Fionnáin apžvelgė autoriaus Buchi Emecheta knygą The Bride Price
Caught between tradition and modernity, a girl
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Buchi Emecheta was one of the generation of Nigerian authors who became world-renowned in the 1960s and 70s, but is often the most overlooked. Her incredible writing never loses pace, and her storytelling is always compelling and pointed. This was originally her first novel, and was semi-autobiographical, but the only copy was destroyed by her abusive husband before it was ever published. Emecheta later rewrote it, and this is the result.
Despite that history, it still feels like a first novel. It tells the story of Agu-nna, a girl becoming a woman in Lagos in the 1950s, whose father dies early in the story from illness caused by his time fighting with the Allies in World War II. Agu-nna has to move back to her father's village with her mother and her brother, and encounter the old ways of rural Nigerian life. The pacing and moments in the story show …
Buchi Emecheta was one of the generation of Nigerian authors who became world-renowned in the 1960s and 70s, but is often the most overlooked. Her incredible writing never loses pace, and her storytelling is always compelling and pointed. This was originally her first novel, and was semi-autobiographical, but the only copy was destroyed by her abusive husband before it was ever published. Emecheta later rewrote it, and this is the result.
Despite that history, it still feels like a first novel. It tells the story of Agu-nna, a girl becoming a woman in Lagos in the 1950s, whose father dies early in the story from illness caused by his time fighting with the Allies in World War II. Agu-nna has to move back to her father's village with her mother and her brother, and encounter the old ways of rural Nigerian life. The pacing and moments in the story show the promise of a young writer, which can be a little jarring at moments, but most of the delivery is that of a seasoned craftsperson; the themes move between imperialism, colonialism, tradition and modernity. It is deeply compelling, and somehow Emecheta manages to show sympathy and empathy to all characters, traditions, and social entanglements, which is the writer's warmest gift.