Proverb Monday, #47

Proverb: Wonnim kuro bi mu a, wonka mu asεm
Meaning: If you don't know a town, you don't talk about its affairs
Context: Don't talk about something about which you are ignorant

No. 4380 in Bu me Bε by Peggy Appiah et al.

Mai Nasara, Winner of the Prestigious NLNG Prize

On October 10, 2011 at the Eko Hotels, an almost unknown writer, hiding under the pseudonym Mai Nasara, won the most prestigious award in Nigeria's literary calendar with his book The Missing Clock. In fact, the money attached to this award is better than most of the awards the literary world has to offer. At US$ 100,000 this prize is comparable to the Man Booker which offers the winner an astounding 50,000 Pounds; however, whereas the Booker is opened to all writers in the Commonwealth who have published a book in the awarding-year, the NLNG is awarded to a Nigerian author who has published a literary book that happen to fall within the category that the award will be going to for that year. Sounds complicated? I guess not. The award rotates amongst four literary groupings: Children Fiction (which was the awarding category in 2011), Poetry, Poetry and Drama.

From a list of 126 entries, a long shortlist comprising six authors were selected. This was further shortened to three consisting of Ayodele Olofintuade' Eno's Story, Chinyere Obi-Obasi's The Great Fall and Mai Nasara's The Missing Clock, the winning story. The expectation was high as it is with every money-laden award. And like most awards, the Booker being a recent example, the NLNG has its own controversies like there not being any winner in the previous year because the judges deemed the shortlisted books not good enough. That year the award was to go to poetry.

However, last year's episode was not repeated, at least not for literature (there was no Science winner this year). In fact, the quality this year was so high that had any of the other two shortlisted writers won, there would have been no grumblings or murmurings from the any side and no organisation would have jumped in to protest on 'dumbing down' the award or threatened to form another literature prize. Officials of the awards described The Missing Clock as

a genial heart-warming account of how a young boy's simple acts inspires his family to fortune.

The Chairman of the Panel of Judges,  Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, a professor of English at the University of Lagos and past co-winner of the prize said

The Missing Clock celebrates ingenuity, hard work and sparkles in its prose

describing the author as 'a gifted story teller'. According to a pleasantly surprised Adeleke Adeyemi, his real name, who had entered the competition with sheer hope and conviction that he finally had to turn something in for assessment: 

My plan has always been to use this story, which is timely, to help children grow as human beings. This is why money is not my motivation. In fact, 10% of all proceeds from sales of the book will be used to fight malaria and promote girl-child education, especially in Northern Nigeria.

More information here.

October in Review, Projections for November

This review has delayed. October was a good reading month though I couldn't settle on the books when I made my projections; however, I couldn't read one of the two books I decided to read, To Kill a Mockingbird. The following books were read:

• The Book of Not by Tsitsi Dangarembga. I started this book in September but the chunk of it was read in October. It is a sequel to her earlier novel Nervous Conditions. In this book, we see how hopes were dashed and aspirations squashed. We see how a nation's struggle towards independence destroyed another.
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. This book was read for my Top 100 Books Reading Challenge, a challenge which I'm far behind and which I'll be putting in much effort in the month of December all through to 2012. The story is about Holden Caufield and his teenage angst. Whether he is right to think so or he is suffering from teenage delusion, one thing is clear: he made statements that are true. The older we get the more sycophant we become with the fear of not interfering into people's affairs or leaving things up to them to solve themselves. Caufield hated people who aren't true to themselves and discovered that the world is full of them.
• The Trouble with Nigeria by Chinua Achebe. I try to read at least one non-fiction book a day. This short book is a collection of articles/essays describing the root cause of the problem Nigerian is facing. According to the author poor leadership and misplaced/displaced values are the major causes of Nigeria's problem. This book was read for BAND.
• Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Ayikwei Parkes. This book was read for the Ghana Literature Week to be organised by Kinna from November 14 -20, 2011. I am therefore not going to say anything on this.

On the Caine Prize 2011 Shortlist, I read:

• What Molly Knew by Tim Keegan
• In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata by Laurie Kubuitsile

From November 14 - 20, 2011, Kinna is organising the 2nd Ghana Literature Week. Thus most of my reading in this month will centre on Ghanaian authors. Currently, I am reading The Other Crucifix by Benjamin Kwakye. I plan to read Kunadu Sumprim's The Imported Ghanaian and her second book A Place of Beautiful Nonsense. However, I will still be reading a non-African authored book and a non-fiction. For the non-African authored book, the plan is to read To Kill a Mockingbird and for the non-fiction, I plan reading Kofi Akpabli's Tickling the Ghanaian.

