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In 1899, an Englishman named Martin Pearce stumbles out of the desert into an East African coastal town and is rescued by Hassanali, a shopkeeper whose beautiful sister Rehana nurses Pearce back to health. Pearce and Rehana begin a passionate illicit love affair, which resonates fifty years later when the narrator’s brother falls madly in love with Rehana’s granddaughter. In the story of two forbidden love affairs and their effects on the lovers� families, Abdulrazak Gurnah brilliantly dramatizes the personal and political consequences of colonialism, the vicissitudes of love, and the power of fiction.
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First published July 26, 2005
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About the author
Abdulrazak Gurnah
29books1,930followersAbdulrazak Gurnah was born in 1948 in Zanzibar and lives in England, where he teaches at the University of Kent. The most famous of his novels are Paradise, shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prize; By the Sea, longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Desertion, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021 "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents".
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November 15, 2024
O poveste care se petrece în Africa, pe coasta de est, nu departe de Zanzibar. Personajele sînt arabi, indieni sau metiși (negri + indieni, negri + albi). Ciudat, afro-africanii lipsesc. Vocea lor nu se aude...
Un loc în care iubirea e interzisă și, deseori, blamată / blestemată. În primul rînd, din motive religioase, în al doilea rînd, din pricina culorii pielii, în al treilea rînd, din pricina disprețului față de femeie. Gurnah (e de origine arabă, dar s-a născut, în 1948, în Zanzibar, pe atunci sultanat, acum e cetățean britanic) relatează două iubiri nefericite și consecințele lor dureroase. Cea dintîi, între o chotara, un „copil al păcatului�, pe nume Rehana, și englezul Martin Pearce, un orientalist amator, tîlhărit și părăsit de călăuzele lui somaleze într-un ținut necunoscut. Întîmplarea se petrece în 1899.
A doua iubire, după 50 de ani, îi are ca protagoniști pe Amin și Jamila (o femeie divorțată) și se sfîrșește la fel de prost. Părinții lui Amin resping această legătură „murdară� și nedemnă de familia lor. În plus, Jamila e nepoata Rehanei. Are un dublu stigmat. Poveștile în sine sînt impresionante. Atmosfera și locul sugereaz[, adeseori, ținuturile descrise în poveștile din O mie și una de nopți.
Din păcate, naratorul lui Abdulrazak Gurnah, pe nume Rashid (fratele lui Amin, aflat la studii în Londra), ține să explice fiece amănunt și, mai ales, să lege foarte strîns cele două povești de iubire. Nici un detaliu nu rămîne fără o explicație stufoasă. Cînd explicația pare insuficientă, Rashid recurge la coincidențe. Jamila e nepoata primei femei păcătoase și este și ea o păcătoasă. În Anglia, Rashid o întîlnește pe nepoata lui Martin Pearce, Barbara. Împreună cu ea, va face o vizită în Zanzibar. Prea multe potriviri! Viața reală respinge coincidențele. Aș fi dorit mai multă ambiguitate, o necesitate mai precară. Aș fi dorit să fim lăsați să ghicim noi „desenul din covor�.
Dincolo de aceste observații, Abandon este, neîndoielnic, un roman care merită citit.
Un loc în care iubirea e interzisă și, deseori, blamată / blestemată. În primul rînd, din motive religioase, în al doilea rînd, din pricina culorii pielii, în al treilea rînd, din pricina disprețului față de femeie. Gurnah (e de origine arabă, dar s-a născut, în 1948, în Zanzibar, pe atunci sultanat, acum e cetățean britanic) relatează două iubiri nefericite și consecințele lor dureroase. Cea dintîi, între o chotara, un „copil al păcatului�, pe nume Rehana, și englezul Martin Pearce, un orientalist amator, tîlhărit și părăsit de călăuzele lui somaleze într-un ținut necunoscut. Întîmplarea se petrece în 1899.
A doua iubire, după 50 de ani, îi are ca protagoniști pe Amin și Jamila (o femeie divorțată) și se sfîrșește la fel de prost. Părinții lui Amin resping această legătură „murdară� și nedemnă de familia lor. În plus, Jamila e nepoata Rehanei. Are un dublu stigmat. Poveștile în sine sînt impresionante. Atmosfera și locul sugereaz[, adeseori, ținuturile descrise în poveștile din O mie și una de nopți.
Din păcate, naratorul lui Abdulrazak Gurnah, pe nume Rashid (fratele lui Amin, aflat la studii în Londra), ține să explice fiece amănunt și, mai ales, să lege foarte strîns cele două povești de iubire. Nici un detaliu nu rămîne fără o explicație stufoasă. Cînd explicația pare insuficientă, Rashid recurge la coincidențe. Jamila e nepoata primei femei păcătoase și este și ea o păcătoasă. În Anglia, Rashid o întîlnește pe nepoata lui Martin Pearce, Barbara. Împreună cu ea, va face o vizită în Zanzibar. Prea multe potriviri! Viața reală respinge coincidențele. Aș fi dorit mai multă ambiguitate, o necesitate mai precară. Aș fi dorit să fim lăsați să ghicim noi „desenul din covor�.
Dincolo de aceste observații, Abandon este, neîndoielnic, un roman care merită citit.
November 16, 2021
I began to think of myself as expelled, an exile �. My father’s letter about not returning [due to the danger and terrible events of the revolution] stunned me . Where was I to go if not return? �. For the first time since arriving in England, I began to think of myself as an alien. I realised I had been thinking of myself as someone in the middle part of a journey, between coming and going, fulfilling an undertaking before returning home, but I began to fear that my journey was over, that I would live all my life in England, a stranger in the middle of nowhere.
The 7th novel by the 2021 Nobel Prize Literature winner, the one I read to complete my reading of his entire oeuvre over a 5-6 week period since the award was announced and in my view the best of his novels (despite its low profile).
From the Nobel Citation.
Gurnah’s itinerant characters find themselves in a hiatus between cultures and continents, between a life that was and a life emerging; it is an insecure state that can never be resolved. We find a new version of this hiatus in Gurnah’s .. seventh novel, Desertion, where a tragic passion is employed to illuminate the vast cultural differences in colonised East Africa. The long first part is masterfully forged. Set around the turn of the 20th century it describes how Englishman Martin Pearce, collapsing unconscious in the street, is helped by a local merchant and taken through the city’s labyrinths into a world where the culture and religion are alien. But Pearce speaks Arabic, one of the preconditions for closer contact with the family and for him to fall in love with their daughter Rehana. Gurnah knows full well that the era he is portraying is not, as said in the novel, “the age of Pocahontas when a romantic fling with a savage princess could be described as an adventure� and is uninterested in a melodrama about Martin and Rehana’s scandalous life in Mombasa with inevitable separation as a consequence. Instead, he lets the subsequent parts of the novel revolve around a completely different story of forbidden love a half-century later, but just as marked by the cultural barriers that endure. Perhaps nowhere else does Gurnah so clearly articulate his mission as a writer than in the end of the first section, in a meta-fictitious “interruption�, where the grandson of Rehana, surfaces as the narrator of the novel. He is, by his existence, proof that Rehana’s life did not end in catastrophe but had a continuation, and he now says that the story is not about him: “It is about how one story contains many and how they belong not to us but are part of the random currents of our time, and about how stories capture us and entangle us for all time.� Underpinning the novel is Gurnah’s own youth in Zanzibar, where for centuries a number of different languages, cultures and religions have existed side by side but also fought each other for hegemony. Even if his novels are written in an intriguing alliance with an Anglo-Saxon tradition, the cosmopolitan backdrop provides their distinctiveness. Dialogue and the spoken word play an important role, with noticeable elements of Swahili, Arabic, Hindi and German.
Interestingly this is a lengthier description than any of his other books � and which despite an egregious error, I think picks up on the way in which this book really encapsulates the heart of Gurnah’s writing and also combines the settings which go across his other novels: as the novel has three main settings: East Coast Africa in the years during the Scramble for Africa; Zanzibar/Tangayika immediately pre and post independence and the subsequent bloody revolution; England in the 60s/70s for an unwitting exile.
The first part of the book is set in 1899 and tells the story of the Orientalist explorer Pearce, and:
His collapse after being robbed and abandoned by the guides meant to be leading him, after he decides he cannot stomach the slaughter of a hunting trip;
His immediate taking to the merchant’s house (the merchant himself Hassanali from a mixed Indian merchant and African local marriage, living now with his young wife and with his sister Rehana � briefly and happily married to an Indian trader who then did not return from his next trip) � this part gives us an excellent overview of the five way interactions in the area: black Africans, Indian merchants, Omani ex-rulers, British colonial officials and the influence of ex-Colonial powers such as the Portugese;
His subsequent “rescue� by the British colonial District Officer � Frederick Turner and his time with Turner, the local estate manager Burton and his involvement in their conversations about the likely fate of Africa � this part was particuarly eye-opening for me, as well as for Pearce, as Burton puts forth the view that African will be the new America with the native population likely to succumb to disease and genocide leaving a virgin continent to explore and exploit � while to Pearce’s incredulity “we’ve done a lot worse than that� Turner argues that the fate of Oscar Wilde encapsulates the horrors of British actions in the 19th Century (something I think will be interesting to revisit next year discussing the world view underlying Hanya Yanigahra’s “To Paradise�)
His revisit to Hassanali’s household and the early burgeoning of his relationship with Rehana
This section, which is excellent (and which is told in third party chapters from the points of view of Hassanali, Turner, Rehana and Pierce) is I think best seen as a deliberate decolonialisation of a classic trope of colonial literature about relationships in colonised countries � with here the focus entirely on the events in Africa and with little interest in the subsequent developments. Further, as the Nobel citation points out, the narrator then in a staged “Interruption� directly reveals their identity and some of their reasons for writing what is an imagined account of something they know to have occurred � although the Nobel Prize is completely wrong in other respects.
