"Despite all my efforts to block it out, the ordeal on the pier in Gorée, after our brief escape beyond the door to the voyage of no return, came back"Despite all my efforts to block it out, the ordeal on the pier in Gorée, after our brief escape beyond the door to the voyage of no return, came back to me intact. I realized then that painting and music have the power to reveal to ourselves our secret humanity. Through art, we can sometimes push open a hidden door leading to the darkest part of our being, as black as the depths of a prison cell. And, once that door is wide open, the corners of our soul are so brightly illuminated that our lies to ourselves no longer have an inch of shade in which they can take refuge, as if exposed to the African sun at its zenith." - page 238
This paragraph in the last pages of the last chapter make Diop's point he is illuminating a truth of history and human ethics. Diop's gothic narrative has similarities to Byatt, Roth and Eliot. Like those authors, he delves into the internal ethical dilemmas of characters while acknowledging the mystery of other people and their motivations. The setting is primarily 18th century Senegal, and he unflinchingly builds the plot around the intercontinental greed of colonial rule and slavery.
This slim novel requires careful reading and no one escapes unscathed. Late in the book, for example, hopeful characters ascribe emancipative ideals to Islam, by one, and Jesuits, by another. I snorted. He sets up characters to act out their ethics through their actions: what does it say about you if you name your horse after your mother? Can you make right your ancestor's wrongs? Does anyone want your guilt baubles? Can anyone actually see another individual?
PS - the publisher's review calls this a love story. Love of what exactly?...more
Written in the style of Raymond Chandler, it's framed as a hard-boiled detective novel where the detective is a minor muralist with no detective skillWritten in the style of Raymond Chandler, it's framed as a hard-boiled detective novel where the detective is a minor muralist with no detective skills. Instead his aesthetic abilities fill the pages, clearly intentionally by the author, with sufficient large stroke descriptions of scenes and enticing small details, to paint grand and heartbreaking murals in your imagination.
The author uses the first person style and main character to view the later part of the Great Depression with the eyes of a portraiturist: he keenly observes and analyzes the people around him, and, without lecturing, comments on society.
The writing is beautiful and engrossing in a clear and simple manner. It's an odyssey within an odyssey, the main character's story telling the earlier, central, story of the person he's seeking.
The Trackers has been reviewed as politicized, but I don't see it. I guess if you think describing desperation and surviving as things that shouldn't be is political, then it is.
One of the best books I've ever read. Elliot's voicing of the internal thoughts of 18th century women is entirely relevant today. Additionally the booOne of the best books I've ever read. Elliot's voicing of the internal thoughts of 18th century women is entirely relevant today. Additionally the book makes a parallel between the limitations this society places on women and on Jews, and gives space for fully formed, non-stereotypical treatment of both. ...more
If you love Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene and Patricia Highsmith, this modern story of a chance encounter between two old acquaintances and the pastIf you love Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene and Patricia Highsmith, this modern story of a chance encounter between two old acquaintances and the past that's shared is absolutely for you. The narrator is questionable all along, but after the end, you'll want to go back and re-read the entire thing to figure it out. Pithier than Donna Tartt and Amor Towles, but with the same capacity to build a world in your mind and with characters as complex, Antoine Wilson's book is 100% worth reading. ...more
One of the best books I've ever read. Not appropriate for children, it has lots of racy and also violent parts. But so good. It's as if a real writer,One of the best books I've ever read. Not appropriate for children, it has lots of racy and also violent parts. But so good. It's as if a real writer, someone who understood theme, foreshadowing, alliteration, character development and motivation wrote Game of Thrones. Don't get me wrong, I love Game of Thrones, but it is not beautiful literature. This is beautiful literature and it is adventure, alternative universe saga....more
This is the best book on what it's really like to work on a trading floor I've ever read. This is the best book on what it's really like to work on a trading floor I've ever read. ...more
I just re-read this and got so much more out of it the second time. The first time I read it I was mesmerized by the intersection of magic and banalitI just re-read this and got so much more out of it the second time. The first time I read it I was mesmerized by the intersection of magic and banality of Mr. Wind-Up Bird's life, and the overlay of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
The second time, the themes really stood out. The overarching theme of burying trauma and how it oozes out anyways. This is the theme of Mr. Honda and Lieutenant Mamiya's stories. Mr. Honda is the seer and the conduit for the expression of pain from the past. Lieutenant Miyama is the alive-but-dead: he suffers, survives and then lives without the ups and downs of emotional attachments, and is imperfect because he has no contentment in this life. Mr. Wind-up Bird travels from vague domestic discontent, to grief. and then on to compassion and empathy for the suffering of others, firstly strangers and then eventually his wife. He becomes so compassionate that he can psychically intercede and ease their suffering. But before he can do that he separate himself and thoughtfully meditate on the past to see things that are invisible to others.
This book is a hero's journey from discontent, to detachment, and eventually to develop resilience and empathy....more
Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy is one of the best books I've ever read in my entire life. It's a long book. But it is very engaging; I managed to read iVikram Seth's A Suitable Boy is one of the best books I've ever read in my entire life. It's a long book. But it is very engaging; I managed to read it in one stretch, with a break to sleep, while I awaited the movers to take me and my belongings across the country. To my chagrin I had completed it before my flight, and when it finished I didn't want the book to be over, I wanted to go back and re-read it from the beginning. It is one of the best books about life in India I've ever read, it is the anti-Kite Runner book. There is nothing trite or stereotyped about the characterization; it believably describes elements of society that are even oblique to people within the mainstream of modern Indian society; the plot is not simple, nor is it a convoluted mystery story.
Writing this up I think I should go get it and read it again. Like most of my favorite books I gave it away a long time ago....more
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