Follow me on twitter, facebook and on this blog for updates on my reading journeys. Comments are welcome and discussions too. My new job keeps me busy but I'll try as much as possible to respond to every comment and show appreciation to all those who do.

116. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach (2007; 166) - read for the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge - seems to continue from where Thomas Hardy left off with the story of Jude and Sue in Jude the Obscure. In this story, McEwan investigates the changes that was taking place in early 1960s: social, political and economic changes. 

Using the story of Florence and Edward, McEwan writes of how the early 1960s served as the turning point in the century. During this period, the British Empire has started shrinking, with several colonists becoming independent. There was also a change in the landscape with a somewhat rapid urbanisation of rural and peri-urban areas. However, the major change that McEwan concentrated upon is the change in relationships or the idea of what marriage is or should be, the major theme in Hardy's story. He toes Hardy's course, though Florence was much stronger than Sue and Edward more foolish than Jude, for Jude made compelling arguments similar, in content, to Florence's spontaneous speech on the beach. During this period, homosexuals have started living together, though they might not have started pressing home their rights. Perhaps. 

The young man Edward had married Florence and at the night of their honeymoon, for that's the major setting of the story - that one night, they both discovered that they were novices, in the act of marital consummation - sex. Both were virgins. But Edward, in addition, had married Florence for the wrong reasons. All along, he had withheld or controlled his sexual urge for this one night. Florence on the other hand, loves Edward dearly; but not sexually. Yet, because of her love for him and his expectations of her, she had gone ahead to read books on sex, prior to this evening. Yet, on the very night, she found herself to be more clumsy, incapable, and unprepared than she thought she would be. And when she decided to be bold and lead Edward to her sex, all that they had built or overcome - the years of waiting, the hours of apprehension, the fear of failure - crashed upon them. Edward, unable to control himself, had let out his seed on her. And Florence, disgusted, shamed, and absolutely unprepared by this, instantly realised that this is not the love she was looking for. This is not what she called love.

Running from the room and onto the beach, Florence felt in between thoughts: she wanted to leave; but she loved Edward. However, she found that her solace was in her career, in her musical quartet, the 'Ennismore Quartet', when her fingers are moving, when she's recreating or replaying Beethoven, Mozart or Schubert. She wanted to do more with her life. Something wonderful. But Edward followed her onto the beach. He felt cheated, he felt humiliated and words were exchanged. After the cry of a blackbird, which Florence thought was a nightingale and Edward - a historian with a special skill of knowing the names of several birds, plants and flowers - corrected her, they parted. The significance of the blackbird's cry is prominent: why wasn't it a Nightingale singing a song of cares and love (Florence Nightingale?) but a blackbird (doom?). Yet, at its cry, Florence broke out of the societal cocoon with which she was entwining herself. She broke out toward independence, toward freedom, toward her career. And Edward, to whom sex was everything, descended into decadence. The history books he dreamt of writing, remained unwritten. In fact, on Chesil Beach, Florence had come up with an idea that would have benefitted both had Edward not been too infantile in his actions, too silent in his arrogance and too quick with his speech. She says

We love each other - that's given. Neither of us doubts it. We're free now to make our own choices, our own lives. Really, no one can tell us how to live. Free agents! And people live in all kinds of ways now, they can live by their own rules and standards without having to ask anyone else for permission. ... We could be together, live together, and if you wanted, really wanted, that's to say, whenever it happened, and of course it would happen, I would understand, more than that, I'd want it, I would because I want you to be happy and free. I'd never be jealous, as long as I knew that you loved me. [155]

But would or could Edward venture into the unknown? Could he break societal standards and norm? Could he follow his own path? The marriage was dissolved on the ground of non-consummation. And whereas Florence went on to achieve success with her musical career, producing album after album and playing at all the big places, receiving all the great reviews there were, failure beheld Edward, who at age sixty had fathered several children, lived with several women, and had another unsuccessful marriage behind him. With the exception of his balding head, there was nothing worthy, tangible or otherwise that he could show. Ending up living as a tenant in his father's house, Edward became a representation of failure and regret. In his regret, he made it a point to stay away from classical music; though he could not deny his love for Florence and her Classical Music. On the other hand, one could also observe that Edward's failure might not have stemmed from the fact that he divorced Florence, for that cannot stand to any objective and intellectual investigation. What might have caused his descent and failure is a mentality of subtle revenge; of trying to do or get whatever was withhold from him. Thus wanton search for sex took his mind away from the very things he set out to do. Again, he tried to go counter to everything Florence stood for, thus dabbling in the rock music industry, and achieving no measurable success.

McEwan by this very book, shortlisted for the 2007 Booker Prize, provided the nascent stages of the many mini-revolutions that have changed our world in the past half century and which we have now been taken for granted. Another issue that was hinted at, only, was the breakdown of religious fanaticism and the ontogeny of atheism or a thread back to the Age of Reason; however, this was not fully fleshed out.

