125. SHORT STORY MONDAY: Joshua Ferris and Jonathan Safran Foer

Officially, I am replacing Proverb Monday - after a year and 56 posts- with Short Story Monday hosted by The Book Mine Set. This is meant to monitor and motivate me to read the 100 short stories Kinna and I had set for ourselves. 

Today's set of stories are from The New Yorker June 14 & 21 2010. This Literary edition of the magazine features eight short stories from eight of magazines 20 under 40 lists. The forty includes some authors as Chimamanda Adichie, Jonathan Safran Foer, Nell Freudenberger, Phillip Meyer, John Ferris, ZZ Packer, Tea Obreht, C.E. Morgan, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum among others. I will be reviewing two of the eight short stories today. I will use this feature as an introduction to several authors I have never read before.

The Pilot by Joshua Ferris

Joshua Ferris's The Pilot is a story about a screenwriter recovering from alcoholism. Lawrence Himshell has tasted success before; however, excessive alcohol intake has seen him fall from grace, losing some friends and now shares an apartment with a workaholic musician. Whilst working on a TV series The Pilot which will see him hit top form just as Kate Lotvelt has done with her Death in the Family series he is also shooting commercials in cheap (or tax-friendly) studios. His anxiety is heightened and he becomes jittery when he receives an email from Kate, addressed to her ex-husband and blind-copied, inviting him to a party. After having responded to the message and receiving no response to his response, he began to think that perhaps it was a mistake and that he was not invited; that Kate had had a contact mishap and was not actually inviting him. His anxiety grew, his desperation increased, he felt lonely, insecure and inferior. Should he go to the party? If yes, should he go alone or should he invite his roommate? Dithering on the choice - to go or not to go - he finally settled on going but not with his friend. Yet, he invited him and he turned him down. He thought everyone had forgotten about him, no one remembers him - even though her mother had been calling him everyday for almost two years as part of his therapy. 

At the party, Lawrence was happy to find that he was really invited and that there are those who were interested in his project - The Pilot. Then there was a drink, then another, and another. Yet, it was here that Lawrence found providence, hope, and the confidence to begin all over again even after his manuscript got burnt.

Like most short stories, there is a lot going on here but the author condenses them for the reader to unravel because in this genre of fiction writing, every word is important, like poetry. 

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Here we aren't, so Quickly by Jonathan Safran Foer

The narrative style used by Safran Foer in this story is unique. It reads almost like poetry. It has cadence and was almost written metrically though I thought that had the story being slightly longer than this - that is, a long short story - the reader will have become burdened with the read. As an example of what I mean, this is the first paragraph of the story:

I was not good at drawing faces. I was just joking most of the time. I was not decisive in changing rooms or anywhere. I was so late because I was looking for flowers. I was just going through a tunnel whenever my mother called. I was not able to tell if compliments were backhanded. I was not as tired as I said.

And in this similar pattern, using short, cryptic sentences mixing the first person singular with the second person and then the first person plural, Jonathan Safran Foer tells the story of man reflecting upon his life with his wife after so many years of marriage. He tells of all the good, the bad, the ugly, the things he should have done but didn't, his fears, his shortcomings, his observations of her, the things they did together, the challenges they faced, how they met. And the geriatric related changes. The story moves gradually and progressively, from when they met till now, aged and weak with a child who had married and left home. It's like a reel of cinematic still-pictures rolling on a white calico. 

Both stories were interesting and both authors are new to me. With these I hope to test their more larger works of fiction.

Remembering Steve Biko as ANC Celebrates its Centenary

Steve Biko

As the African National Congress (ANC) celebrates its 100th anniversary, it is time for us to reflect on what they have achieved. However, I am less prepared to do a report today. I came across this article which might me of interest to those who want to know of the least-talked about student of South Africa's struggle against white supremacist rule (or apartheid) as the West looked on, supporting the government of the day in trade whilst murmuring their opposition against segregation and oppression. What history has thought us, and which most Africans still don't want to accept it, is that the West is never after true democracy. They are only after governments that will work in their interest. If such a government happens to be a dictator, like Saddam in the early 80s, good or like Mubarak, until his overthrow, better. They have words to describe every scenario. Yet, I won't talk much. Read this article about Steve Biko, the student leader who became a thorn in the flesh of the apartheid government until his capture, torture, and eventual death in captivity.

"The likes of Steve Biko were a bigger threat, as leaders like him denounced the regime for what it really was: a white supremacist dictatorship. It is thus that one should understand why they were so keen on silencing a local student leader with moderate demands for racial justice. Indeed, Steve Biko was “just” a student leader, cofounder of the South African Students’ Organization (SASO), later to become the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). Barely 25 years old, he was “banned” for speaking out."

Read the full story here. I will celebrate ANC's 100th anniversary by reading Biko's book I write what I Like. This edition, published by Picador Africa, contains a memoir of the man, activist and hero, titled Martyr of Hope: A Personal Memoir by Aelred Stubbs.

The ANC itself became a terrorist organisation and was blacklisted by the United States of America. In fact, until 2008 Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa was on the list of American terrorists. 

About Steve Biko: Steve Biko was born in Tylden, Eastern Cape, South Africa on December 18, 1946. As a medical student, he founded a black student organisation in 1969 and created a national 'black consciousness' movement. The movement's aim was to combat racism and the South African apartheid government. He was banned in 1973, which prohibited him from speaking in public, writing for publication and any travel.

Biko was arrested by police on August 18, 1977 and died on September 12, 1977 in police detention, naked and manacled from extensive brain damage. Read more about him here.

Quotes for Friday from Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter

One does not fix appointments with fate. Fate grasps whom it wants, when it wants. [1]

Again, I think: heart massage, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, ridiculous weapons against the divine will. [2]

Standing upright, her eyes meeting my disapproving look, she mutters between teeth reddened by cola nuts: 'Lady, death is just as beautiful as life has been' [8]

Each profession, intellectual or manual, deserves consideration, whether it requires painful physical or manual dexterity, wide knowledge or the patience of an ant. Ours, like that of the doctor, does not allow for any mistake. You don't joke with life, and life is both body and mind. To warp a soul is as much a sacrilege as murder. [23/24]

You don't burn the tree which bears the fruit. [32]

The play of destiny remains impenetrable. The cowries that a female neighbour throws on a fan in front of me do not fill me with optimism, neither when they remain face upwards, showing the black hollow that signifies laughter, nor when the grouping of their whites seem to say that 'the man in the double trousers' is coming towards me. [42]

A woman is like a ball; once a ball is thrown, no one can predict where it will bounce. You have no control over where it rolls, and even less over who gets it. Often it is grabbed by an unexpected hand ... [42]

