem and Lucien. Tram 83, the bar, is the main character and acts as a microcosm of the City-State, which is separate from the Back-Country. We see the lives of men and women from all walks of life as they struggle to inhabit fully all of life in a place that is not shaped by history but whose history is constantly playing out.
I cannot recommend this novel/jazz album/political poetry slam piece enough.
9/15/19
How do you write about a country? Do you focus on a single character? A cast of characters? A family? Do you tell a multigenerational story? Fiston Mwanza Mujila decides to focus on the background, the goings-on around his characters in the foreground of this slim novel. Tran 83 is a bombardment of language. As language is largely representational, we are thus plunged into the actions of so many residents of the City-State as they scrape against, manipulation, influence, and subvert the actions of those in the foreground, Lucien and Requiem. Through this, we are treated to a deeper understanding of the characters by assault of the environment in which their ambitions, sorrow, triumphs, schemes, revelations, and turning points happen.
I think many readers deem this a plotless novel because they assume that the main characters are Requiem and Lucien. Tram 83, the bar, is the main character and acts as a microcosm of the City-State, which is separate from the Back-Country. We see the lives of men and women from all walks of life as they struggle to inhabit fully all of life in a place that is not shaped by history but whose history is constantly playing out.