This is my first reading of McEwan's body of work and I enjoyed it very much. Consequently, I will go ahead to read the other four on my reading challenge. 

Proverb Monday, #46

Proverb: Akokɔhwede da Firaw ho nso ɔdware mfuturo
Meaning: The francolin lives near the Volta River, yet it bathes in the sand.
Context: You may have plenty of something and yet not choose to use.

No. 3324 in Bu me Bε by Peggy Appiah et al.

Call for entries: Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize

The Commonwealth Foundation has made the call for entries for the new Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize. The prizes are part of a new initiative, Commonwealth Writers, an online hub to inspire, inform and create a community of writers from all over the world. Together with the prizes, Commonwealth Writers unearths, develops and promotes the best new fiction from across the Commonwealth. Awarded for best first book, the Commonwealth Book Prize is open to writers who have had their first novel (full length work of fiction) published between 1 January and 31 December 2011. Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £10,000. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2000-5000 words). Regional winners receive £1,000 and the overall winner receives £5,000. The winners will be announced in June 2012.

Chair of the Commonwealth Book Prize, Margaret Busby said “The significance of a prize such as this becomes greater with each year. It is vital to encourage and celebrate the talent of newly emerging novelists whose words have the potential to inspire and enrich the entire literary world. Searching out and promoting the best first books of fiction internationally is a serious task, a great honour and a wonderful challenge.”

Chair of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Bernardine Evaristo said “This wonderful prize will turn the spotlight on the increasingly popular short story form and aims to support and encourage short story writers worldwide.”

As one of the Commonwealth Foundation’s culture programmes, Commonwealth Writers works in partnership with international literary organisations, the wider cultural industries and civil society to help writers develop their craft. Commonwealth Writers is a forum where members can debate the future of publishing, get advice from established authors and ask questions of our writer in residence.

Commonwealth Foundation Director, Danny Sriskandarajah said “As one of the Commonwealth Foundation’s flagship projects, I’m delighted that we’re putting the prizes firmly on the contemporary map of new writing and launching a dedicated Commonwealth Writers website to extend our global reach.”

More information here.

Quotes for Friday from Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Weep Not, Child

My third reading of this book was for a Book Club discussion. The review here was written thirteen years after my last reading in 1998. Thus, I don't know whether I should review it again, now that the story is fresh in my mind or I should leave it just as it is. However, enjoy the quotes that came to me:

...[T]ime and bad conditions do not favour beauty. [3]

'Don't worry about me. Everything will be all right. Get education, I'll get carpentry. Then we shall, in the future, be able to have a new and better home for the whole family.' [4]

A fool, in the town's vocabulary, meant a man who had a wife who would not let him leave her lap even for a second. [9]

'Blackness is not all that makes a man,' Kamau said bitterly. 'There are some people, be they black or white, who don't want others to rise above them. They want to be the source of all knowledge and share it piecemeal to others less endowed. ... A rich man does not want others to get rich because he wants to be the only man with wealth.' [21]

'... A white man is a white man. But a black man trying to be white man is bad and rash.' [21]

[A] mother's silence is the worst form of punishment for it is left to one's imagination to conjure up what is in her mind. [35]

Education was good only because it would lead to the recovery of the lost lands. [39]

'... All white people stick together. But we black people are very divided. ...' [75]

'... Besides do you really think you'll be safer at home? I tell you there's no safety anywhere. There's no hiding in this naked land.' [83]

Yes. Sunshine always follows a dark night. We sleep knowing and trusting that the sun will rise tomorrow. [95]

'... Unless you kill, you'll be killed. So you go on killing and destroying. It's a law of nature. ...' [102]

______________

Read my review here

115. In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata by Lauri Kubuitsile

In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata first published as part of the The Bed Book of Short Stories  by Modjaji Books SA in 2010 was shortlisted for the 12th Caine Prize for African Short Stories in 2011. It is also part of the Caine Prize anthology for 2011, To See the Mountain and other stories.

When alive McPhineas Lata was a lover of married women. He was an expert in making women happy, sexually. In fact, he died having sex with another woman. This makes the husbands in the village of Nokanyana an angry and bitter lot. They were therefore glad that he was dead. Consequently, whereas the women were

full of dramatic fainting and howls of grief echoing as far as the Ditlhako Hills

the men were so much so happy that some carried their own shovels to the cemetery and when the time came to cover up the body, it was carried out in record time. But another problem remained

a dead and buried McPhineas Lata didn't mean dead and buried McPhineas Lata memories. [emphasis not mine]

Every morning, the men see their women running to and humping the grave of McPhineas. Worried by this sight, they set out to investigate what made this dead man famous with their wives. They grilled Lata's friend: Bongo and Cliff but found nothing worthy of experimentation and subsequent use. The men of the village therefore set out to find it out for themselves. Each one was given a task to experiment on his wife and come out with the results for discussion during their meeting.

