Review by New York Times Review
ONE OF THE most remarkable literary developments of the past decade has been the more or less simultaneous eruption onto the world stage, after a long fallow period, of nearly a dozen popular new novelists from Africa. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, NoViolet Bulawayo, Teju Cole, Alain Mabanckou and Dinaw Mengestu are all young African writers who have worked in America. Many teach at or are graduates of creative writing schools, institutions that are sometimes scorned for being literary factories. Yet these writers' voices, anything but undistinguished, are as distinct as the African countries they come from, whether Nigeria in the west, Zimbabwe in the south or Ethiopia in the east. And the flood shows no sign of slowing. Last fall, a first novel by a 33-year-old Cameroonian, Imbolo Mbue, reportedly sold at the Frankfurt Book Fair for a million dollars. That book, "The Longings of Jende Jonga," will not be published before 2016. Meanwhile, this year's most promising African newcomer may well prove to be Chigozie Obioma. An Ibo, like Nigeria's best-known novelist, Chinua Achebe, Obioma was born in southwestern Nigeria and has recently joined the faculty at the University of Nebraska. He is still in his 20s. "The Fishermen" is a biblical parable set in the 1990s, when Nigeria was under the military dictatorship of Gen. Sani Abacha. Nine-year-old Benjamin, the narrator, is the youngest of four brothers. His father is a progressive man who works for the Central Bank of Nigeria. Education and professional ambition, he believes, are the only antidotes to the canker of corruption that has spread into every corner of his country's life. Benjamin's father wants his children to "dip their hands into rivers, seas, oceans of this life and become successful: doctors, pilots, professors, lawyers." Instead, when their father is transferred to another town, leaving their mother in charge not only of the four boys and their baby sister but of a food stall in the local market, the boys do what boys everywhere do when they realize they're not supervised: They begin to play truant. Despite their mother's every effort, within three months their father's "long arm that often wielded the whip, the instrument of caution, snapped like a tired tree branch. Then we broke free." The brothers fight with rival boys, smash the neighbors' windows. And whenever possible they make for the Omi-Ala River, which runs through the town. Once pure, the Omi-Ala had supplied early settlers with fish and clean drinking water. As is true throughout Africa, the "Omi-Ala was once believed to be a god; people worshiped it." Now, like so much else in Nigeria, it is more like a sewer. Animal carcasses lie on its banks. The mutilated corpse of a woman has been found in the water, "her vital body parts dismembered." When the boys go there to fish, they catch more than they bargained for. Walking home one day, having hooked two big tilapia, they come upon a man asleep under a mango tree. "He was robed from head to foot in filth. As he rose spryly to stand, some of the filth rose with him, while some was left in patches on the ground. He had a fresh scar on his face just below his chin, and his back was caked with a dripping mess from some dead mango in a state of putrefaction." He is Abulu, a madman known both for his soothsaying and for his unsavory habit of masturbating in public. When Abulu begins shouting at the boys, he calls the eldest, Ikenna, by name, although he has never met him and doesn't know him. Ikenna, he prophesies, will die, killed by one of his own brothers. As the weight of the prophecy settles over the boys, Obioma intensifies his focus on the bad luck that afflicts their family. The boys' mother, unhinged by grief, has a nervous breakdown and is hospitalized. Their father, gaunt and gray-bearded, is seen visibly to crumple from the inside as his eminence as head of the family is compromised by his inability to protect those he loves. And then there are the brothers. If the prophecy is true, which of them will prove to be the murderer? Guilt, grief and lies bind the boys even while forcing them apart. The political implications of "The Fishermen" are obvious, though never overstated. Countries can take a wrong turn, Obioma suggests, just as people can. In six decades of independence, Nigeria has had no shortage of lies, soothsayers and madmen. And no shortage of troubles. As things fall apart and the family's center cannot hold, Obioma's readers will begin to recall another work of fiction from Africa, a book that, after more than half a century, has never been out of print. In his exploration of the mysterious and the murderous, of the terrors that can take hold of the human mind, of the colors of life in Africa, with its vibrant fabrics and its trees laden with fruit, and most of all in his ability to create dramatic tension in this most human of African stories, Chigozie Obioma truly is the heir to Chinua Achebe. A madman prophesies that the family's eldest son will die, killed by one of his brothers. FIAMMETTA ROCCO is books and arts editor of The Economist.