Whereas a woman draws from the passing years the force of her devotion, despite the ageing of her companion, a man, on the other hand, restricts his field of tenderness. His egoistic eye looks over his partner's shoulder. He compares what he had with what he no long has, what he has with what he could have. [42]

To overcome distress when it sits upon you demands strong will. When one thinks that with each passing second  one's life is shortened, one must profit intensely from this second; it is the sum of all the lost or harvested seconds that makes for a wasted or a successful life. Brace oneself to check despair and get it into proportion! A nervous breakdown waits around the corner for anyone who lets himself wallow in distress. Little by little, it takes over your whole being. [43]

Friendship has splendours that love knows not. It grows stronger when crossed, whereas obstacles kill love. Friendship resists time, which wearies and severs couples. It has heights unknown to love. [56]

Aggression and condescension in a woman arouse contempt and hatred for her husband. If she is gracious, even without appealing to any ideology, she can summon support for any action. In a word, a man's success depends on feminine support. [59]

You don't fell the tree whose shade protects you. You water it. You watch over it. [69]

You can feed your stomach as well as you please; it will still provide for itself without your knowing. [81]

One is a mother to lighten the darkness. One is a mother to shield when lightning streaks the night, when thunder shakes the earth, when mud bogs one down. One is a mother in order to love without beginning or end. [87]

The success of the family is born of a couple's harmony, as the harmony of multiple instruments creates a pleasant symphony. [94]

The nation is made up of all the families, rich or poor, united or separated, aware unaware. The success of a nation therefore depends inevitably on the family. [94]

_______________

Read the review here

124. So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ

Title: So Long a Letter*

Author: Mariama Bâ
Translator: Madupe Bode-Thomas

Genre: Fiction

Publishers: African Writers Series Classics
Original Language: French

Pages: 97

Year of First Publication: 1979

Country: Senegal

Mariama Bâ's epistolary novella, So Long a Letter, voted as one of the best African books in the twentieth Century, is a commentary on Senegal's, and by extension Africa's, patriarchal society and the role of tradition and customs in maintaining and perpetuating the status quo. To some extent, the novella also portrays certain inherent weaknesses in some women when faced with the opportunity to finally take flight. It also opens up such feminist topics as polygamy, providing a different angle to the old story from a woman's perspective. Consequently, it has been described in some quarters as the first African feminist book and the author's overt use of 'New African Woman', 'Independence', 'Liberation' and similes and metaphors of similar meanings might have spurred this explicit description.

Ramatoulaye, the protagonist, is writing to inform her childhood friend, Aissatou, of the death of her husband, Modou. The writing of the letter itself - a cascade of past pleasures and present pain collected through a selective process to assuage her present predicament - and its sharing are part of Ramatoulaye's personal therapy, regarding Aissatou as someone with whom she shares similar fate after Aissatou had gone through and come out of the other end of the mills and ills of marriage - divorce - a better woman.

As the letter unfolds we get to know the exact causes of her pains, the extent of her suffering in the last five years of marriage until Modou's eventual death and the botheration she was going through even after his death from his family members stealing the family's properties to his brother proposing marriage at his brother's funeral. Ramatoulaye's husband of twenty years (at the time) had married their daughter's best friend, Binetou, leaving her to her fate and shirking all responsibilities as a husband and a father of a dozen children. But the major question or problem Mariama Bâ tends to answer with the Ramatoulaye character was her decision to remain married to a man who had, for all intents and purposes, 'divorced' her whilst at the same time describing herself as part of the new breed of African women. Was it because she was afraid of betraying the course after rejecting her mother's choice of a husband and going ahead with her marriage to Modou, because she was a 'New African Woman', or was because of those inherent fears she hinted upon in the text? 

All through the narrative, explicit statements were made about the turning away from the old patriarchal society of the West African country (and West Africa in general) to one where everyone would have equal rights and access. And Ramatoulaye was one its proponents. She was politically-aware, a working mother, and a feminist revolution advocate, rejecting all suitors during and after he husband's funeral, including her Modou's elder brother. Yet, some of her decisions seemed to run counter to her preach. For instance, though she argued against the all-male National Assembly she would not enter politics. But most importantly, it was her stated reasons for not divorcing her husband which are difficult to accept:

Leave? Start again at zero, after living twenty-five years with one man, after having borne twelve children? Did I have enough energy to bar alone the weight of responsibility, which was both moral and material? [41]

And as a show of solidarity with Aissatou, she says:

Even though I understand your stand, even though I respect the choice of liberated women, I have never conceived happiness outside marriage. [58]

Yet, Ramatoulaye brought up her children liberally; making them choose their own husbands and throwing some part of her people's culture - both behavioural and institutional - away and setting her children up for the consequences of her decisions. Daba, the first child and former best friend of her father's new bride, was to build upon her mother's legacy. Her vision of marriage was totally different from that of her mother. She saw marriage as a

[M]utual agreement over a life's programme. So if one of the partners is no longer satisfied with the union, why should he remain? ... The wife can take the initiative to make the break. [77]

Whilst Daba was absorbing her mother's experiences and training and turning them into her own life philosophies, her other sisters were trailing other paths. Even then, Ramatoulaye would not resort to the 'normal' modes of correction. Especially when Aissatou (not the recipient of the letter) got pregnant she accepted the man responsible instead of reprimanding her, as suggested by her neighbour. Her focus to stay the course was once again threatened when she caught her twin daughters smoking in their room, after she had decided not to invade their privacy. And for those Western culture she did not agree with (such as the kind of fashion that was in vogue at the time), she was made to accept them, so that in someway her evolution was aided  by her children:

I considered the wearing of trousers dreadful in view of our build, which is not that of slim Western women. Trousers accentuate the ample figure of the black woman and further emphasize the curve of the small of the back. But I gave in to the rush towards this fashion, which constricted and hampered instead of liberating. [80]

Was the use of 'constricted' four words away from 'liberating' - and in the same descriptive sentence - symbolical? Could this be interpreted as a warning against absolute cultural osmosis instead of selective cultural borrowing? 

Another point of note is that even though the women in Mariama Bâ's story were Muslims they were all against polygamy. Regarding Ramatoulaye, one finds it difficult if it was the second marriage that made her bitter or her husband's treatment. In all three scenarios of polygamy (Ramatoulaye and Modou; Aissatou and Mawdo; and Jacqueline and Samba Diack) the husband's treatment of the first wives, after taking on another wife, was appalling resulting in emotional distress, divorce and nervous breakdown and subsequent death, respectively, for all the women involved.