In the course of these investigations we found that the men had lost all that they used to do. Others were also clumsy and know of nothing, infuriating the women even more. But RraTebogo found something. He discovered that rubbing his wife's shoulder for three minutes followed by four strokes on the right worked on her. This he shared with his fellow men who also practised it on their wives.

With time and more learning and experimenting, visible changes were seen amongst the women. Less and less of them were trooping to McPhineas' grave. The women began speculating of McPhineas' ghosts inhibiting the bodies of their husbands. For there was no other means of explaining why all their husbands should change overnight; and all loving them in similar ways.

'He's here ... with us. I knew he couldn't just leave like that. McPhineas Lata has taken up the bodies of our husbands. He has taken spiritual possession of the husbands of Nokanyana.

Henceforth, both men and women live in anticipation of night to explore their new discoveries in between the sheets.

Written in a folktale-like narrative, In the Spirit of McPhineas tells the gradual decline in sexual life that beset marriages. In a convoluted way, Lauri advises men to be sexual explorers, to not relent on that which they used to do when they were young men. Reading this story after McEwan's On Chesil Beach (to be reviewed soon), I was surprised of the stark similarities and differences. The differences lie in the place of sex in marriage and the similarities, in the vindication of women and the freedom to pursue whatever they want. For this novel, written in a tone similar in refinedness as any of Mia Couto's short stories, requires the suspension of belief to appreciate. On the other hand, Lauri might also be testing the pulse of feminine adultery, though this direction of exploration did not go farther enough for any reaction or conclusion to be made.

In the Spirit of McPhineas, like Soulmates by Alex Smith is a different kind of short story. But having not read all the short stories in this shortlist I am not sure if this would be my favourite, though I must say I appreciated this very much. The story could be downloaded here.
_______________________

Brief Bio: Lauri Kubuitsile is a full time writer from Botswana. She has thirteen published works of fiction. She has also written two television series for Botswana Television and her short stories have been published in anthologies and literary magazines around the world. She has won numerous writing prizes including the Golden Baobab Prize junior category (2008/2009) and senior category in 2010, the BTA/AngloPlatinum Short Story Contest (South Africa- 2007) and the Botswana Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture’s Orange Botswerere Prize for Creative Writing (2007). She was recently chosen to be a writer in residence in El Gouna Egypt for the month of May 2010. She blogs at ‘Thoughts from Botswana’. (Source)

114. The Trouble with Nigeria by Chinua Achebe

Title: The Trouble with Nigeria

Author: Chinua Achebe

Genre: Non-Fiction/Socio-Political Articles

Publishers: Heinemann

Pages: 68

Year of First Publication: 1983

Country: Nigeria

Read for Amy's BAND

The Trouble with Nigeria is a book of frustration of what could be termed as the Nigerian (African) Condition. In this book, Chinua Achebe spelt out, without playing around with proverbs, aphorisms, and such  curlicued manner of speech, the reasons why Nigeria, and perhaps most African countries, are facing such ginormous and seemingly unsurmountable developmental challenges. In 'Where the Problem Lies', the author specifically identified and attributed the problem. He writes 

the problem with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. the Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership. [1]

And what more could be said. In most homes in Ghana, the contents of this little book have been discussed by people who are not even aware of its existence. Thus, it could be deduced that the problems facing most developing countries are similar and intersecting.

Tribalism, illusion, indiscipline, corruption, and others were identified and discussed as the major problems facing or hindering the development of one of Africa's most populous country. Using succinct examples Achebe explains why tribalism leads to inefficiency, most especially when tribal people are hired for a position instead of competent and efficient people. Being modest of oneself is another problem the author identified. Here, Achebe seems to be proposing a complete behavourial change, advocating less talk and more work; he seems to prefer some form of conservatism whilst delivering on them than having inconceivable optimism and fantastical imaginations and doing nothing. The author describes it best:

One of the commonest manifestations of under-development is a tendency among the ruling elite to live in a world of make-believe and unrealistic expectations. This is the cargo cult mentality that anthropologists sometimes speak about - a belief by backward people that someday, without any exertion whatsoever on their own part, a fairy ship will dock in their harbour laden with every goody they have always dreamed of possessing. [9]

In 'Leadership, Nigerian-Style' Achebe compared statements from the biographies of two of Nigeria's veteran politicians: Dr. Azikiwe and Chief Awolowo. The underlying idea of both statements is the aggressive and wanton acquisition of unimaginable and superfluous wealth. This, according to Achebe, shows an

absence of intellectual rigour .. [11]

and a

tendency to pious materialistic wooolliness and self-centred pedestrianism [11]

Which produces not selfless leaders but leaders hunched with corruption. And this, Achebe continues (quoting James Booth), shows 'a poverty of thought ... [that] is in contrast to the expressions of ideology to be found even in the more informal works of Mboya, Nyere and Nkrumah!' 