The narrator is not Rehana’s grandson but actually the younger brother of someone (Rashid) who has an ill fated relationship with Rehana (and Pearce’s) granddaughter Jamila. And he is writing very much in the vein of Gurnah himself � as a Zanzibarian of Indian descent exiled to England (as a student) from his country after the (black-African and anti-Indian and Omani) post-independence Revolution: the difference being that Gurnah deliberately fled some time after the revolution � the narrator Amin moved just before it and with no thought that return would be difficult.
This part is a more conventional section although its treatment of Zanzibarian society is fascinating � we learn of Rashid and Amin’s childhood and relationship and educational success (Amin always an exemplary student and focusing on a teaching career, the younger Rashid more variable but with a love of abroad and groomed by his colonial teachers for a scholarship to England) , of their sister who failing to get one of the very coveted and limited school places available to girls settles for a life of domesticity and a sewing business (to the despair of her parents � both of who defied their own parents to receive an education), and of how Amin and one of her customers (Jamila � who has a scandalous reputation due to her grandmother, her own short marriage and her dalliances with a politician) start an illicit relationship. We also see Amin’s life in England and his struggles as he realises that a return to Zanzibar is unwise and perhaps see the real narrator of the book (Gurnah) speaking through him (see the opening and closing quotes to my review � taken from the same passage).
A final section shows how a chance encounter with a relative of Turner helps Amin piece the full story together.
Overall my favourite of Gurnah’s novels and a fitting culmination to my reading.
In time I drifted into a tolerable alienness. Living day to day, this alienness became a kind of emblem, indeterminate about its origins. Soon I began to say black people and white people, like everyone else, uttering the lie with increasing ease, conceding the sameness of our difference, deferring to a deadening vision of a radicalised world. For by agreeing to be back and white, we also agree to limit the complexity of possibility, we agree to mendacitties that for centuries served and will continue to serve crude hungers for power and pathological self-affirmations �.. In the midst of uproars about wars, and civil rights and apartheid, with the sense of being present while the pressing issues of our world were being argued over and fought for, I was drawn away from the complicated cruelties that were happening at home. They could not be inserted into this conversation, with its pared down polarities and uncluttered certainties, and I was only able to suffer them in silence and guilt while I was on my own.
August 10, 2022
Pentru o părere mai detaliată, aici puteți găsi vlogul de lectură pe care l-am filmat pe măsură ce am citit cartea:
Dar așa ca să vă faceți o idee, este un roman centrat pe destinul unor personaje, care de altfel sunt construite foarte bine (eu m-am atașat mult de ele), în niște vremuri politice, sociale și economice foarte tulburi. Colonialismul britanic în Africa de Est e foarte fin analizat, chestiunile de tradiție și cultură sunt prezentate dintr-o poziție neutră dar solidă, iar abandonul este privit din multiple unghiuri. Abandonații, cei care abandonează, cei care sunt forțați să abandoneze.
O carte scrisă într-un ritm molcom (nu același lucru cu plictisitor, să fie clar) care îți intră pe sub piele. Plus că mie mi-a făcut lumină în ceea ce privește istoria zbuciumată a Kenyei și melanjul de culturi și confesiuni religioase din acea zonă datorat colonialismului și economiei tot mai înfloritoare din secolul 21.
Un roman musai de lecturat pentru cei care gustă romanele centrate pe personaje.
Dar așa ca să vă faceți o idee, este un roman centrat pe destinul unor personaje, care de altfel sunt construite foarte bine (eu m-am atașat mult de ele), în niște vremuri politice, sociale și economice foarte tulburi. Colonialismul britanic în Africa de Est e foarte fin analizat, chestiunile de tradiție și cultură sunt prezentate dintr-o poziție neutră dar solidă, iar abandonul este privit din multiple unghiuri. Abandonații, cei care abandonează, cei care sunt forțați să abandoneze.
O carte scrisă într-un ritm molcom (nu același lucru cu plictisitor, să fie clar) care îți intră pe sub piele. Plus că mie mi-a făcut lumină în ceea ce privește istoria zbuciumată a Kenyei și melanjul de culturi și confesiuni religioase din acea zonă datorat colonialismului și economiei tot mai înfloritoare din secolul 21.
Un roman musai de lecturat pentru cei care gustă romanele centrate pe personaje.
October 17, 2021
Όπως οι περισσότεροι, δεν γνώριζα τον Αμπντουλραζάκ Γκούρνα πριν βραβευτεί με το Νόμπελ. Θέλησα λοιπόν να τον γνωρίσω κι έτσι ρίχνοντας μια ματιά στο έργο του, διάλεξα να διαβάσω το Desertion. Το διάλεξα γιατί στο οπισθόφυλλο έγραφε οτι αναφέρεται σε δύο μεγάλους κι απαγορευμένους έρωτες, κι αν δεν είναι αυτός σοβαρός λόγος για να διαβάσεις ένα βιβλίο, ποιος είναι; 😛
Το βιβλίο αποτελείται απο τρία μέρη, απο τρεις ιστορίες που συνδέονται μεταξυ τους.
Η πρώτη ξεκινάει το 1899 σε μια μικρή πόλη στην ανατολική ακτή της Αφρικής, στην μετέπειτα Κένυα. Ένας Άγγλος εμφανίζεται ξημερώματα στην πόλη μισοπεθαμένος, ένας λίγο αλαφροΐσκιωτος μουσουλμάνος τον μαζεύει σπίτι του για να τον φροντίσει, στο σπίτι ζει και η αδερφή του και η φωτιά δεν χρειάζεται πολλά για να ανάψει. Μερικές ματιές ήταν αρκετές.
Σε αυτό το κομμάτι γνωρίζουμε την πόλη, τους κατοίκους της και τις συνήθειες τους και όλα αυτά τα βλέπουμε και μέσα απο την ματιά των Άγγλων. Αυτό έχει ένα ενδιαφέρον. Βλέπουμε επίσης και αρκετές συζητήσεις για την αποικιοκρατία. Το love story το βλεπουμε ελάχιστα. Να πω την αλήθεια, το βαρέθηκα λίγο αυτό το κομμάτι.
Στην δεύτερη ιστορία μεταφερόμαστε μισό αιώνα αργότερα στην Ζανζιβάρη. Εκεί παρακολουθούμε την ζωή μιας οικογένειας. Ένα ζευγάρι δασκάλων, τους δύο γιους και την κόρη τους. Ο ένας γιος, ο Αμίν, ερωτεύεται μια γυναίκα λίγο αμφιλεγόμενης φήμης και αυτό φέρνει μεγάλη αναστάτωση στην οικογένεια, ο μικρότερος αδελφός φεύγει στην Αγγλία για σπουδές και η ζωή της οικογένειας διαλύεται απο τις πολιτικές εξελίξεις στην χώρα.
Στο τρίτο μέρος βλέπουμε την πορεία του Ρασίντ που έφυγε στην Αγγλία για σπουδές. Αυτός είναι και ο αφηγητής του βιβλίου. Επικοινωνεί με τους δικούς του μέσω αλληλογραφίας που γίνεται όλο και πιο δύσκολη μετά και την Ζανζιβαρινή επανάσταση. Αντιμετωπίζει δυσκολίες, μοναξιά, ρατσισμό και τύψεις γιατί θεωρεί οτι εγκατέλειψε την οικογένεια του.
Στο τρίτο μέρος δένουν μεταξύ τους οι προηγούμενες ιστορίες που μεχρι τώρα ειχαν μείνει ημιτελείς.
Βραδυφλεγές βιβλίο, σε κερδιζει σιγά σιγά. Αν και στην αρχή το βαρέθηκα λίγο, τελικά μου αρεσε πολύ, με συγκίνησε και κλείνοντάς το έμεινα με ένα σφίξιμο στην καρδιά και πολύ θα ήθελα μερικές σελίδες ακόμα.
Το βιβλίο αποτελείται απο τρία μέρη, απο τρεις ιστορίες που συνδέονται μεταξυ τους.