Using climatic and geological metaphors that rings of 'tropical storms' and 'earthquake' respectively, Ramatoulaye provided a fitting end to her final transformation when she confirmed that she is not

[I]ndifferent to the irreversible currents of women's liberation that are lashing the world. This commotion that is shaking up every aspect of our lives reveals and illustrates our abilities. [93]

empahsising again the equality between the two genders. This statement defines or summarises all the major issues Ramatoulaye discussed in her letter.

Finally, like most stories written from the first person perspective, there were several events that she definitely couldn't have known had she not been told by another but no such claims were made. Again I find the description of another character's emotion by a protagonist in a 'first-person' narrative very difficult to believe, if not handled properly. However, all in all this was an interesting story and one I enjoyed reading.
___________________
Brief Bio:  Mariama Bâ (1929–1981) was born into a well-to-do family in Dakar, where she grew up. In the newly independent Senegal, Bâ's father became one of the first ministers of state. After Bâ's mother died, she was raised in the traditional manner by her maternal grandparents. Her early education she received in French, while at the same time attending Koranic school. At school Bâ was a prominent student. During the colonial period and later, girls faced a number of obstacles when they wanted to have a higher education. Bâ's grandparents did not plan to educate her beyond primary school, but her father's insistence on giving her an opportunity to continue her studies eventually prevailed. She won the first prize in the entrance examination and entered the Ecole Normale de Rufisque, a teacher training college near Dakar. During this period she published her first book. It was non-fiction and dealt with colonial education in Senegal. At school she also wrote an essay, which created a stir for its rejection of French policies in Africa. However, later in life Bâ recalled her experience with the French colonial educational system in a positive way. Bâ married a Senegalese member of Parliament, Obèye Diop, but divorced him and was left to care for their nine children. (Source)
____________________
*The last book read in 2011

100 Shots of Shorts

This page collects all the short/single stories read in the year (January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012) for the 100 shots of Short challenge. The short stories have been grouped according to their source and would be updated as and when they are read.

The New Yorker (June 14 and 21, 2010): This literary magazine provides short stories from the New Yorker's 20 Under 40.

1. The Pilot by Joshua Ferris
2. Here We Aren't, So Quickly by Jonathan Safran Foer
3. What You Do Out Here, When You're Alone by Philipp Meyer
4. The Entire Northern Side Was Covered With Fire by Rivka Galchen
5. Lenny Hearts Eunice by Gary Shteyngart
6. Dayward by ZZ Packer
7. The Kid by Salvatore Scibona
8. Twins by C.E. Morgan

Cain Prize for African Writing Shortlist

1. The Mistress's Dog by David Medalie (2011 Shortlist)
2. Hitting Budapest by NoViolet Bulawayo (2011 Shortlist)
3. La Salle de Depart by Melissa Tandiwe Myambo (2012 Shortlist)
4. Hunter Emmanuel by Constance Myburgh (2012 Shortlist)
5. Urban Zoning by Billy Kahora (2012 Shortlist)
6. Bombay's Republic by Rotimi Babatunde (2012 Shortlist)
7. Love on Trial by S.O. Kenani (2012 Shortlist)

African Roar Anthology 2011:

1. Witch's Brew by Ruzvidzo Stanley Mupfudza
2. Main by NoViolet Bulawayo
3. A Writer's Lot by Zukiswa Wanner
4. Longing for Home by Hajira Amla
5. Lose Myself by Uche Peter Umez
6. Uncle Jeffrey by Murenga Joseph Chikowero
7. The Times by Dango Mkandawire
8. Snakes will Follow You by Emmanuel Sigauke
9. Out of Memory by Emmanuel Iduma
10. Diner Ten by Ivor Hartmann
11. Chanting Shadows by Mbonisi P. Ncube
12. Snake of the Niger Delta by Chimdindo Mazi-Njoku
13. Silent Night, Bloody Night by Ayodele Morocco-Clarke
14. Water Wahala by Isaac Neequaye

A Life in full and other stories (Caine Prize for African Writing 2010 anthology)

1. The Plantation by Ovo Adagha
2. Soul Safari by Alnoor Amlani
3. A Life in Full by Jude Dibia
4. Mr. Oliver by Mamle Kabu
5. Happy Ending Stanley Onjezani Kenani
6. The David Thuo Show by Samuel Munene
7. Set Me Free by Clifford Chianga Oluch
8. Invocations to the Dead by Gill Schierhout
9. Almost Cured of Sadness by Vuyo Seripe
10. The Journey by Valerie Tagwira
11. The King and I by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma
12. Indigo by Molara Wood

Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolano

1. Sensini
2. Henri Simon Leprince
3. Enrique Martin
4. A Literary Adventure
5. Phone Calls
6. The Grub
7. Anne Moore's Life
8. Mauricio ("The Eye") Silva
9. Gomez Palacio
10. Last Evenings on Earth
11. Days of 1978
12. Vagabond in France and Belgium
13. Dentist
14. Dance Card

Writing Free edited by Irene Staunton

1. Running in Zimbabwe by Jonathan Brakash
2. Miss McConkey of Bridgewater Close by Petina Gappah
3. Crossroads by Tendai Huchu
4. Time's Footprints by Ethel Kabwato
5. The Situation by Donna Kerstein
6. The Novel Citizen by Ignatius Mabasa
7. An Intricate Deception by Daniel Mandishona
8. The Missing by Isabella Matambanadzo
9. Shamisos by NoViolet Mkha
10. When the Moon Stares by Christopher Mlalazi
11. Eloquent Notes on a Suicide: Case of the Silent Girl by Blessing Musariri
12. Danfo Driver by Ambrose Musiyiwa
13. The Donor's Visit by Sekai Nzenza
14. Eyes On by Fungisayi Sasa
15. African Wife by Emmanuel Sigauke

Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories by Ama Ata Aidoo

1. New Lessons
2. No Nuts
3. Diplomatic Pounds
4. Did You Ever?!
5. Outfoxed
6. Recipe for a Stone Meal
7. Feely-Feely
8. Rain
9. One or Two Bourgeois Concerns
10. Funny-Less
11. Mixed Messages
12. Delight

The Best American Short Stories by Lorrie Moore (Editor)

1. What You Pawn I Will Redeem by Sherman Alexie
2. Tooth and Claw by T. Coraghessan Boyle
3. Written in Stone by Catherine Brady
4. Accomplice by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum
5. Screenwriter by Charles D'Ambrosio
6. Breasts by Stuart Dybek
7. Some Other, Better Otto by Deborah Eisenberg
8. Grace by Paula Fox
9. The Tutor by Nell Freudenberger
10. A Rich Man by Edward P. Jones
11. Limestone Dinner by Trudy Lewis
12. Intervention by Jill CCorkle
13. Gallatin Canyon by Thomas McGuane
14. Runaway by Alice Munro
15. All Saints Day by Angela Pneuman
16. What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick? by Annie Proulx
17. Docent by R. T. Smith
18. The Walk with Elizanne by John Updike
19. Mirror Studies by Mary Yukari Waters
20. What We Cannot Speak About We Must Pass Over in Silence by John Edgar Wideman

[Total Short Stories read: 102; Target: 100. End of Challenge. ]

Proverb Monday, #56 - A Year After

It has been a year since I started this series. Over the years interests, in terms of comments and clicks, have decreased over time; however, I persisted. I decided some time ago to do away with it. I don't know exactly what I am going to replace it with but I do know that today's proverb, the fifty-sixth, could be the last on this blog. Thanks to all who visited, read, and/or commented. I appreciate your dedication. On a second thought, I think creating content for those who would be searching Ghanaian proverbs would not be a bad idea. So that even though traffic might be low today, it might be good for other researchers.