This 'absence of objectivity and intellectual rigour' was even present at the nation's formation, Achebe argues, when the founding fathers chose On Unity and Faith as the new Nation's motto; concepts which are not absolute in themselves but 'conditional on their satisfaction of other purposes'. Achebe argued that such vague non-absolute concepts like Unity and Faith must be questioned: Unity to do what? And faith in what? He questioned why they never chose such absolute concepts such as Justice and Honesty which can not 'easily be directed to undesirable end'.

Even concepts such as 'patriotism' is questioned. He writes

Spurious patriotism is one of the hallmarks of Nigeria's privileged classes whose generally unearned positions of sudden power and wealth must seem unreal even to themselves. To lay the ghost of their insecurity they talk patriotically. [16]

Several issues germane to the development of a country are discussed in this book. He mentions the issue of traffic and the way and manner in which road-users break all the rules. Such is the rampancy of their acts that to be seen to be doing the right thing, such as being in your lane rather than follow those using unauthorised routes, is tantamount to being folly, a stranger, or a combination of these. And this he attributed to egoism; each person thinking of his own self interest at the expense of the others. At the waiting-lot, the one who comes late thinks he is the only one in a hurry and therefore would push all others to get onto the car, when it arrives. The most indiscipline of them all are the leaders, who think that they are above the law and the people, behaving like the animals in that Orwellian novel. They seek preferentially treatment anywhere they go. Even in traffic, they move when the traffic shows red and dare that policeman who tries to arrest him. By their act, they give stamp and legalise illegalities, authorising the citizens to follow suit.

The most revealing topic of all is the chapter on corruption. In this chapter, Achebe presented graphic details of the amount of money that are siphoned from the system in the form of plain theft by politicians, inflated contract figures, salary payment to ghost-workers, and more. He demonstrates, comparatively, what it amounts to and what edifices that could have been built with such resources. Such was his frustration that when the then Nigerian president Shehu Shagari said that corruption in Nigeria has not as yet 'reached alarming proportions', Achebe responded:

My frank and honest opinion is that anybody who can say that corruption in Nigeria has not yet become alarming is either a fool, a crook or else does not live in this country. [37]

In just over sixty pages Achebe defined and showed what he thinks is the trouble with Nigeria, but which has become trouble with Africa. This is a book that's worth the read by all who want to cause changes and lead this continent to achieve its potential.

Having not read this book, I wrote an article on this blog on July 07, 2009, that the reader might also be interested. I titled it Facing our Demons, where I discuss the major problems facing us as a country, Ghana. And I was shocked to see the overlapping causes.

______________

Brief Bio: Read here

ImageNation Rating: 4.0/6.0

Proverb Monday, #45

Proverb: Akɔdaa hunu ne nsa hohoro a, ɔne mpninfoɔ didi.
Meaning: If a child knows how to wash his hands, he eats with the elders.
Context: If you act responsibly, you will share privileges.

No. 3208 in Bu me Bε by Peggy Appiah et al.

113. What Molly Knew by Tim Keegan

Tim Keegan's What Molly Knew was shortlisted for the 12th Caine Prize for African Writing Prize in 2011. It was part of the crime anthology 'Bad Company' published by Pan Macmillan SA in 2008. It has also been included in the Caine Prize for African Writing 2011 anthology To See the Mountain and other stories.

What Molly Knew is a story that is difficult to define. It's is a crime story but not as we know the whodunit genre to be. Here the crime is not solved and the victim or the individual who stands to gain from exposing or getting the murder solved destroyed the only evidence involved; and the investigative part too is not shown. It is, however, a typical story whose plot could be predicted to a large extent once the characters and their associations or relationships with each other are known.

Molly's is currently married to Rollo, after the death of her husband. Molly's daughter Sarah sees the step-father as an intruder, or so Molly thinks. Then came along Tommie Nobrega, a psychologist into the Retiefs' household, who married Sarah against the wishes of Molly and to some extent Rollo. From there on the relationship between mother and daughter became strained.