Η πρώτη ξεκινάει το 1899 σε μια μικρή πόλη στην ανατολική ακτή της Αφρικής, στην μετέπειτα Κένυα. Ένας Άγγλος εμφανίζεται ξημερώματα στην πόλη μισοπεθαμένος, ένας λίγο αλαφροΐσκιωτος μουσουλμάνος τον μαζεύει σπίτι του για να τον φροντίσει, στο σπίτι ζει και η αδερφή του και η φωτιά δεν χρειάζεται πολλά για να ανάψει. Μερικές ματιές ήταν αρκετές.
Σε αυτό το κομμάτι γνωρίζουμε την πόλη, τους κατοίκους της και τις συνήθειες τους και όλα αυτά τα βλέπουμε και μέσα απο την ματιά των Άγγλων. Αυτό έχει ένα ενδιαφέρον. Βλέπουμε επίσης και αρκετές συζητήσεις για την αποικιοκρατία. Το love story το βλεπουμε ελάχιστα. Να πω την αλήθεια, το βαρέθηκα λίγο αυτό το κομμάτι.
Στην δεύτερη ιστορία μεταφερόμαστε μισό αιώνα αργότερα στην Ζανζιβάρη. Εκεί παρακολουθούμε την ζωή μιας οικογένειας. Ένα ζευγάρι δασκάλων, τους δύο γιους και την κόρη τους. Ο ένας γιος, ο Αμίν, ερωτεύεται μια γυναίκα λίγο αμφιλεγόμενης φήμης και αυτό φέρνει μεγάλη αναστάτωση στην οικογένεια, ο μικρότερος αδελφός φεύγει στην Αγγλία για σπουδές και η ζωή της οικογένειας διαλύεται απο τις πολιτικές εξελίξεις στην χώρα.
Στο τρίτο μέρος βλέπουμε την πορεία του Ρασίντ που έφυγε στην Αγγλία για σπουδές. Αυτός είναι και ο αφηγητής του βιβλίου. Επικοινωνεί με τους δικούς του μέσω αλληλογραφίας που γίνεται όλο και πιο δύσκολη μετά και την Ζανζιβαρινή επανάσταση. Αντιμετωπίζει δυσκολίες, μοναξιά, ρατσισμό και τύψεις γιατί θεωρεί οτι εγκατέλειψε την οικογένεια του.
Στο τρίτο μέρος δένουν μεταξύ τους οι προηγούμενες ιστορίες που μεχρι τώρα ειχαν μείνει ημιτελείς.
Βραδυφλεγές βιβλίο, σε κερδιζει σιγά σιγά. Αν και στην αρχή το βαρέθηκα λίγο, τελικά μου αρεσε πολύ, με συγκίνησε και κλείνοντάς το έμεινα με ένα σφίξιμο στην καρδιά και πολύ θα ήθελα μερικές σελίδες ακόμα.
February 20, 2023
3,5�-4�. O notă reală ar fi în range-ul ăsta, dar cum GR nu mă lasă decât să dau note întregi, am rotunjit-o în sus.
Am ales cartea pentru că autorul a fost premiat cu Nobel și asta mi-a trezit curiozitatea. Până-n finalul romanului m-am întrebat de ce a câștigat premiul, dar am să mai citesc și altceva de la el înainte să vorbesc despre asta 😅.
CUVINTE CHEIE: colonialism, africa musulmană, dragoste interzisă, cultura sultanatului
CE MI-A PLĂCUT:
- atmosfera & setting-ul. Nu am citit prea multă ficțiune africană și o incursiune în lumea sultanatului devenit, pe parcursul cărții, o regiune independentă m-a ținut aproape de poveste;
- personajele. Da, caracterele sunt stereotipe și pot fi descrise printr-o singură trăsătură de caracter/mentalitate. De obicei ăsta e un lucru rău din punctul meu de vedere, dar aici livrează mesajul: tradițiile și felul cum au fost crescuți domină orice alt sentiment/gând/ideal/oportunitate.
- atipicitatea. Mi se pare atipic pentru un bărbat să scrie despre o poveste de dragoste, cu atât mai mult cu cât aceasta este una interzisă și se mai și întinde pe câteva generații. E clar că iubirea e descrisă din perspectiva bărbaților și mi s-a părut interesant de urmărit căci, așa cum am spus la început, avem o cu totul altă cultură și istorie în față;
- descrierile. Aici am văzut că se cam plânge lumea 😂, dar mie mi-au plăcut. Am vrut vocea autorului și cum am ascultat cartea, nu m-au plictisit și nici nu mi-au îngreunat înaintarea-n poveste;
- limbajul. Mă așteptam la ceva pompos, deosebit de liric, plin de metafore și procedee artistice literare, dar am descoperit o scriitură simplă, clară, ușor înfrumusețată când și când. A fost ușor de asimilat lectura în felul ăsta;
CE NU MI-A PLĂCUT:
- vocea feminină a lipsit. De fapt, adâncimea ei a fost absentă, partea cu care aș fi putut empatiza și la care m-aș fi putut, poate, raporta;
- coincidențe peste coincidențe. Toată treaba asta cu generațiile care repetau lait motivul iubirii interzise și erau și legate genetic 😅 didn’t settle with me. Dar ficțiunea e ficțiune și i s-a părut autorului că se leagă mai bine lucrurile așa 🤷🏻♀�
- structura. Aici a fost ceva confuzie, mai ales în modul cum o altă poveste începea odată cu un nou capitol, dar cea din capitolul precedent nu ajunsese în mod organic la final.
CUI RECOMAND?
Curioșilor! 😂 Dar mai mult de-atât, dacă:
- vreți o lectură relativ ușoară, însă cu substrat;
- vreți să vedeți o ficțiune istorică plasată în zona Africană și martoră la o schimbare politică importantă;
- vreți personaje masculine principale;
- vreți diversitate;
Am ales cartea pentru că autorul a fost premiat cu Nobel și asta mi-a trezit curiozitatea. Până-n finalul romanului m-am întrebat de ce a câștigat premiul, dar am să mai citesc și altceva de la el înainte să vorbesc despre asta 😅.
CUVINTE CHEIE: colonialism, africa musulmană, dragoste interzisă, cultura sultanatului
CE MI-A PLĂCUT:
- atmosfera & setting-ul. Nu am citit prea multă ficțiune africană și o incursiune în lumea sultanatului devenit, pe parcursul cărții, o regiune independentă m-a ținut aproape de poveste;
- personajele. Da, caracterele sunt stereotipe și pot fi descrise printr-o singură trăsătură de caracter/mentalitate. De obicei ăsta e un lucru rău din punctul meu de vedere, dar aici livrează mesajul: tradițiile și felul cum au fost crescuți domină orice alt sentiment/gând/ideal/oportunitate.
- atipicitatea. Mi se pare atipic pentru un bărbat să scrie despre o poveste de dragoste, cu atât mai mult cu cât aceasta este una interzisă și se mai și întinde pe câteva generații. E clar că iubirea e descrisă din perspectiva bărbaților și mi s-a părut interesant de urmărit căci, așa cum am spus la început, avem o cu totul altă cultură și istorie în față;
- descrierile. Aici am văzut că se cam plânge lumea 😂, dar mie mi-au plăcut. Am vrut vocea autorului și cum am ascultat cartea, nu m-au plictisit și nici nu mi-au îngreunat înaintarea-n poveste;
- limbajul. Mă așteptam la ceva pompos, deosebit de liric, plin de metafore și procedee artistice literare, dar am descoperit o scriitură simplă, clară, ușor înfrumusețată când și când. A fost ușor de asimilat lectura în felul ăsta;
CE NU MI-A PLĂCUT:
- vocea feminină a lipsit. De fapt, adâncimea ei a fost absentă, partea cu care aș fi putut empatiza și la care m-aș fi putut, poate, raporta;
- coincidențe peste coincidențe. Toată treaba asta cu generațiile care repetau lait motivul iubirii interzise și erau și legate genetic 😅 didn’t settle with me. Dar ficțiunea e ficțiune și i s-a părut autorului că se leagă mai bine lucrurile așa 🤷🏻♀�
- structura. Aici a fost ceva confuzie, mai ales în modul cum o altă poveste începea odată cu un nou capitol, dar cea din capitolul precedent nu ajunsese în mod organic la final.
CUI RECOMAND?
Curioșilor! 😂 Dar mai mult de-atât, dacă:
- vreți o lectură relativ ușoară, însă cu substrat;
- vreți să vedeți o ficțiune istorică plasată în zona Africană și martoră la o schimbare politică importantă;
- vreți personaje masculine principale;
- vreți diversitate;
June 26, 2023
O carte despre durere, neajunsuri, nedreptate și abandon, analizat în diferite contexte.
Nu am mai citit nimic despre colonizarea Africii de Est, despre diferitele grupuri etnice sau religioase din acele locuri(cu precădere musulmani de culoare), dar a fost o lectură interesantă, care mi-a adus și informații noi.
Greșeală mea a fost că am ascultat cartea în proporție de 80%, am vrut de multe ori să renunț pt că nu m-am putut conecta cu povestea, nu mi-a capturat interesul pe deplin, dar e o carte bună, care mi-ar fi plăcut mai mult dacă aș fi citit-o într-un alt moment.