Proverb: Onipa bεyε bi, na w'amεyε ne nyinaa
Translation: A person came to do his part, but not to do all
Context: You can only do your part and that's what is most important.

Reading Projections for 2012

Source

I have already reviewed my readings in 2011. This post deals with my reading projections for 2012. Broadly, I don't expect anything to change from last year regarding the types of books I read: the challenges began last year and years before will continue. However, to help expand my reading and push myself, I will join one or two other challenges; one or two because challenges could be disincentive to reading when they become too taxing.

Old Challenges

To begin with, my Top 100 Books Reading Challenge, which is in its fourth* third year this year and only about 30 percent complete, will continue. I will merge my Africa Reading Challenge with the new one Kinna will be organising so that the rules that I will apply will come from Kinna. Thus, officially my ARC challenge has ended. There are only about two or three stories left on the Caine Prize Shortlist reading challenge. These short stories together with the new shortlist that will be coming out this year will be part of the 100 Shots of Short Stories Kinna has been running for some time now. Finally, the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa Region Winners Reading Project, a long term reading project, will also go on as usual.

New Challenges

70 Books Reading Challenge

The first challenge I signed onto this year was to read 70 books this year (excluding single stories but including anthologies). This challenge came about through a twitter conversation with Kinna, where I confessed that I wasn't able to meet my target of 60 this year. We've challenged each other to read approximately 6 books per month to meet this new target.

100 Shots of Short Stories

The next challenge is the 100 shots of short stories. Kinna has been running this challenge for sometime and I decided to join in this year. I've had a copy of The Best American Short Stories for 2004 for close to two years and this is how I want to deal with it. Again, the Caine Prize for African Writing shortlist will be read for this challenge also. Furthermore, I will use the internet a lot. This challenge will help me forage into authors whose works remain a virgin to me, most especially the Lusophone writers such as Macheda, recommended to me by Wuthering Expectations. If the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize release the shortlist, I would read them for this challenge.

Africa Reading Challenge

As already explained, Kinna will be hosting this challenge. She will speak more about it on her page. It's simply to help us read more writers on the continent.

Non-Reading Changes

Last year my writing suffered severely; I wrote little poetry including haiku, which means that my Haiku from Ghana blog suffered. This year I will work to develop a writing attitude - that early morning writing that writers are fond of using. I want to do more of short-story writing and this will require dedication. To ensure that my reading does not suffer, I'll be watching less and less TV to free up some time for reading and writing.

I thank all my readers and those who comment for making 2011 a happy year here at ImageNations. I hope 2012 will even be better. ImageNations will continue to read more of African-authored books, irrespective of the popularity of the author. If things work out properly and I am not disappointed as I was in 2011, I will bring you interviews with authors.

Welcome to 2012.
___________________
Upon further check I realised that the challenge officially began in October 27, 2009; hence it's in its third year

2011 in Review

Source

Once again, the year has come to an end and bookish individuals will be taking stock of what transpired within the 365 days we had. But before we can conclude on whether this year has been successful, we must, as a matter of importance, relate our goals at the beginning of the year to what actually happened: Projections vs Actuals, as most Monitoring and Evaluation Officers do. However, I will first review my readings the month of December.

December in review
I read three books and suspended one in December. The objective for November was to play catch-up by reading enough books on my Top 100 Books Reading Challenge. It started well with Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird: a novel about race relations in America's south told from the point of view of the nine-year old Jean Louise Finch, daughter of a lawyer appointed to defend a black man - Tom Robinson - in an alleged rape case, which people know to be fault but are not prepared to pronounce one of their own guilty, which if done would be to put the slave above the master, no matter how weak the master's case is. The next book was DBC Pierre's Vernon God Little. This is a story about reality TV, teen murder, materialism, and our sense of justice. After this, I picked Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner and for more than two weeks I crawled slowly, trying to grasp Faulkner's delivery, attempting to crack it open. And still finding the doors tightly shut. At 150 pages I suspended the read and promised to pick it up in the new year. I don't easily give up on books and I have never abandoned a book so this will not be the first. The problem I had with the book is the preternaturally long sentences and the repetition of events. I picked the novella So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba. This epistolary story tells the life of a recently widowed woman, Ramatoulaye, who was rejected by his husband after about twenty-five years of marriage. In this letter to her friend, she informs her of the various problems she has gone through, pitching custom against modernity.

Projections made for 2011

In my 2011 Welcome Note, I tagged this year The Year of Reading and entreated those who are not reading-friendly as some of us are to take three books they have heard of which tickles their interest and go through them slowly. If anyone took this unasked for advice, they would have read three books this year. 

At ImageNations, though not stated, I decided to read five books per month - sixty by December 31. I also widened my reading coverage and promised to read more books from different countries in Africa through the Africa Reading Challenge. Catching up on the Top 100 Books was also mentioned.

What happened in 2011 regarding my goals

I was four short of the total number of books - I read 56 instead of 60, not counting single stories that are not part of an anthology such as the Caine Prize Shortlists. However, I am upping my determination again this year with Kinna of Kinna Reads (more of this in my 2012 Outlook). However, I read 12 single stories, making a total of 68.

The Africa Reading Challenge was very helpful. In fact I read a total of 20 books from 13 different countries including: Cote d'Ivoire (Veronique Tadjo), Kenya (Ngugi wa Thiong'o), Angola (Pepetela and Jose Eduardo Agualusa), Egypt (Alifa Rifaat), Malawi (Jack Mapanje) and Mozambique (Mia Couto and Lilia Momple). Other countries include Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Uganda, Cameroon, Namibia, Senegal and Gabon. According to geographic coordinates there were three from East Africa, one from North Africa, five from South Africa (not the country), two from Central Africa, one from South Eastern Africa and two from West Africa.