Molly also suffers from domestic abuse and has chosen to remain with her abuser because of fear of becoming financially destitute. Molly seems to support the husband ahead of the daughter even though the husband isn't perfect and does things to her. She seems not have listened to her daughter or inquired about her problems and what was happening when Sarah was living with them. She defined all of Sarah's abhorrence of Rollo, the 'gulf of misunderstanding and mistrust, charge and recrimination', that existed between she and Sarah as a resentment of the 'speed with which her mother remarried'.

Alright, Rollos wasn't perfect: he drank too much; he stayed out at night playing darts at Wally's Bar in Koeberg Road; he'd visited prostitutes in his time, had girlfriends. And he had a temper, used his fists when he was boozed up, used foul language. The neighbours sometimes called the police in. But what was she supposed to do? Move out and starve? Go and live in a shelter? At her age?

And this is from Molly's perspectives.

Then Sarah died. Shot through her head, from behind. And Molly pointed accusing fingers at Tommie, Sarah's husband. It could only be Tommie, who else had access to the third floor? And who separated her from her daughter? Besides, Tommie is not from the country. He's a Mozambican. He is also a cross between black and white parents, but leaned more toward black than white. He also always wore ANC shirts. Above all he's a psychologists who knows how to convince people. But Inspector Duvenage has no concrete evidence to work with. Not a single mark to begin investigation as Tommie has been keeping to his script and the neighbours, though collaborative, haven't provided any clue yet.

But Molly was to find an envelope addressed to Rollo Retief under a pile of decomposing mowed grass. In this envelope is a letter, written two days before Sarah's murder, addressing Rollo. The letter warns Rollo to confess what she did to Sarah when she was young. It also threatens or mentions a confrontation in the presence of Molly, so that she - Molly - would know what he did to her. And finally, Rollo should ask for forgiveness so that Sarah would be free. With this piece of evidence found, one would have thought that the case will be solved or that it will lead to it and Molly would become free of oppression and abuse. But Molly destroyed it. All through the story, we see that Sarah had something to tell Molly but Molly was not listening. She preferred to lose a daughter than a means of sustenance.

What Molly Knew is a story that makes you question the reasons behind certain actions. Was Molly justified in choosing herself over her daughter? Was she justified in living under the complete control of a husband who, not only dictates to her, but also abuse her consistently? And why didn't she walk out finally when she found the evidence that will link her husband to the crime? And since her daughter was a nurse, financial concern alone could not be the reason. The reason could be that Molly, herself, might be suffering from a psychological problem that has transformed the fear she had for her husband to absolute reverence. Besides, from Rollo's conversations with Molly it was pretty clear that he considered Sarah a hindrance and her death, a good riddance. Here I am reminded of a Dean Koontz's book I read, False Memory, where the characters, under psychological control, worked against themselves. 

I found it difficult to connect to any particular character in the story. Both viewpoints from which the story is told did not give much insight into what was unfurling. The sad thing with Molly's behaviour and thought-trends is that they are real and present in most women's life. Initially, she was pitiful but all sense of sympathy fizzled out when the reason for tolerating Rollo's abusive behaviour was exposed. Inspector Duvenage was no where near solving the case and had no clue. We only get to know what he feels about such cases as Sarah's death and that was all. Molly, around whom the majority of the story revolved was dull and almost stupid in behaviour. I almost felt like pushing her to act.  For those interested in the Caine Prize shortlisted stories, the story could be downloaded here.

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Brief Bio: Tim Keegan was born in Cape Town in 1952. He matriculated at Bishops and then majored in history at the University of Cape Town. He obtained his PhD in African History from the University of London. After living and working in the UK and America he spent five years in the African Studies Institute at Wits University before going to the History Department at the University of the Western Cape. In the mid-nineties he left his post as an associate professor there to continue research and writing. He has published a long list of articles and reviews in academic journals and many chapters in academic publications. Around 2002 he began writing fiction, not very seriously at first, but with increasing enthusiasm and commitment. (Source)

ImageNations Rating: 4.0/6.0

Quotes for Friday from J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye

Anyway, it was December and all, and it was as cold as a witch's teat, especially the top of that stupid hill. [4]

Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules. [8]

Almost every time somebody gives me a present, it ends up making me sad. [52]

That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. [73]

I think I really like it best when you can kid the pants off a girl when the opportunity arises, but it's a funny thing. The girls I like best are the ones I never feel much like kidding. Sometimes I think they'd like it if you kidded them - in fact, I know they would - but it's hard to get started, once you've known them a pretty long time and never kidded them. [78]

He's so good he's almost corny, in fact. I don't exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it. [80]

New York's terrible when somebody laughs on the street very late at night. You can hear it for miles. [81]

'If you was a fish, Mother Nature'd take care of you, wouldn't she? Right? You don't think them fish just die when it gets to be winter, do ya?
'No, but - '
'You're goddam right they don't,"... [83]