M-a ținut curioasă, deoarece am avut impresia constat că autorul nu ne dă suficiente detalii despre poveste, nu ne lasă să cunoaștem și înțelegem fiecare personaj, dar probabil asta a fost și intenția sa.
Recomand acest roman și să citim ficțiune istorică și despre suferința altor populare, nu doar a europenilor și evreilor.
“În țara orbilor, un ochi îți aduce prea multe necazuri.�
“Mă tem de lucrurile pe care și le dorește. Nu poți pur și simplu să te duci acolo, să vezi ce e de văzut și să te întorci. Ceea ce vezi, te schimbă.�
“Conducătorii noștri au plecat, iar noi suntem atât de obișnuiți să ne supunem, încât continuăm să ne îndeplinim îndatoririle de sclavi fără să ne supravegheze cineva.�
“Cum se face că și cei mai buni oameni pot fi și răi?�
Nu am mai citit nimic despre colonizarea Africii de Est, despre diferitele grupuri etnice sau religioase din acele locuri(cu precădere musulmani de culoare), dar a fost o lectură interesantă, care mi-a adus și informații noi.
Greșeală mea a fost că am ascultat cartea în proporție de 80%, am vrut de multe ori să renunț pt că nu m-am putut conecta cu povestea, nu mi-a capturat interesul pe deplin, dar e o carte bună, care mi-ar fi plăcut mai mult dacă aș fi citit-o într-un alt moment.
M-a ținut curioasă, deoarece am avut impresia constat că autorul nu ne dă suficiente detalii despre poveste, nu ne lasă să cunoaștem și înțelegem fiecare personaj, dar probabil asta a fost și intenția sa.
Recomand acest roman și să citim ficțiune istorică și despre suferința altor populare, nu doar a europenilor și evreilor.
“În țara orbilor, un ochi îți aduce prea multe necazuri.�
“Mă tem de lucrurile pe care și le dorește. Nu poți pur și simplu să te duci acolo, să vezi ce e de văzut și să te întorci. Ceea ce vezi, te schimbă.�
“Conducătorii noștri au plecat, iar noi suntem atât de obișnuiți să ne supunem, încât continuăm să ne îndeplinim îndatoririle de sclavi fără să ne supravegheze cineva.�
“Cum se face că și cei mai buni oameni pot fi și răi?�
August 2, 2024
It’s our age. We think we know that the miracle is a lie and we always look for the hidden or suppressed explanation. We would rather have greed and lust as motive than love. We are reassured by slyly mocking references to our squalor, our smells and our expulsions, than to our trembling modesty, or to our quivering desire for affection. We are not even allowed souls any more, and our secret inner spaces are merely sites of unresolved turmoil, raw with throbbing wounds.
*
Only he could not forget her. Perhaps he said to himself, I cannot resist, I cannot stop myself. As he thought about her, his yearning (it very quickly became that) picked up strength with every recollection. There were moments in the days and nights that followed when he shut his eyes and deliberately evoked her, and felt her as if she was very close to him, felt her gaze on him and a slight tremble of her breathing on his face.
*
There is, as you can see, an I in this story, but it is not a story about me. It is one about all of us, about Farida and Amin and our parents, and about Jamila. It is about how one story contains many and how they belong not to us but are part of the random currents of our time, and about how stories capture us and entangle us for all time.
*
He is now in the United States, teaching sociology in a college in Montana. Ghana did not work out, it turned into a cesspit like everywhere else. He calls me once a year or so, or perhaps less frequently than that, but somehow or the other we have not manged to meet again, even on the times when he has travelled through London. I don’t suppose now we ever will. How will I ever find my way to Montana and what would be the point of it? Each call seems more strained, our conversation forced in brightness. The questions we ask each other are gestures towards a friendship that neither can fully return. I wonder sometimes what makes him call me, at what seem to me such strange hours. I never call him, although I feel I should. I don’t know what to say, where to begin. I wonder if he calls me because memories have made him sad, or if his life is lonely, or whether he feels a desire to speak to me out of a mood of generosity and wellbeing, or if he had just had a recollection of something we had done that made him smile. Now as I think this, I feel sad at the way our affections and friendships are so steadily and thoughtlessly depleted by apathy.
*
Am I one? I am the pool in which she mingles with me. I have never known a time of such lack and such longing, as if I would die of thirst or lunacy if I did not hold her and lie with her. Yet I don’t die and I don’t hold her. But I have never known very much, and perhaps all love is like this sooner or later. Something blind and immovable is lodged in me, its teeth sunk in some tender part I cannot locate or reach. I can feel its malice. This desperate misery passes, is passing, when at first I did not even have the strength to lift my voice or use words to explain it to myself. I have loved unwisely, but it has not been an oppression on me. I have been fortunate in my foolishness. I will never abandon her. I will see her every day for as long as I can, for as long as the years allow me a memory of her. Praise the beauty of the day in the night that follows it, and my night will be long and her beauty endless.
*
Only he could not forget her. Perhaps he said to himself, I cannot resist, I cannot stop myself. As he thought about her, his yearning (it very quickly became that) picked up strength with every recollection. There were moments in the days and nights that followed when he shut his eyes and deliberately evoked her, and felt her as if she was very close to him, felt her gaze on him and a slight tremble of her breathing on his face.
*
There is, as you can see, an I in this story, but it is not a story about me. It is one about all of us, about Farida and Amin and our parents, and about Jamila. It is about how one story contains many and how they belong not to us but are part of the random currents of our time, and about how stories capture us and entangle us for all time.
*
He is now in the United States, teaching sociology in a college in Montana. Ghana did not work out, it turned into a cesspit like everywhere else. He calls me once a year or so, or perhaps less frequently than that, but somehow or the other we have not manged to meet again, even on the times when he has travelled through London. I don’t suppose now we ever will. How will I ever find my way to Montana and what would be the point of it? Each call seems more strained, our conversation forced in brightness. The questions we ask each other are gestures towards a friendship that neither can fully return. I wonder sometimes what makes him call me, at what seem to me such strange hours. I never call him, although I feel I should. I don’t know what to say, where to begin. I wonder if he calls me because memories have made him sad, or if his life is lonely, or whether he feels a desire to speak to me out of a mood of generosity and wellbeing, or if he had just had a recollection of something we had done that made him smile. Now as I think this, I feel sad at the way our affections and friendships are so steadily and thoughtlessly depleted by apathy.
*
Am I one? I am the pool in which she mingles with me. I have never known a time of such lack and such longing, as if I would die of thirst or lunacy if I did not hold her and lie with her. Yet I don’t die and I don’t hold her. But I have never known very much, and perhaps all love is like this sooner or later. Something blind and immovable is lodged in me, its teeth sunk in some tender part I cannot locate or reach. I can feel its malice. This desperate misery passes, is passing, when at first I did not even have the strength to lift my voice or use words to explain it to myself. I have loved unwisely, but it has not been an oppression on me. I have been fortunate in my foolishness. I will never abandon her. I will see her every day for as long as I can, for as long as the years allow me a memory of her. Praise the beauty of the day in the night that follows it, and my night will be long and her beauty endless.
June 18, 2022
O carte care descrie foarte bine cultura musulman-africana. Avem și pasaje triste, dar și momente de bucurie. Personaje impecabil construite și stilul de scriere te face sa dai pagina după pagină.
June 16, 2023
„Cum se face că până și cei mai buni oameni pot fi și răi?
În țara orbilor, cine are nevoie de ochi?�
În țara orbilor, cine are nevoie de ochi?�
February 5, 2022
Wow, che sorpresa questo autore!
Devo dire premio Nobel assolutamente meritato.
Gurnah riesce a trattare temi difficili, quali soprattutto razzismo e colonialismo, in una maniera allo stesso tempo delicata e pungente.
Il romanzo, ambientato in due tempi diversi, se inizia un po� lentamente finisce per rivelarsi magnifico.
Le vite di Amin e Rashid, fratelli di etnia Kiswahili (il secondo pare essere un alter ego dell’autore stesso), si ritrovano intrecciate, anche con discreti colpi di scena, a quelle del britannico Pearce e di Rehana, forse il personaggio più interessante del libro: una donna musulmana, caratterizzata alla perfezione dall’autore, che vive un’amore interrazziale.
Non mi aspettavo chissà che da questo romanzo, ma mi ha stupito in tutto e per tutto: l’ambientazione, i temi, i personaggi, la storia sullo sfondo.
Sarà difficile dimenticarsi qualcosa.
Bella scoperta.
Devo dire premio Nobel assolutamente meritato.
Gurnah riesce a trattare temi difficili, quali soprattutto razzismo e colonialismo, in una maniera allo stesso tempo delicata e pungente.
Il romanzo, ambientato in due tempi diversi, se inizia un po� lentamente finisce per rivelarsi magnifico.