Regarding the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge, prior to 2011 I had read a total of fourteen (14) books out of the projected 100. Though the remainder is still high and would require extraordinary effort to go through them, I read a total of 15 books this year. Another reason is that about 63 percent of the books on this challenge list are books authored by non-Africans.

Details of my readings

I am using the meme I used in 2010 to summarise my readings in 2011; changes will be made where necessary to fit the year under review.

How many books did you read in 2011?

I read a total of fifty-six (56) - twenty-six more than last year - and twelve (12) single stories. Including double counting (a non-fiction could be a work of translation) the following are the categories according to the genres (in addition to the single stories): Short Story Anthologies: 4; Non-Fiction: (10); Novels - pages greater than 150: 28; Novellas - 150 pages or less: 8; Translations: 10; Plays: 2; Children Stories: 1.

How many did you review?

I reviewed all the books I read in 2011 except Weep not Child, which I've reviewed one of its theme before I read it for the third time and So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba, which I'll be reviewing in the new year.

How many of the books read were on the Top 100?

I read a total of fifteen books on my Top 100 Books reading challenge. This is about two times the number read for the combined years of 2009 and 2010.

How many fiction and non-fiction?

As already stated, my non-fiction books (10) forms 15% of the total number of books read.

Male-Female Ratio

The year began very good on this. It was almost 50-50 at a point in time. However, it has skewed again, though better than last year. Thirty-five percent (or 24 books) of all my reads (including single stories) were authored by women and sixty-three percent (or 43 books) were authored by men. One percent (1) was mixed - an anthology of both sexes.

Favourite book of 2011

I have already discussed this here.

Least favourite

Not exactly a book but some of the Caine Prize shortlists, which were in the category of single stories, did not interest me. Their subject matter were predictable and the narrator is almost always a young individual as if the recipe for a good story has just been discovered in from an Einstein-like mathematical experiments.

Any that you simply couldn't finish and why?

Perhaps Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom will fit here, though I plan to pick it up in the new year, after all it is on my list of 100 books to be read and they must all be read. The reasons for its apparent abandonment has just been given.

Oldest Novel

The oldest (in terms of publication date) was Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813), this is followed by Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure (1895).

Newest Novel

I read four books that were published in 2011: Accra! Accra! More Poems about Modern Africans by Papa Kobina Ulzen; A Sense of Savannah: Tales of a Friendly Walk through Northern Ghana by Kofi Akpabli; Look Where You Have Gone to Sit edited by Martin Egblewogbe and Laban Carrick Hill; and Tickling the Ghanaian: Encounters with Contemporary Ghanaian Culture by Kofi Akpabli. However, if the months are taken into account the latter will be the newest.

Longest and shortest title?

Longest: Tickling the Ghanaian: Encounters with Contemporary Ghanian Culture by Kofi Akpabli.
Shortest: 1984 by George Orwell and Mema by Daniel Mengara.

Longest and shortest books?

The biggest book in terms of pages was Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol (639) and the least paged book is Accra! Accra! More Poems about Modern Africans by Papa Kobina Ulzen at only 28 pages.

Most read author of the year and how many books by the read was read?

The most read author was Ngugi wa Thiong'o. I read three of his books: The River Between; A Grain of Wheat; and Weep not Child.

Any re-reads?

Yes. I read Weep not Child for the third time.

Favourite character of the year?
Though I have favourite character in my spreadsheet for every story read comparing them is a problem. It means I have to be able to recollect why each character is loved and this means I have to recall all their characteristics and actions. A difficult job. However, I will randomly select Stephen Kumalo in Cry, the Beloved Country for African books and Sethe and Denver in Beloved for non-African authored books. The least favourite characters were all in one novel: Heathcliff, Mrs Catherine Earnshaw and Mrs Dean all in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

Which countries did you go to through the pages in your reading?

I went to Kenya, Angola, Egypt, Malawi, Cote d'Ivoire, Mozambique, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Uganda, Zululand, Cameroon, Namibia, Gabon, Nigeria, South Africa, Britain, America, Cuba, Gabon, Kangan (fictional), and Senegal.

Which book wouldn't you have read without someone's recommendation?
Geosi of Geosi reads encouraged me to take up Benjamin Kwakye's books of which I read two this year: The Clothes of Nakedness and The Other Crucifix.

Which author was new to you in 2011 that you now want to read the entire works of?

Lewis Nkosi. His Underground People jumped onto my all-time favourite list.

Which books are you annoyed you didn't read?

A lot of them but will shift them to 2012.

Did you read any book you have always been meaning to read?

Yes. To Kill a Mockingbird and Nervous Conditions.

Proverb Monday, #55

Proverb: Yεnim sε nkyene yε dε; nanso yε kɔ dwa so a, yε tɔ mako
Meaning: We know that salt is sweet; yet if we go to the market we buy pepper.
Context: Functions are different and so are needs.

No. 4364 in Bu me Bε by Peggy Appiah et al.

As Friends Share their Favourite Reads of 2011, #FavBook2011

Source

After sharing my Favourite Reads of 2011 I turned to my friends to share theirs with ImageNations through the Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus platforms. The handler on Twitter was #FavBook2011. There were no rules except that the book(s) should have been read in 2011. The following were the books shared. The objective of this sharing exercise is to encourage others to read. 

• The first person to respond to this call was Novisi Dzitre who blogs at Novisi. He is a Blogger, Technology Geek (though he might not accept this), Writer, a Friend and a Great Controversialist.  Novisi chose Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Weep not Child and A Grain of Wheat  as his favourite books of 2011. It is not every time that an author gets to enjoy this position in a reader's life. If you haven't tried anything yet by Ngugi, you should start from the first of these books.

• Obed Sarpong of Ready to Chew, a Radio Broadcast Journalist and Writer, selected the Karamazov Brothers by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I have not yet foraged into the world of Russo-Lit yet. Perhaps, a properly structured challenge could help remedy this.

• Courage Ahiati blogs at Courage's Melting Pot. He describes himself as a Political Scientist by profession and a Writer by birth. As a writer Courage loves to read and he selected Benito Mussolini's biography The Duce written by Richard Collier and James Michener's The Covenant as his favourite books of 2011. 

• Dedicated book bloggers are a few in Ghana and Kinna of Kinna Reads is one of them. She reads wide and could, if challenged, name at least a writer from every country. When asked for her favourite book(s) for 2011, the Reader, Reviewer, Feminist and Follower of African Politics, selected Cry of Winnie Mandela by Njabulo Ndebele, The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna and Fly away Peter by David Malouf. 

• Bembga Nyakuma of Renditions is one of my virtual friends, thanks to twitter just like many on this list. Bembga describes himself as an Outlier, Writer and a Gentleman, at least that is what is Twitter Page says. He chose Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin.