I swear to God, if I were a piano player or an actor or something and all those dopes thought I was terrific, I'd hate it. I wouldn't even want them to clap for me. People always clap for the wrong things. [84]

Take the Disciples, for instance. They annoy the hell out of me, if you want to know the truth. They were all right after Jesus was dead and all, but while He was alive, they were about as much use to Him as a hole in the head. All they did was keep letting him down. [99]

Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell. [113]

... I hate actors. They never act like people. They just think they do. Some of the good ones do, in a very slight way, but not in a way that's fun to watch. And if any actor's really good, you can always tell he knows he's good, and that spoils it. [117]

If you do something too good, then, after a while, if you don't watch it, you start showing off. And then you're not good any more. [126]

And I have one of these very loud, stupid laughs. I mean if I ever sat behind myself in a movie or something, I'd probably lean over and tell myself to please shut up. [134]

You take somebody that cries their goddam eyes out over phony stuff in the movies, and nine times out of ten they're mean bastards at heart. I'm not kidding. [140]

Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody. [155]

It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to. [157/8]

You can hit my father over the head with a chair and he won't wake up, but my mother, all you have to do to my mother is cough somewhere in Siberia and she'll hear you. She's nervous as hell. [158]

But what I mean is, lots of time you don't know what interests you most till you start talking about something that doesn't interest you most. [184]

The man falling isn't permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. [187]

The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one --Wilhelm Stekel [188]

But I do say that educated and scholarly men, if they're brilliant and creative to begin with - which, unfortunately, is rarely the case - tend to leave infinitely more valuable records behind them than men do who are merely brilliant and creative. They tend to express themselves more clearly, and they usually have a passion for following their thoughts through to the end. [189]

If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the "Fuck you" signs in the world. It's impossible. [202]

It's funny. Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody. [214]
________________
Read the review here

112. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Written in a conversational and informal tone, devoid of the refinedness that characterises first person narrative form, The Catcher in the Rye (1945; 214) is a book that explores human behaviours and relationships, and the falsities that have clouded our daily lives, making us impostors or phonies of our true selves.

It is this true self that Holden Caufield - a sixteen year old boy and son of a lawyer - sought after in a world of phonies, so that when people displayed outright deceit, refusing to be who they are or making others know what and how they are, he became physically affected. Caufield has just been thrown out of Pencey for flunking all his subjects. He had previously been thrown out of Whooton School and Elkton Hills for poor performance. But his parents, believing in the importance of education has always put him back into school whenever is thrown out. However, Holden Caufield's story is about his life told within the period of his journey from Pencey to his home in New York. In telling us this we get to know Caufield's foibles and dislikes; his intolerance of phoniness, of pretence, of lies and misrepresentation and therefore of the world as we have it now. And Caufield sees these phoniness everywhere and in everything. He sees it in an audience that clap for a not-so good pianist; he sees it in Jesus's disciples; he sees it in urban- or city-living; he sees it in too good actors; and needless to say, in school. So for instance he doesn't like actors because he believes they cannot act like people; those who are good are the worst because they know that they are good and that spoils everything.

I hate actors. They never act like people. They just think they do. Some of the good ones do, in a very slight way, but not in a way that's fun to watch. And if any actor's really good, you can always tell he knows he's good, and that spoils it. [117]

They didn't act like actors. It's hard to explain. They acted more like they knew they were celebrities and all. I mean they were good, but they were too good. When one of them got finished making a speech, the other one said something very fast right after it. It was supposed to be like people really talking and interrupting each other and all. The trouble was, it was too much like people talking and interrupting each other. [126]

And it could be said that, the author, not wanting to be a victim of his character's dislikes produced a conversational narrative form that mimics actual speech; for as I earlier said, it is devoid of any inverted sentences and elegance that pervades and characterises most writings. Here, we get to read all the slangs, swear-words, 'dirty' words, generalisations and exaggerations and the sexism that shaped Caufields speech and most of our speeches, a result of our environment. It is this narrative style that hooked me for it made the story flowed smoothly. 

Caufield considered that school and all will turn him into an adorer and worshipper of wealth, which he also found to be phoney. He speaks of moving out and finding a job that will provide him daily sustenance while living in cabins and all. Here he seems to be preferring the naturalness of pastoral living to the complexities and lies surrounding urban living.

Take most people, they are crazy about cars. They worry if they get a little scratch on them, they're always talking about how many miles they get to a gallon, and if they get a brand-new car already they start thinking about trading it in for one that's even newer. [130/1]

He sees school as a make-believe factory where everybody sort of tried to fit in by denying his true self and those who stick to their true self are labelled and rejected. He sees this as a predominantly male behaviour developed in their days in school where everybody pretends to care so much about something even when they do not give a dime. 