Le vite di Amin e Rashid, fratelli di etnia Kiswahili (il secondo pare essere un alter ego dell’autore stesso), si ritrovano intrecciate, anche con discreti colpi di scena, a quelle del britannico Pearce e di Rehana, forse il personaggio più interessante del libro: una donna musulmana, caratterizzata alla perfezione dall’autore, che vive un’amore interrazziale.
Non mi aspettavo chissà che da questo romanzo, ma mi ha stupito in tutto e per tutto: l’ambientazione, i temi, i personaggi, la storia sullo sfondo.
Sarà difficile dimenticarsi qualcosa.
Bella scoperta.
February 9, 2022
Her zamanki gibi, sömürge döneminden bağımsızlığa yürüyen bir ülkede, Zanzibar’da geçen, üç kuşağı kapsayan ve İngiltere’de üniversite eğitimine giden bir çocuk ile ilgili bir hikaye.
Üç farklı kuşak kadınının yaşam mücadelesini okuyoruz bu romanda. Tüm dünyada kadınların yaşadıkları sıkıntılar benzer özellikler taşıyor. Fakat müslüman ülkelerde çok daha zorlu koşullarla savaşmak zorundalar. Yüzyıllar boyunca var olan bu zorluklar, çok yavaş adımlarla olsa da, mutlaka başarılı aşılacak.
Yazarın sıcak ve akıcı anlatımıyla, sanki benzer hikayelerin öncesini ve sonrasını okuyoruz. Ancak benzer duyguların yanısıra her romanında farklı bir bakış açısı ve farklı duyguların derin analizlerini de bulmak mümkün.
Bu kitabı sanki biraz dağınık. Ama yine de okumaktan keyif aldım.
Üç farklı kuşak kadınının yaşam mücadelesini okuyoruz bu romanda. Tüm dünyada kadınların yaşadıkları sıkıntılar benzer özellikler taşıyor. Fakat müslüman ülkelerde çok daha zorlu koşullarla savaşmak zorundalar. Yüzyıllar boyunca var olan bu zorluklar, çok yavaş adımlarla olsa da, mutlaka başarılı aşılacak.
Yazarın sıcak ve akıcı anlatımıyla, sanki benzer hikayelerin öncesini ve sonrasını okuyoruz. Ancak benzer duyguların yanısıra her romanında farklı bir bakış açısı ve farklı duyguların derin analizlerini de bulmak mümkün.
Bu kitabı sanki biraz dağınık. Ama yine de okumaktan keyif aldım.
January 18, 2022
Even ****1/2
Really a beautiful book.
I've been told by a close "book friend" of mine that is a slow book. Right. Slow to the point of suffering; still it does not cross the limit. And I've liked the writings immensly - and the structure of the novel, where all in the ends converge. And the discover that the narrator is not a omniscent one, but someone who's not so inside the story as well!
I can say I want to keep on reading other things by him!
It's a book on colonialism, but also on women - written by a man! - on love, on races and racism. Lots of things together...
‘I think in time we’ll come to see what we’re doing in places like these less heroically,� Martin said. ‘I think we’ll come to see ourselves less charmingly. I think in time we’ll come to be ashamed of some of the things we have done.�
Men left while women stayed behind and died after a lifetime of wheedling and scraping. So when she reached out with the notebook, and Martin took it and then grinned, and then after that held out his hand to invite her into the house, she took his hand and followed him in.
There is, as you can see, an I in this story, but it is not a story about me. It is one about all of us, about Farida and Amin and our parents, and about Jamila. It is about how one story contains many and how they belong not to us but are part of the random currents of our time, and about how stories capture us and entangle us for all time.
I wonder now about that shopkeeper, how he ended up on that street selling books, and whether his smile had something sardonic in it. Here is another blundering one to put through the anguishing mill, I imagine him thinking. I wonder whether he knew that when he suggested those books to me, it was as if he had lit a torch to illuminate a darkened path.
as if I would die of thirst or lunacy if I did not hold her and lie with her. Yet I don’t die and I don’t hold her. But I have never known very much, and perhaps all love is like this sooner or later.
Really a beautiful book.
I've been told by a close "book friend" of mine that is a slow book. Right. Slow to the point of suffering; still it does not cross the limit. And I've liked the writings immensly - and the structure of the novel, where all in the ends converge. And the discover that the narrator is not a omniscent one, but someone who's not so inside the story as well!
I can say I want to keep on reading other things by him!
It's a book on colonialism, but also on women - written by a man! - on love, on races and racism. Lots of things together...
‘I think in time we’ll come to see what we’re doing in places like these less heroically,� Martin said. ‘I think we’ll come to see ourselves less charmingly. I think in time we’ll come to be ashamed of some of the things we have done.�
Men left while women stayed behind and died after a lifetime of wheedling and scraping. So when she reached out with the notebook, and Martin took it and then grinned, and then after that held out his hand to invite her into the house, she took his hand and followed him in.
There is, as you can see, an I in this story, but it is not a story about me. It is one about all of us, about Farida and Amin and our parents, and about Jamila. It is about how one story contains many and how they belong not to us but are part of the random currents of our time, and about how stories capture us and entangle us for all time.
I wonder now about that shopkeeper, how he ended up on that street selling books, and whether his smile had something sardonic in it. Here is another blundering one to put through the anguishing mill, I imagine him thinking. I wonder whether he knew that when he suggested those books to me, it was as if he had lit a torch to illuminate a darkened path.
as if I would die of thirst or lunacy if I did not hold her and lie with her. Yet I don’t die and I don’t hold her. But I have never known very much, and perhaps all love is like this sooner or later.
May 28, 2022
Romanul m-a dezamăgit. Mă așteptam mai mult de la un premiant Nobel.
Principalul defect al cărții mi s-a părut următorul: naratorul descrie tot ceea ce gândesc bărbații (în monologul lor interior), în schimb, se ferește ca dracul de tămâie să spună ce gândesc femeile. Sigur, e greu de ghicit ce gândește o femeie, dar Gurnah ar fi putut face un mic efort, măcar din politețe. Firește, autorul prezintă o lume islamică, în care femeia nu are importanță, dar naratorul ar fi trebuit să fie mai puțin mahomedan decât eroii și eroinele sale.
Mi-a adus aminte de procedeele din „O mie și una de nopți�. Există mai multe fire narative. Prima parte relatează povestea de dragoste dintre sora unui negustor, Rehana (părăsită de soț), și un călător englez. Iubirea se petrece în secolul XIX. A doua parte se petrece în anii 60 ai secolului trecut și prezintă relația dintre Amin și Jamila. Fratele lui Amin, pe nume Rashid, primește o bursă la o universitate din Londra. Are de gând să se întoarcă acasă după terminarea studiilor. Din păcate, țara de origine își proclamă independența și părinții lui îi cer să nu se întoarcă. Va rămâne în Marea Britanie și va afla că Jamila e nepoata Rehanei.
Să mai spun că amândouă sunt femei rebele și nonconformiste? Mai bine nu vă spun. Citiți romanul...
Principalul defect al cărții mi s-a părut următorul: naratorul descrie tot ceea ce gândesc bărbații (în monologul lor interior), în schimb, se ferește ca dracul de tămâie să spună ce gândesc femeile. Sigur, e greu de ghicit ce gândește o femeie, dar Gurnah ar fi putut face un mic efort, măcar din politețe. Firește, autorul prezintă o lume islamică, în care femeia nu are importanță, dar naratorul ar fi trebuit să fie mai puțin mahomedan decât eroii și eroinele sale.
Mi-a adus aminte de procedeele din „O mie și una de nopți�. Există mai multe fire narative. Prima parte relatează povestea de dragoste dintre sora unui negustor, Rehana (părăsită de soț), și un călător englez. Iubirea se petrece în secolul XIX. A doua parte se petrece în anii 60 ai secolului trecut și prezintă relația dintre Amin și Jamila. Fratele lui Amin, pe nume Rashid, primește o bursă la o universitate din Londra. Are de gând să se întoarcă acasă după terminarea studiilor. Din păcate, țara de origine își proclamă independența și părinții lui îi cer să nu se întoarcă. Va rămâne în Marea Britanie și va afla că Jamila e nepoata Rehanei.
Să mai spun că amândouă sunt femei rebele și nonconformiste? Mai bine nu vă spun. Citiți romanul...
October 19, 2022
Se pricepe autorul la cuvinte. Emoțiile și trăirile personajelor m-au fascinat.
Mi-a plăcut cum e scrisă cartea. E un roman centrat pe personaje. Avem două povești în care se povestesc două iubiri interzise (dragoste interculturală, interrasială) și la urmă, aceste povești au un punct comun.
Despre reguli care trebuie respectate pentru că părintele așa spune, pentru că așa e politica statului, pentru că sunt multe la mijloc.
Despre abandon, rasism, colonialism, despre statutul inferior al femeii (aici un pic m-a deranjat lipsa de atitudine sau umila părere a autorului vizavi de femei, dacă tot nu locuiește de mulți ani în țara sa).
Mi-a plăcut cum e scrisă cartea. E un roman centrat pe personaje. Avem două povești în care se povestesc două iubiri interzise (dragoste interculturală, interrasială) și la urmă, aceste povești au un punct comun.