• I found Shannon of Reading has a Purpose's blog on my daily blog surfing through other people's reading list - this is how I follow blogs. She loves to read and her preferred genre is non-fiction because of what knowledge and facts it ends up giving to the reader. When Shannon selected George W. Bush's Decision Points as her favourite book for 2011 she added 'seriously' to the tweet. 

• Comrade Casca Amanquah Hackman shared his books on facebook. The first was Aminatta Forna's The Memory of Love, the only book that was selected by two different individuals, no wonder it won the Commonwealth Prize for Best Book and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. Comrade's second book does not come from any Communist or Socialist country. It is Moo by Jane Smiley.

• Ghostwritten by David Mitchell was Tendai Huchu's selection. Tendai Huchu is the author of The Hairdresser of Harare. This is one of the benefits of book blogging - getting to interact with the writers themselves. Thanks TH for your contribution.

• If there is any blogger who keeps me from falling, it is Amy McKie of Amy Reads. Amy is a voracious reader, blogger and a member of my virtual friends. She provided me with some of the books I needed to complete my Reading Challenge. Amy selected Sarah Ladipo Manyika's In-Dependence,  Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow and African Love Stories edited by Ama Ata Aidoo.

These are the few individuals who shared their books with me. Thanks to you all for participating in this first ever 'friends share their favourite reads'. I have been reminded to read some books.
____________________

Note: some of these links lead to amazon.com. 

ImageNations' Favourite Books of 2011

Source: Penguin

The year 2011 saw me read more more than twice the total number of books and single stories I read in 2010 (the actual review of the year's activities will be published on this blog somewhere on 31st December or early January, 2012). This post presents some of my favourite books read in 2011 and not necessarily books published in 2011. I usually don't get that kind of luxury embedded in reading books just as they are published. 

Reading a large number of books presents one major problem: choosing the favourite ones. To avoid this problem I decided to settle on six for each of the two categories: African-authored books and Non-African-authored books. No further classification such as fiction, non-fiction, poetry and others were considered as not enough books were read in some of these and would endanger this exercise.

African-authored Books: This blog is mostly about promoting African Literature. African Literature here is defined as any literary output written by an African and the African is somewhat loosely defined. I am yet to face some difficulty in its use. For instance, I consider all the works Coetzee produced pre-migration as African books. Perhaps, I might consider is post-migration books as Australian. Like I said, I'm yet to face such a difficulty.

• A Question of Power by Bessie Head. This is a book that can confuse the reader. It reflects the author's state of mind at the time of her writing and all through her life. It's a difficult read and trying to figure out all that happened requires careful reading. The margin between reality and dream or visions or the surreal is very thin and Bessie did a good job confusing the reader. This book is almost autobiographical. No author I've read investigates the ticking of the mind as Bessie Head has done in this book. This will be a good introduction for those who haven't yet read her.

• Underground People by Lewis Nkosi. Underground People satirises one-man's fight against Apartheid in South Africa. It does so by keeping the struggle serious but finding within it some elements that provide good laughter. This is what I said about the novel: "The uniqueness of Lewis Nkosi's Underground People lies in its beautiful, fast-reading, tension-building prose. And his ability to satirise South Africa's apartheid system whilst keeping its seriousness, its human suffering closer to the reader.

• A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o.  A Grain of Wheat has been noted as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's best novel. It was voted as one of the Best 100 African Books in the Twentieth Century by the Zimbabwe International Book Fair. As the third published novel, A Grain of Wheat embodies distillates from Ngũgĩ's two previous novels: Weep Not Child (1964) and The River Between (1965). In this story, the fight for independence, started in Weep not Child and The River Between converges and hints of elitism, greed, and discrimination against the independence fighters that blossomed into the novel Matigari had just begun. 

• The Clothes of Nakedness by Benjamin Kwakye. Benjamin Kwakye's novel The Clothes of Nakedness is a compelling narrative directed at a Ghanaian audience, in particular. It reveals the economic hardships existing in our society; it also reveals the intricately woven relationships between the rich and the poor and how the 'seemingly' rich manipulate the poor to further that wealth-dom in this dual economic society where absolute riches exist side by side with abject poverty. The latter scenario is even more stark and pathetic if one knows that Nima and Kanda Estates, two neighbourhoods presented in the story, are real and not just fictional representation made concrete by Kwakye's brilliant mind.

• Anthills of the Savannah by Chinua Achebe.  In this very unique novel, Achebe treats the issue of despots, male chauvinism and power from a rather different and unexpected perspective. He opens up the struggles that goes on behind the power scenes and how easily an innocent, generally good individual could easily transmogrify into an absolutely demented despot.

• Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah. Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism is a step by step guide to unveiling, exposing, denuding, the factors, individuals, countries, and corporations working against Africa's development and unity. From chapters such as Africa's Resources, Obstacles to Economic Progress, Imperialist Finance, Monopoly Capitalism and the American Dollar, The Truth Behind the Headlines, The Oppenheimer Empire, The Diamond Groups, Mining Interests in Central Africa, Union Miniere du Haut Katanga, Economic Pressures in the Congo Republic, The Mechanisms of Neo-Colonialism, among others, Nkrumah sought to make the world know the kind of forces we are facing as Africans (and non-Africans) on the path towards development (and the people that rule our world).

Non-African Authored Book: Most of the non-African-authored books were mostly on my Top 100 Reading Challenge. Though this blog is mainly for the Promotion of African Literature I do read wider. This list is not in any particular order.

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice is a story set in the early nineteenth England in the town of Hertfordshire where five sisters lived, each with a different aspiration and disposition. Jane is servile, humble, quick to agree and forgive and almost never judges. Elizabeth, around whom the majority of the story is told is the thinking and cautious type. She does not easily submit to rules without questioning them. Mary is almost a recluse and played a minor role in the novel. Always learning, one can easily judge her to be suffering from an inferiority complex. The two others: Lydia and Catherine (or Kitty) are frivolous - acting without thinking of the effects of their actions.

• Beloved by Toni Morrison. In Beloved Toni Morrison expanded the possibilities of the fiction genre from that which she created in Song of Solomon. She redefined the boundaries, broadening the horizon so as to write a story of stellar attribute with depth, passion, and a sensibility no other writer can express except Morrison. It is as if the words, scenes, sentences, speech and sense-making were being drawn from a well she only could see the bottom

• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid's Tale is an imaginative dystopian about a fictional world; a place where all rhetorics about women's place in the world are realised. It is also a world that has been lived before. In this novel, Atwood relied on all that had been said and is being said about women and what they should and shouldn't do. In the fictional world of Gilead, the constitutional government of the United States had been overthrown; its place place taken by Gilead, a state based on the Christian teachings and its purpose for women.