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [April 19, 2015]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Seamlessly interweaving the everyday and the elemental, Obioma's strange, imaginative debut-the translation rights to which have been sold in 12 countries-probes the nature of belief and the power of family bonds. Set in 1990s Nigeria, it is narrated by Benjamin Agwu, who is nine when his father departs for a distant banking job, leaving his wife and six children behind in the village of Akure. Despite stern admonitions, the four oldest brothers soon test their mother's discipline. Their worst transgression is to fish in the Omi-Ala, a once-pure river that has become dirty and dangerous. There they encounter a mentally ill man named Abulu, who is locally believed to have powers of prophecy. Inexplicably, Abulu knows the eldest Agwu brother, Ikenna, by name. In a trance, he foretells the teenager's death in detail, adding that it will be at "the hands of a fisherman." Convinced that one of his brothers will kill him, Ikenna is enraged and destructive, isolating himself and throwing his home into chaos; ultimately, not just Ikenna but the whole family will be transformed by the power of Abulu's words. Obioma excels at juxtaposing sharp observation, rich images of the natural world, and motifs from biblical and tribal lore; his novel succeeds as a convincing modern narrative and as a majestic reimagining of timeless folklore. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
"My brothers and I became fishermen in January of 1996 after our father moved out of Akure, a town in the west of Nigeria, where we had lived together all our lives," explains nine-year-old Benjamin. With Father's strict daily oversight missing and Mother busy with their baby sister while running the family's food store in the local market, Benjamin and his three older brothers are freed of their patriarchally inscribed futures to become "doctors, pilots, professors, lawyers." Their destination of choice becomes the Omi-Ala-more sewer than the "pure river" it once was-over time spent at school, study, or home. One day, they meet the town's madman, who calls the eldest brother by name and predicts his death by fratricide, setting in motion a tragedy of Job-like proportions. Part biblical allegory, part contemporary political history, part family saga, Obioma's magnificent debut is performed with energy and pathos by Nigerian British actor Chukwudi Iwuji. Moving seamlessly from clipped to lyrical, Iwuji's thoughtful narration imbues Obioma's text with humor, perception, and profundity. VERDICT An ideal acquisition for literary fiction collections everywhere. ["Made vivid by the well-rendered specifics, Obioma's quietly unfolding story of family tragedy gathers strength as its cycle of violence spins faster and faster": LJ 3/15/15 starred review of the Little, Brown hc.]-Terry Hong, -Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Life changes dramatically for Benjamin, the fourth of six children, when his father, Eme, is transferred to the town of Yola by his employer, leaving his mother to raise him and his siblings back home in Akure, Nigeria in the 1990s.Adrift without their father's presence, Benjamin and his elder brothers, Ikenna, Boja, and Obembe, find a sense of purpose in fishing at Omi-Ala, the local river, where they have been forbidden to go because it's too dangerous. When their disobedience is discovered and swiftly punished, Eme encourages his sons to study harder at school and become "fishermen of the mind" rather than "the kind that fish at a filthy swamp." Thus adjured, the boys agree to devote themselves to their education. But after local madman Abulu curses Ikenna and claims he will be murdered by his brothers, Ikenna begins to act outdisobeying their harried mother, running away, getting drunk, and beating up Boja. Desperate, their mother counts the days until their father will return home and straighten the boy out. But before Eme's arrival, Ikenna is found dead after his most vicious fight with Boja yet. The family is speedily forced to reckon with the violence that has torn them apart, and the joy of childhood which permeates Obioma's lively, energetic debut novel thus swiftly becomes shadowed with the disturbing ghosts of Cain and Abel. Although Benjamin's first-person narration distances the reader from the emotional states of other characters at key momentsespecially Benjamin's mother in the aftermath of so much lossthe talented Obioma exhibits a richly nuanced understanding of culture and character. A powerful, haunting tale of grief, healing, and sibling loyalty. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