Despre reguli care trebuie respectate pentru că părintele așa spune, pentru că așa e politica statului, pentru că sunt multe la mijloc.
Despre abandon, rasism, colonialism, despre statutul inferior al femeii (aici un pic m-a deranjat lipsa de atitudine sau umila părere a autorului vizavi de femei, dacă tot nu locuiește de mulți ani în țara sa).
August 26, 2024
Κάθε φορά που ανακοινώνεται ο νικήτης του Νόμπελ Λογοτεχνίας ξεχνάμε ότι το βραβείο απονέμεται για το σύνολο του έργου ενός συγγραφέα και διατυπώνουμε όλοι τις απόψεις (ενίοτε και αποψάρες) μας με γνώμονα τα 2-3 βιβλία του που έχουμε διαβάσει.
(Ενίοτε και με κανένα, ειδικά στην Ελλάδα.)
Κι επειδή έχουμε όλοι στο μυαλό ή στην καρδιά μας τους αγαπημένους μας συγγραφείς που θέλουμε να κερδίσουν ή που θεωρούμε ότι έφυγαν από τη ζωή αδίκως αβράβευτοι, όταν το Νόμπελ δίνεται σε κάποιον που δεν γνωρίζουμε, τον συγκρίνουμε αναπόφευκτα στις πρώτες μας επαφές μαζί του με εκείνους.
Τα λέω όλα αυτά γιατί με τον Αμπντουλραζάκ Γκούρνα και το αναπάντεχο Νόμπελ του πολλοί ήταν επιφυλακτικοί κι έσπευσαν μετά το «Άλλες Ζωές», το πιο πρόσφατο μυθιστόρημά του και το πρώτο που μεταφράστηκε στα ελληνικά μετά τη βράβευση, να τον απορρίψουν και να πουν ότι η επιλογή ήταν πολιτική, μεταποικιακή, woke.
Εδώ δεν τη γλίτωσε η Ερνό, ένας άγνωστος συγγραφέας από την Τανζανία θα τη γλίτωνε;
Έχω κάνει ποστ για τις «Άλλες Ζωές» και μπορώ να πω ότι δεν με ενθουσίασε, ειδικά όταν μιλάμε για τη σημαντικότερη λογοτεχνική διάκριση παγκοσμίως, αλλά σίγουρα ήθελα να δώσω μια ακόμα ευκαιρία στον Γκούρνα και θα δώσω ξανά και ξανά, γιατί θεωρώ πως ακόμα κι οι «πολιτικές» βραβεύσεις έχουν την αξία τους και αποκαλύπτουν μια μεγαλύτερη εικόνα ίσως σημαντικότερη από το κάθε έργο ξεχωριστά.
Αυτή ήταν μια κάπως πολύ μεγάλη εισαγωγή για να πω ότι η «Λιποταξία» είναι ένα πολύ καλύτερο (κατά τη γνώμη μου πάντα) μυθιστόρημα από τις «Άλλες Ζωές».
Αυτό που ξεκινά παραπλανητικά ως μια «απαγορευμένη» ερωτική ιστορία ανάμεσα σε έναν αποικιοκράτη με ψήγματα συνείδησης και μια καταπιεσμένη μουσουλμάνα στο προτεκτοράτο της τότε Ουγκάντας το 1899, αλλάζει εποχές και αφηγηματικές ταχύτητες και αποκαλύπτεται τελικά ότι όσα προηγήθηκαν είναι η ανάπλαση των μακρινών γεγονότων από έναν εξόριστο στην Αγγλία αφηγητή, ο οποίος στη συνέχεια εξιστορεί αφενός τη φυγή του από τη Ζανζιβάρη λίγο πριν την ανακήρυξη της ανεξαρτησίας, αφετέρου μια αντίστοιχη ιστορία καταδικασμένου έρωτα του αδερφού του που συνδέεται, ωστόσο, ποικιλοτρόπως με την αρχική.
Πολλές είναι και οι «λιποταξίες» του βιβλίου, τόσο από την πλευρά των ηρώων, που εγκαταλείπουν χώρες και τρόπο ζωής, θρησκευτικά κελεύσματα και απαγορεύσεις, αγαπημένα πρόσωπα και έρωτες, όσο και από την πλευρά του συγγραφέα που εγκαταλείπει την παραδοσιακή μορφή ενός ιστορικού μυθιστορήματος για να πειραματιστεί με τη φόρμα του και αποτυπώσει το κατακερματισμένο αφήγημα ενός λαού κι ενός τόπου που άλλαξαν τόσες ονομασίες μέσα στους αιώνες, όσοι ήταν και οι κατακτητές τους.
Αυτός ο εγκιβωτισμός των φωνών και των ιστοριών ίσως ενοχλήσει όσους θέλουν μια πιο ολοκληρωμένη αφήγηση, εμένα όμως μου φάνηκε μια πολύ τολμηρή κι αξιέπαινη επιλογή, ειδικά μέσα στο πλαίσιο της διεκδίκησης των ιστοριών και της Ιστορίας από όσους καταπιέστηκαν από αυτή.
Ακόμα δεν είμαι σίγουρος για το Νόμπελ, αλλά σίγουρα θα ανανεώσω το ραντεβού μου με τον Γκούρνα, με ακόμα μεγαλύτερες προσδοκίες αυτή τη φορά.
(Ενίοτε και με κανένα, ειδικά στην Ελλάδα.)
Κι επειδή έχουμε όλοι στο μυαλό ή στην καρδιά μας τους αγαπημένους μας συγγραφείς που θέλουμε να κερδίσουν ή που θεωρούμε ότι έφυγαν από τη ζωή αδίκως αβράβευτοι, όταν το Νόμπελ δίνεται σε κάποιον που δεν γνωρίζουμε, τον συγκρίνουμε αναπόφευκτα στις πρώτες μας επαφές μαζί του με εκείνους.
Τα λέω όλα αυτά γιατί με τον Αμπντουλραζάκ Γκούρνα και το αναπάντεχο Νόμπελ του πολλοί ήταν επιφυλακτικοί κι έσπευσαν μετά το «Άλλες Ζωές», το πιο πρόσφατο μυθιστόρημά του και το πρώτο που μεταφράστηκε στα ελληνικά μετά τη βράβευση, να τον απορρίψουν και να πουν ότι η επιλογή ήταν πολιτική, μεταποικιακή, woke.
Εδώ δεν τη γλίτωσε η Ερνό, ένας άγνωστος συγγραφέας από την Τανζανία θα τη γλίτωνε;
Έχω κάνει ποστ για τις «Άλλες Ζωές» και μπορώ να πω ότι δεν με ενθουσίασε, ειδικά όταν μιλάμε για τη σημαντικότερη λογοτεχνική διάκριση παγκοσμίως, αλλά σίγουρα ήθελα να δώσω μια ακόμα ευκαιρία στον Γκούρνα και θα δώσω ξανά και ξανά, γιατί θεωρώ πως ακόμα κι οι «πολιτικές» βραβεύσεις έχουν την αξία τους και αποκαλύπτουν μια μεγαλύτερη εικόνα ίσως σημαντικότερη από το κάθε έργο ξεχωριστά.
Αυτή ήταν μια κάπως πολύ μεγάλη εισαγωγή για να πω ότι η «Λιποταξία» είναι ένα πολύ καλύτερο (κατά τη γνώμη μου πάντα) μυθιστόρημα από τις «Άλλες Ζωές».
Αυτό που ξεκινά παραπλανητικά ως μια «απαγορευμένη» ερωτική ιστορία ανάμεσα σε έναν αποικιοκράτη με ψήγματα συνείδησης και μια καταπιεσμένη μουσουλμάνα στο προτεκτοράτο της τότε Ουγκάντας το 1899, αλλάζει εποχές και αφηγηματικές ταχύτητες και αποκαλύπτεται τελικά ότι όσα προηγήθηκαν είναι η ανάπλαση των μακρινών γεγονότων από έναν εξόριστο στην Αγγλία αφηγητή, ο οποίος στη συνέχεια εξιστορεί αφενός τη φυγή του από τη Ζανζιβάρη λίγο πριν την ανακήρυξη της ανεξαρτησίας, αφετέρου μια αντίστοιχη ιστορία καταδικασμένου έρωτα του αδερφού του που συνδέεται, ωστόσο, ποικιλοτρόπως με την αρχική.
Πολλές είναι και οι «λιποταξίες» του βιβλίου, τόσο από την πλευρά των ηρώων, που εγκαταλείπουν χώρες και τρόπο ζωής, θρησκευτικά κελεύσματα και απαγορεύσεις, αγαπημένα πρόσωπα και έρωτες, όσο και από την πλευρά του συγγραφέα που εγκαταλείπει την παραδοσιακή μορφή ενός ιστορικού μυθιστορήματος για να πειραματιστεί με τη φόρμα του και αποτυπώσει το κατακερματισμένο αφήγημα ενός λαού κι ενός τόπου που άλλαξαν τόσες ονομασίες μέσα στους αιώνες, όσοι ήταν και οι κατακτητές τους.