• 1984 by George Orwell. 1984 is perhaps the greatest work of English Author, Essayist, Journalist and Political and Literary Critic, Eric Arthur Blair, writing under the pseudonym George Orwell. This 'futuristic' dystopian book is more of a prophecy than a novel. It is everything but fiction.

• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.  Khaled Hosseini's debut novel, The Kite Runner could easily pass as the best non-African authored book I've read this year, if not for 1984. The novel tracks the life and friendship of two individuals, Amir - the son of a Kabul merchant - and Hassan, the child of their servant, Ali as they grow in the affluent suburb of Wazir Akbar Khan District of Kabul. As their friendship unfolds, the history of a land that has been plagued by local and international wars unfolds. In fact, it is this very wars, leading to the overthrow of monarchs and governments, that dictated how the friendship between these two individuals went. Yet, the precursor of all the events is the age old tradition or practice of discrimination based on physical features.

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is a beautiful and innocent book that mirrors the conscience of a people. It belongs to the group of a few books, including Morrison's Beloved and Song of Solomon, that investigate our common mentality, query our attitudes and unapologetically point to our internal failings as humanity. Those books that slowly furl man's animalistic masque, a masque that creates a dissociation between thought and words so that we could think one thing and act entirely in the opposite direction or even a dichotomy of thoughts - one for the thinker and his or her coterie and the other for the Others, masques which further create a diametric self in an already dual personality. One might say a Jekyll and Hyde personality, had it not been described as a cliched phrase. However, what makes Harper Lee's book different from these few others in this sub-genre is the protagonist, nine-year old Jean Louise Finch or Scout. A young precocious girl who doesn't take everything as given but who asks questions, demands answers and ask further questions where issues are not clearer to her.

Introducing Fred McBagonluri's New Book, Harvest of Jenes

Last year, I introduced to you Fred McBagonluri. In an interview he granted ImageNations he stated that his books - Harvest of Jenes and  Flames of Will - were in advanced stages of completion. In fact, the former was schedule for release in December 2010; unfortunately, this was not to be. I am, however, happy to inform you that Harvest of Jenes has been published and available for purchase on amazon.

Dr. McBagonluri was a former employee of Siemens Hearing Solutions and headed the Research and Development department of the company. He was voted in 2008 as the Most Promising Black Engineer of the Year and in that same year won the New Jersey State Healthcare Business Innovator Hero Award. He is a co-inventor for three issued US patents. Currently, he is a Sloan Fellow at MIT. (Continue reading here)

About Harvest of Jenes (from Amazon): The encounter was brief and at first benign. It portended some sort of effortless bliss. The repercussions, however, lasted a lifetime. Indeed, when our principles encounter reality, the confluence of that encounter remains fuzzy. It was lust the first time, love the second time and lies forever. Her succulence found potential in the curls of his muscular arms. To encounter Haile is to embrace ill-will but to reject her is to leave behind wealth. Harvest of Jenes is whirlpool of intrigue, suspense, soul-numbing thrill.

___________________________

Note: Fred has given ImageNations a copy of this book and so better watch this space for a review next year.

Proverb Monday, #53

Proverb: Animguase mfata ɔkanni ba.
Meaning: The Akan does not deserve shame.
Context: Shame is worth than death. The Akans say they fear being disgraced more than dying.

No. 4397 in Bu me Bε by Peggy Appiah et al.

Quotes for Friday from DBC Pierre's Vernon God Little

Under my grief glows a serenity that comes from knowing the truth always wins in the end. Why do movies end happy? Because they imitate life. You know it, I know it. But my ole lady lacks that fucken knowledge, big time. [8]

You don't know how bad I want to be Jean-Claude Van Damme. Ram her fucken gun up her ass, and run away with a panty model. But just look at me: clump of lawless brown hair, the eyelashes of a camel. Big ole puppy-dog features like God made me through a fucken magnifying glass. You know right away my movie's the one where I puke on my legs, and they send a nurse to interview me instead. [8/9]

What I'm learning is the world laughs through its ass every day, then just lies double-time when shit goes down. [28]

The learning jumps to mind, that once you plan to do something, and figure how long it'll take, that's exactly how long Fate gives you before the next thing comes along to do. [28]

Silence fills the forty years Fate gives me to recognize the import of things. This would never happen to Van Damme. Heroes never shit. They only fuck and kill. [68]

I should jam a table-leg through his fucken eye, make him grunt like a tied hog. Jean-Claude would do it. James Bond would do it with a fucken cocktail in his hand. Me, I just squeak like a brownie. [70]

What I'm starting to think is maybe only the dumb are safe in this world, the ones who roam with the herd, without thinking about every little thing. But see me? I have to think about every little fucken thing. [71]

There used to be a horse that could do math on stage. Everybody thought the horse was so fucken smart, he would tap the answer to math questions with his hoof, and always get it right. Turns out the horse couldn't do math at all, could he fuck. He just kept tapping until he felt the tension in the audience break. Everybody relaxed when he'd tapped the right number, and he felt it, and just stopped tapping. [79]

A TV scientist wouldn't give great odds of a college girl running away in the heat of the moment with a fifteen-year-old slimeball like me, not after a relationship spanning twenty-nine words. But that's fucken TV scientists for you. Next thing they'll be telling you not to eat meat. [83/4]

The day he got his first thousand dollars, the neighbors must've got ten. Aim for a million bucks, you suddenly need a billion. I upgraded my computer, but it wasn't enough. No matter what, it ain't fucken enough in life, that's what I learned. [87]

She leaves me with a kiss, then sashays east up the stalls, dragging my soul in the dust behind her. [91]

As we walk, I remember I have to keep enough trouble around me to not give a shit how I act with her. You can only really be yourself when you have nothing left to lose, see? That's a learning I made. Take note, you can feel jerksville lurking in back. And as we know, just by thinking it, you suffer it worse. The learning: potential assholeness when a dream comes true is relative to the amount of time you spent working up the dream. A = DT^2. It means I could even fucken puke. [192]

Mom once said Palmyra was into food because it was the only thing she could control in her life. It wouldn't run from the plate, or stand up to her. [264]

___________

Read the review here.

123. Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre

Anyone who read and loved The Catcher in the Rye will love DBC Pierre's Vernon God Little (Harcourt; 2003; 277), winner of the 2003 Man Booker Prize. It contains the teenage hormonal angst, the classic misunderstanding, and a heavy dose of teen-lingo and more. The more in DBC Pierre's book - a pseudonym that is almost eponymous to the names of several of the entities in the industry he satirised - is the 'provocatively satirical, riotously funny look at violence, materialism, and the American media' that were the major concern of the this book.