You ought to go to a boys' school sometime. Try it sometime. ... it's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques. [131]

He is also a guy who could not stand rules and dogma. For instance, he does not understand why his Oral Expression teacher does not want his students to digress in the telling of spontaneous stories. He argues that shouting Digression when a person deviates from his chosen story line is not the best because for most of the time 

you don't know what interests you ... till you start talking about something that doesn't interest you most. [184]

As Caufield is 'frightened and confused and sickened by human behaviour' he also sought help from people he believed he could trust, like Mr Antolini, his former teacher at Elkton Hills. And even though Mr. Antolini tried to define his problem and advise him on what to do he ended up complicating it with his own 'perverse' actions.

However, filled with generalisations and exaggerations, one does not know where Caufield's subjectivity ends and where his objectivity begins. For instance, Caufield is quick to use 'always', 'never' and such absolutes to generalise for the whole that which he had observed in just a person. His generalisation with women in most cases is also a sign of his age. But what one cannot take away from him is that he has a keen sense of understanding of his environment and how much people are never true to themselves. As Mr. Antolini rightly puts it, Caufield is

looking for something their own environment couldn't supply them with. Or they thought their own environment couldn't supply them with. [187]

Caufield's life is one we have all gone through before, albeit with different level of awareness and/or at different intensities. It is one that has destroyed many, those who couldn't adjust to what the system demands but still lost their footing and their direction, and has also turned others into genius, those who did not adjust but found their direction and their footing in the world. With time we forget their troubled lives and focus on their achievements, the latter I mean. This book is already a classic. I enjoyed it.

Julian Barnes, 2011 Man Booker Prize Winner

Julian Barnes has won the Man Booker Prize for 2011 with his book A Sense of Ending. It won from a shortlist of six including: Esi Edugyan's Half Blood Blues, Carlol Birch's Jamrach's Menagerie, Stephen Kelman's Pigeon English, which had a Ghanaian character named Opoku, AD Miller's Snowdrops and Patrick deWitt for Brothers Sisters.

Though there had been several debates surrounding the shortlist with some describing it as a "dumbing down" and others establishing a new literature prize to rival The Man Booker for what in their view is the Booker's "now prioritises a notion of 'readability' over artistic achievement", readers and followers of the award unanimously agreed on the winner.

About Julian Barnes: Julian Barnes is the author of ten previous novels, three books of short stories and three collections of journalism. Now 65, his work has been translated into more than thirty languages. In France he is the only writer to have won both the Prix Médicis (for Flaubert's Parrot) and the Prix Femina (for Talking it Over). He was awarded the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 2004 and the David Cohen Prize for Literature in 2011 for his lifetime achievement in literature. Julian Barnes has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize three times previously, for Arthur and George (2005), England, England (1998) and Flaubert's Parrot (1984). He lives in London

Read the full announcement here.

Better luck to Esi Edugyan who was keenly supported by ImageNations because of her Ghanaian roots and also because her book received great reviews. Besides, once a book has been shortlisted it can equally win.

Ghana Voices Series: Elizabeth-Irene Baitie, Guest Writer for October

This month, we will be featuring Elizabeth Irene-Baitie, author of the novel, “The Twelfth Heart”, which won the first prize in the Burt Award for African Literature (Ghana) in 2010.

Elizabeth-Irene Baitie is a Clinical Biochemist and runs a medical laboratory practice in Adabraka. She grew up in Ghana. She attended Achimota School, and has a degree in Biochemistry with Chemistry from the University of Ghana, Legon, as well as a postgraduate degree in Clinical Biochemistry from the University of Surrey in the UK.

In 2002, her novel, “Lea’s Christmas”, was short-listed for the Macmillan Writers Prize for Africa (Senior readers). Four years later, her children’s story, “A Saint in Brown Sandals”, won the Macmillan Prize for Africa (Junior readers). She has just finished another novel for young adult readers which will be published next year.

Elizabeth will be reading from her novel, “The Twelfth Heart”, which tells the story of fifteen year old Mercy, in boarding school for the first time. Mercy  knew the sort of friends she wanted to make — certainly no-one who would remind her of the small town she had left behind — poor, ugly or dull. How was she to know that the least likely of the girls in her boarding house would come to mean the most to them all?

This event offers the opportunity to listen to and interact with Elizabeth Irene-Baitie. There will be a short discussion session after the readings. Copies of the book will be on sale.

This programme is organised in collaboration with the Goethe Institute, Accra.

Date: Wednesday, 26th October Time 7:00pm – 8:00pm. Location: Goethe-Institute Accra, 30 Kakramadu Road, (next to NAFTI ), Cantonments, Accra. 

Admission is free.