Αυτός ο εγκιβωτισμός των φωνών και των ιστοριών ίσως ενοχλήσει όσους θέλουν μια πιο ολοκληρωμένη αφήγηση, εμένα όμως μου φάνηκε μια πολύ τολμηρή κι αξιέπαινη επιλογή, ειδικά μέσα στο πλαίσιο της διεκδίκησης των ιστοριών και της Ιστορίας από όσους καταπιέστηκαν από αυτή.
Ακόμα δεν είμαι σίγουρος για το Νόμπελ, αλλά σίγουρα θα ανανεώσω το ραντεβού μου με τον Γκούρνα, με ακόμα μεγαλύτερες προσδοκίες αυτή τη φορά.
May 29, 2023
Este novo romance de Abdulrazak Gurnah está dividido em três partes e abrange várias gerações, um livro que nos conta duas histórias de amor, a época colonial na ilha de Zanzibar desde o início do século XIX e todos os motins, revoluções e agitações políticas até 1950 próximo da data da sua independência.
Na primeira parte conhecemos Hassanali, um humilde lojista que numa manhã a caminho da mesquita encontra um europeu inanimado no meio da rua, leva-o para casa e com a ajuda da sua mulher Malika e da sua irmã Rehana tenta reanima-lo. Depois de recuperado Pearce apaixona-se por Rehana uma muçulmana conservadora e este amor proibido é a permissa para toda a narrativa.
Amin, que conhecemos na segunda parte em plena década de 50 conhece uma mulher mais velha cuja reputação na cidade é péssima, é vista como uma mulher sem valores e de má indole. Esta mulher chama-se Jamila e é neta de Rehana, esta paixão vivida pelos dois é muito mal vista pela familia de Amin que faz tudo para separar o casal. Rashid, o irmão mais novo de Amin é o nosso narrador nesta fase da história, um jovem que sonha em partir de Zanzibar para estudar para Inglaterra. A forte sensação de fatalidade, de perda e de deserção que unem estas duas histórias está muito presente neste romance, a história parece desconexa e bastante confusa no início mas na terceira parte as pontas soltas são unidas e tudo nos é explicado.
Este é o quarto livro de Gurnah que leio, gosto muito da sua escrita e da sua maneira de contar as suas histórias, mas este livro foi uma desilusão, começou muito bem com uma história que nos prende mas depois o autor andou às voltas e fez com que a história se tornasse aborrecida, sem nexo e sem interesse para culminar num final apressado e atabalhoado.
Na primeira parte conhecemos Hassanali, um humilde lojista que numa manhã a caminho da mesquita encontra um europeu inanimado no meio da rua, leva-o para casa e com a ajuda da sua mulher Malika e da sua irmã Rehana tenta reanima-lo. Depois de recuperado Pearce apaixona-se por Rehana uma muçulmana conservadora e este amor proibido é a permissa para toda a narrativa.
Amin, que conhecemos na segunda parte em plena década de 50 conhece uma mulher mais velha cuja reputação na cidade é péssima, é vista como uma mulher sem valores e de má indole. Esta mulher chama-se Jamila e é neta de Rehana, esta paixão vivida pelos dois é muito mal vista pela familia de Amin que faz tudo para separar o casal. Rashid, o irmão mais novo de Amin é o nosso narrador nesta fase da história, um jovem que sonha em partir de Zanzibar para estudar para Inglaterra. A forte sensação de fatalidade, de perda e de deserção que unem estas duas histórias está muito presente neste romance, a história parece desconexa e bastante confusa no início mas na terceira parte as pontas soltas são unidas e tudo nos é explicado.
Este é o quarto livro de Gurnah que leio, gosto muito da sua escrita e da sua maneira de contar as suas histórias, mas este livro foi uma desilusão, começou muito bem com uma história que nos prende mas depois o autor andou às voltas e fez com que a história se tornasse aborrecida, sem nexo e sem interesse para culminar num final apressado e atabalhoado.
June 4, 2022
„Cu timpul am ajuns la o condiție de străin tolerabilă. De la o zi la alta, această condiție a devenit un soi de emblemă. În curând am început să spun "albi" și "negri" ca restul lumii, rostind minciuna cu o ușurință crescândă, acceptând similitudinea deosebirii noastre, cedând viziunii sufocante a unei lumi categorisite în funcție de rasă. Asta pentru că, dacă acceptăm să fim albi și negri, acceptăm falsitățile care secole de-a rândul au servit și vor continua să servească setea teribilă de putere și afirmarea de sine patologică.�
February 6, 2022
Che prosa particolare. Ci ho messo un po� a leggerlo ma mi è piaciuto.
Come spesso accade, il titolo tradotto tradisce il senso dell'originale. Anziché un singolo disertore, tutti i personaggi possono essere definiti così, divergendo dalla morale comune e dal destino prefissato dalla famiglia e dalla società, nell'innamorarsi di una persona di un'altra etnia, nel vivere al di fuori del matrimonio, nel rifiutarsi di vedere e compiere il dovere di guardiano di una donna empia (lapidazione), nel rifiutare il destino dei genitori, nell'amare senza il permesso di quegli stessi genitori che da giovani rivoluzionari sono diventati piccoli borghesi preoccupati dell’opinione della gente, nell'accettare di perdere quell'amore, una volta scoperto, nel perdere la patria e un sogno di indipendenza tradita.
Tutti sono disertori, in un modo o nell'altro, in una storia circolare che unisce a sorpresa i fili forse chiudendo il percorso con la speranza di ricominciare.
La Tanzania è ancora un paese frammentato e complesso. È tornata l'anno scorso alla ribalta per il presidente no vax, poi morto di covid curandosi con limone e zenzero, e per la prima presidente donna (curioso questo anno in cui le donne salgono alla ribalta perché vice di uomini fragili e malati). La sofferenza di un uomo che ha conosciuto l'esilio è viva nel racconto di Rashid.
Mi è piaciuto, lo stile è davvero particolare.
Come spesso accade, il titolo tradotto tradisce il senso dell'originale. Anziché un singolo disertore, tutti i personaggi possono essere definiti così, divergendo dalla morale comune e dal destino prefissato dalla famiglia e dalla società, nell'innamorarsi di una persona di un'altra etnia, nel vivere al di fuori del matrimonio, nel rifiutarsi di vedere e compiere il dovere di guardiano di una donna empia (lapidazione), nel rifiutare il destino dei genitori, nell'amare senza il permesso di quegli stessi genitori che da giovani rivoluzionari sono diventati piccoli borghesi preoccupati dell’opinione della gente, nell'accettare di perdere quell'amore, una volta scoperto, nel perdere la patria e un sogno di indipendenza tradita.
Tutti sono disertori, in un modo o nell'altro, in una storia circolare che unisce a sorpresa i fili forse chiudendo il percorso con la speranza di ricominciare.
La Tanzania è ancora un paese frammentato e complesso. È tornata l'anno scorso alla ribalta per il presidente no vax, poi morto di covid curandosi con limone e zenzero, e per la prima presidente donna (curioso questo anno in cui le donne salgono alla ribalta perché vice di uomini fragili e malati). La sofferenza di un uomo che ha conosciuto l'esilio è viva nel racconto di Rashid.
Mi è piaciuto, lo stile è davvero particolare.
March 21, 2025
Es una novela sencilla, de fácil lectura debido a su estilo limpio y sin pretensiones vanguardistas, que se divide en dos grandes partes las cuales están unidas por un nexo familiar que se remonta a tres generaciones anteriores. La primera parte sirve de preludio a la segunda que, por lo que he sabido, es un tanto autobiográfica. El relato se desarrolla en las costas orientales de África, la primera parte se ubica en el año 1899 y nos relata la vida holgada de los funcionarios ingleses en esa parte del mundo del cual eran los gobernantes y la de una familia sencilla, religiosa y trabajadora. La segunda parte da un salto a los años 60 del siglo XX relatándonos básicamente la vida de una familia compuesta por los padres, dos hijos y una hija.
Abdulrazak Gurnah (1938) ganador del Nobel en el año 2021 nos describe las condiciones de vida en aquella región de África en donde se mezclan varias culturas, lenguas, razas y religiones y en donde la mujer vive con muchas limitaciones para lograr medianamente un desarrollo como persona.
“Una mujer siempre debía tener un tutor, por lo general el padre o el marido y, a falta de ambos, el hermano de más edad…�
También se abordan las relaciones amorosas y la vida sexual censurada en grado sumo por los juicios morales, la religión, las convenciones sociales y las diferentes razas y religiones que actuaban como una camisa de fuerza a ultranza.
A veces la novela es demasiado descriptiva que en ciertas partes puede parecer carente de interés, pero sin duda el autor tiene grandes recursos expositivos y nos termina regalando una novela con un marco histórico interesante aludiendo a los hechos que se suceden cuando hay dramáticos cambios de régimen, así como una historia de amor prohibido por los valores que imperaban en aquellos años y en esas latitudes.