In the town of Martirio, sixteen students have been killed. And the town's police officers are working hard to get a culprit by all means necessary, even though the murderer - the Mexican Jesus Navarro - had committed suicide after his slaughter. Enter Vernon Gregory Little, a misunderstood boy of almost-sixteen from a single-parent family and the only friend of Jesus. Vernon's appearance (unshaved hair), Nike boots, dressing and lingo fit the crime and could be the accessory the police officer Vaine Gurie, charged to improve upon her appalling prosecution statistics or be demoted, is looking for. And this is where the drama begins.

Vernon narrates the story, telling it in a language that all teens are familiar with, filled with teen-inspired words similar to Caufield but more caustic, if one does the mathematics: fifty-eight years between the publication of both books, and none is futuristic in its settings. Vernon begins with his first 'hold-up' and interview by Vaine and his subsequent rescue by Palmyra, a woman fattened on Prittikin diet from Bar-B-Chew Barn and a friend of his mother, Doris. Yet, later the police and prosecutor would agree that he escaped detention. As the town mourns its losses, a mysterious man - Eulalio Ledesma, Lally for short, would appear. Lally would befriend Doris and and her coterie of friends, thinly 'fall' in love with Doris, a widow and an obese - surpassed only by her closest friend Pam. Through tricks and plain deceit, Lally would gain control of Doris's life and Vernon's case and Doris, having found 'love' would inadvertently 'sell' her son's problem to him. He would establish a TV Reality show out of it, which would broadcast live the lives of Vern and his family and would follow him wherever he went. Angered by Lally, Vernon would show several times that Lally was a liar and an impostor seeking to capitalise on her mother's ignorance for personal gain, but what are the words of an accused 'murderer' to that of a lover if not utter nonsense. Lally, with the corporations behind him, would sponsor the investigation that would lead to uncovering the truth, his truth - which means the arrest and sentence of Vernon. Vernon, a boy of little experience in life, with several incriminating evidences against him: fingerprints on a second gun the police and the SWAT team are looking for, faecal matter he wouldn't disclose, a stash of drugs (hemp and LSD), finally decided that he would crossover to Mexico. Again, his complete ignorance of his situation mixed with that adolescence illusion that bundle love, lust and sex into a veritable Elysium that must be sought- and here Holden Caufield's call to Sally Hayes when he decided to run away comes to mind - caused him to call Taylor Figueroa, a lady whose cousin is the new woman Lally is going out with in Doris's coterie, to run away with him. This adolescence illusion is reflected in Vernon's own statement:

A TV scientist wouldn't give great odds of a college girl running away in the heat of the moment with a fifteen-year-old slimeball like me, not after a relationship spanning twenty-nine words. But that's fucken TV scientists for you. Next thing they'll be telling you not to eat meat.

Taylor would entertain him, and corner him in Mexico to achieve her own dream of working in the media.

Whilst on the trip to Mexico, unbeknownst to him, several deaths would occur, some farther from his route, but all would be attributed to this fifteen-year old boy whose only weapon, a twenty dollar bill, was robbed off him by a security guard at the Mexican border post. Back home, in metal cage, his trial would begin and after several cross-examination and the prosecutor's inability to 'prove beyond all reasonable doubt' that Vernon committed the murders both at home and away from home, he was charged with murder for the sixteen school children and innocent for the eighteen others. And again, this mistrial filled with an objective of getting someone pay for a crime - regardless of his innocence - was similar to what faced Atticus Finch in his defense of Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird.

I get an enlightenment about the ten years it feels like I've been listening to this whole crowd of powerdime spinners, with their industry of carpet-fiber experts, and shrinks and all, who finish me off with their goddam blah, blah, blah. And you know the State ain't flying any experts down for me. What I learned is you need that industry, big time. Because, although you ain't allowed to say it, and I hope I ain't doing The Devil's Work by saying it myself - Reasonable Doubt just don't apply anymore. Not in practice, don't try and tell me it does. Maybe if your cat bit a neighbor's hamster, like with Judge Judy or something. But once they ship in extra patrol cars, and build a zoo cage in court, forget it. You have to come up with simple, honest-to-goodness proof of innocence, that anybody can tell just bey watching TV. Otherwise they hammer through nine centuries of technical evidence, like a millennium of back-to-back math classes, and it's up in there that they wipe out Reasonable Doubt.

All these were shown live on Ledesma (or Lally's) new TV reality show; Ledesma, a Service Technician working in his blind mother's room, had risen to riches and fame.

Sentence to death by lethal injection, Vernon would come to understand his position and all anger would fly away; his language would change from those teen-inspired jargons to those that reflected this understanding. Having matured overtime and having accepted his fate, Vernon was prepared to die but after meeting a strange black man in prison he knew he would not go down without a fight if only he would just stop been 'too darn embarrased to play God' and  'give the people what they want'.

In the end, a series of revelations would show how much there is to life in Martirio, how much everybody played a part in the massacre of the school children, including the school children themselves who ceaselessly taunted Jesus Navarro, Dr Goosens - a psychiatrist who did more than his profession dictates, Mr Nuckles the class teacher, Doris who put love of self above love of his son and many others. 

From Vernon's narrative we see that though he was immature he was also perceptive of events around him. He knew that his friend Jesus Navarro needed a role model but not the kind that Mr Nuckles provided:

[He] needed a different role model, but nobody was there for him. Our teacher Mr. Nuckles spent all kinds of time with him after school, bu I ain't sure ole powder-puff Nuckles and his circus of fancy words really count. 

In Vernon God Little, DBC had shown that teenage violence, like the Columbine Massacre, don't just spring up but has roots and is a consequence of several factors. But are we listening? so that we stopped being symptom managers to root-cause solvers. The humorous part of the story revolves around the media's role in the unfolding event when almost everybody was eager either to appear on TV - including Doris or to be part of the reporting crew and when the town's people and the law enforcers want to punish someone at all cost. In fact, Lally instituted a voting system in addition to his Reality TV where the public vote for the next inmate on Death Row to be executed. So much was the media's vulturing of news about the murders that the small town of Martirio, in the state of Texas, overnight became a commercial town booming with activities. Again, through this novel, DBC provided a commentary on the disintegration of (American) families, the quest for riches and fame and that consumerism that had swallowed this current generation. And later Vernon would himself enjoy from his troubles, courtesy a book deal. 

This book reminded me of several books and movies that franchise American prisons; the likes of The Condemned (starring Stone Cold Steve Austin) and Death Race (Starring Jason Statham). This novel is necessary and has come at an appropriate time where findings of improper trials that wrongly landed several people in jail keep increasing.

Note: This book was read for the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge.