Review by Booklist Review
Written mostly in the 1960s and '70s, this volume of short stories from the prolific Kenyan writer and scholar Ngig) Wa Thiong'o (Wrestling with the Devil, 2018), published in the U.S. for the first time, traces the consequences of European colonialism in East Africa. In 15 tales that range from allegorical to comedic, Kenyans endure droughts and corrupt politicians, wrestle with new customs and religions, and flee their villages for better lives. A homely barmaid works various beer halls, desperately seeking the attention of her affluent patrons. An ambitious young man hides his plans to attend a university in Uganda from his aging father, a conservative preacher. During a lengthy drought, an aging priest struggles to convert his congregants to the new God after a pagan rainmaker seems to have summoned a thunderstorm. A hypocritical priest is called out in the confession booth, sending him on a mad adventure to identify the boy whose ghostlike presence torments him. And a longtime servant working for English settlers considers killing his master in the wake of a murder that has the snobbish colonists on edge. Subversive and insightful, this masterful, long-overdue, yet timely collection introduces Ngig) Wa Thiong'o's fiction to American readers.--Jonathan Fullmer Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Thiong'o's outstanding collection (following Wrestling with the Devil: A Prison Memoir), set over decades in Kenya, follows a range of characters: mothers and children, fighters and martyrs, secret lives and shadows and priests. "And the Rain Came Down!" is about Nyokabi, a childless woman who isn't able to have relationships with mothers due to her overwhelming jealousy. One evening, in a storm, she finds a lost child and brings him home, intending to keep him. In "The Martyr," Mrs. Hill and her European settler neighbors are shocked to learn about a Caucasian couple who were murdered in their home. Mrs. Hill, who owns a tea plantation, considers herself to be a woman who trusts her servants, but nevertheless feels unsettled. Meanwhile, Njoroge, her servant, dislikes Mrs. Hill (she flaunts her kindness, and he's been on the land longer than her) and believes that she does too much for the help, yet he finds that he has misguided loyalty. "Minutes of Glory," follows Beatrice, who scrapes by working in bars. She meets a fellow outcast and they become involved, yet a criminal act changes their trajectories. Thiong'o weaves together disparate stories of people attempting to deal with change in their lives, either chosen or forced upon them, showing his understanding of human nature, its frequent resistance to change, and its ability to surprise. This is a masterful collection. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Early short stories by one of Africa's most esteemed fiction writers.Long resident in the United States, where he is now Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine, Kenya-born Ngugi (Wizard of the Crow, 2006, etc.) began his writing career while still a university student in British-ruled Uganda. The pensive story that opens this collection, "Mugumo," dates to 1960, describing a woman on the run, goingwell, somewhere, anywhere "to get away from the hearth, the courtyard, the huts and the people, away from everything that reminded her of Muhoroini Ridge and its inhabitants." Her husband has abused her, his other wives are jealous of her, and she is childless, all good reason to flee. But then the rains come, the night fills with ghosts, and she has a life-changing dream that causes her to turn back. To that original story, Ngugi adds two later sections in which a time of rain and flood becomes a time of drought and famine, in which, many years later, the consequences of her choice become clear. Against a backdrop of late British colonialism and the earliest years of independence for Kenya, Ngugi writes of characters whose dreams are too often crushed: A young medical student kills himself after failing an exam, freeing himself from what would appear to have been a curse that renders his intelligence and good looks meaningless; a stern white woman, "having no opinions of her own about anything," concludes that the Africans around her are "inscrutable," rationalizing homicide; a churchgoer becomes a church elder and a respected leader only to be thwarted at the altar. Though these stories lack the psychological depth of Ngugi's later work, they point toward it as well as giving a valuable literary view of African lives in a pivotal, turbulent era.Of great interest to Ngugi's many readers as well as students of contemporary African literature and the literature of colonialism and post-colonialism. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