Abdulrazak Gurnah (1938) ganador del Nobel en el año 2021 nos describe las condiciones de vida en aquella región de África en donde se mezclan varias culturas, lenguas, razas y religiones y en donde la mujer vive con muchas limitaciones para lograr medianamente un desarrollo como persona.
“Una mujer siempre debía tener un tutor, por lo general el padre o el marido y, a falta de ambos, el hermano de más edad…�
También se abordan las relaciones amorosas y la vida sexual censurada en grado sumo por los juicios morales, la religión, las convenciones sociales y las diferentes razas y religiones que actuaban como una camisa de fuerza a ultranza.
A veces la novela es demasiado descriptiva que en ciertas partes puede parecer carente de interés, pero sin duda el autor tiene grandes recursos expositivos y nos termina regalando una novela con un marco histórico interesante aludiendo a los hechos que se suceden cuando hay dramáticos cambios de régimen, así como una historia de amor prohibido por los valores que imperaban en aquellos años y en esas latitudes.
January 20, 2025
Excelente. Brillante. Hermosamente escrito. Removió muchas emociones en mí. Bien merecido ese Premio Nobel.
Además, tengo firmado mi ejemplar por el mismo Abdulrazak Gurnah.
Además, tengo firmado mi ejemplar por el mismo Abdulrazak Gurnah.
September 4, 2016
I'm very glad to have been introduced to this author's work. Will definitely be reading more.
October 22, 2024
I chose Desertion when I decided to read something by Nobel prizewinning author Abdulrazak Gurnah - the love story appealed to me, and the historical breadth of the timespan, with its intertwined family stories. All are terrific elements, but what will be longlasting in my memory is the deep understanding of journey-as-exile, of the experience of an immigrant whose world has changed so rapidly that he feels there is no concept of home to return to, no homecoming. "So the way that young people like Amin and Rashid thought of themselves and their future had not even begun to disentangle itself from the expectations of a colonised people, living in a small place, in the interregnum (although they did not know it) between the end of one age and the beginning of another" (187) - i.e., the end of European imperialism and the first stirrings of African independence. This is what Rashid experiences as a student in a foreign land in the 1960s:
"For the first time since arriving in England, I began to think of myself as an alien. I realised I had been thinking of myself as someone in the middle part of a journey, between coming and going, fulfilling an undertaking before returning home, but I began to fear that my journey was over, that I would live all my life in England, a stranger in the middle of nowhere" (275).
The irony is that the story from the past that Rashid tells, of the colonizer Pearce and his relationship with Rehana, is also that of a stranger in the middle of nowhere - literally, as the story begins, when Pearce is attacked and abandoned by his guides in 1899 in Mombasa and brought to the home of Rehana's brother. But Pearce has the privilege of a white colonizer in Africa during the span of Western imperialism: he has agency, he can go "home," to England, and, however well-meaning, leave a life behind in shambles. As Gurnah brought the intertwined stories together, I started to see the whole book as a metaphor for how the colonizer destroys the life of the colonized, a whole continent in this case.
The second story, that of Rashid and his siblings in Zanzibar, told from his perspective as well as his brother Amin's, was the best part of the book for me. I was instantly hooked on this family and their interactions: the way sister Farida felt stifled when she couldn't continue her education, Rashid's determination to continue his in England, the parents who had rebelled in their own youth but now were honored and respected in the community, and above all, Amin's story with Jamila, Rehana's granddaughter. Love of family permeates, but the title says it all - an exploration of who has deserted whom, who has deserted his or her roots and culture, and whether one can ever fully return from immersion in Western culture, where I thought Gurnah so perfectly stated that immigrants are taught "how to live with disregard" (266). You sense that this approach to life becomes too painful for Rashid, and he will attempt a return at the end, which gives the reader hope and brings the novel full circle.
There is so much I could say about this book: the beauty of the language, the fullness of his descriptive powers, the rich exploration of culture and history and character. If this (his seventh novel of ten) is any indication, there is so much more to absorb and learn from in his body of work.
I was pleased to receive an advance review copy from NetGalley and Riverhead Books in exchange for an honest review.
"For the first time since arriving in England, I began to think of myself as an alien. I realised I had been thinking of myself as someone in the middle part of a journey, between coming and going, fulfilling an undertaking before returning home, but I began to fear that my journey was over, that I would live all my life in England, a stranger in the middle of nowhere" (275).
The irony is that the story from the past that Rashid tells, of the colonizer Pearce and his relationship with Rehana, is also that of a stranger in the middle of nowhere - literally, as the story begins, when Pearce is attacked and abandoned by his guides in 1899 in Mombasa and brought to the home of Rehana's brother. But Pearce has the privilege of a white colonizer in Africa during the span of Western imperialism: he has agency, he can go "home," to England, and, however well-meaning, leave a life behind in shambles. As Gurnah brought the intertwined stories together, I started to see the whole book as a metaphor for how the colonizer destroys the life of the colonized, a whole continent in this case.
The second story, that of Rashid and his siblings in Zanzibar, told from his perspective as well as his brother Amin's, was the best part of the book for me. I was instantly hooked on this family and their interactions: the way sister Farida felt stifled when she couldn't continue her education, Rashid's determination to continue his in England, the parents who had rebelled in their own youth but now were honored and respected in the community, and above all, Amin's story with Jamila, Rehana's granddaughter. Love of family permeates, but the title says it all - an exploration of who has deserted whom, who has deserted his or her roots and culture, and whether one can ever fully return from immersion in Western culture, where I thought Gurnah so perfectly stated that immigrants are taught "how to live with disregard" (266). You sense that this approach to life becomes too painful for Rashid, and he will attempt a return at the end, which gives the reader hope and brings the novel full circle.
There is so much I could say about this book: the beauty of the language, the fullness of his descriptive powers, the rich exploration of culture and history and character. If this (his seventh novel of ten) is any indication, there is so much more to absorb and learn from in his body of work.
I was pleased to receive an advance review copy from NetGalley and Riverhead Books in exchange for an honest review.
June 3, 2017
I'm not a fan. Not sure if it is the authors own story, if so it makes a little more sense, kind of...
I found it deliberately not helping the reader: Locations are not divulged until long into the stories, neither is the time period. The narrator shows up at the end of part one, but is suddenly no longer all-knowing, but a narrator full of maybes and unclear suggestions of how things might have happened, possibly. He turns out to be the narrator of most of the rest of the book.
But my biggest problem with this novel is the lack of action! Almost everything is told as mere 'descriptions of things that happened in the past' (all tell, no show!), and I like my books to have characters who act and make me want to know what happens after this... Even though the characters have acted, the narrative form of mere description makes me start googling the Battle of Omdurman, Abyssinia, Rimbaud (had no idea he was in Africa and running guns helping Ethiopia stay independant?!) and Ramses II aka Ozymandias.
The different parts of the book tell different stories of the title's desertion; being left by loved ones or leaving them. As a theme it is interesting to explore, but it didn't really work for me; I didn't really buy into the characters, and the colonial history being told simultaneously somehow seems like interspersed little lectures - possibly as it is not described in any detail, it is actually actively avoided. And that makes it detached to me. It's not an integral part of the story, more "and here's you little lecture on the colonisation of the mind that happens, when joining the diaspora in England".
The story didn't really work for me - but it did make me google quite a few very interesting things - and that's a tick for Tanzania in my reading Africa challenge, so there is that!
I found it deliberately not helping the reader: Locations are not divulged until long into the stories, neither is the time period. The narrator shows up at the end of part one, but is suddenly no longer all-knowing, but a narrator full of maybes and unclear suggestions of how things might have happened, possibly. He turns out to be the narrator of most of the rest of the book.
But my biggest problem with this novel is the lack of action! Almost everything is told as mere 'descriptions of things that happened in the past' (all tell, no show!), and I like my books to have characters who act and make me want to know what happens after this... Even though the characters have acted, the narrative form of mere description makes me start googling the Battle of Omdurman, Abyssinia, Rimbaud (had no idea he was in Africa and running guns helping Ethiopia stay independant?!) and Ramses II aka Ozymandias.
The different parts of the book tell different stories of the title's desertion; being left by loved ones or leaving them. As a theme it is interesting to explore, but it didn't really work for me; I didn't really buy into the characters, and the colonial history being told simultaneously somehow seems like interspersed little lectures - possibly as it is not described in any detail, it is actually actively avoided. And that makes it detached to me. It's not an integral part of the story, more "and here's you little lecture on the colonisation of the mind that happens, when joining the diaspora in England".
The story didn't really work for me - but it did make me google quite a few very interesting things - and that's a tick for Tanzania in my reading Africa challenge, so there is that!
October 4, 2023
El desertor, es el primer contacto que tengo con el ganador del Nobel del 2021, lo cual evidentemente fue un gran motivador para leerlo.
La obra está dividida en tres partes, las cuales, les adelanto que conectan de una forma hermosa al final. Y se los comparto de una vez porque he de confesarles que estuve a dos de abandonar el libro ya muy avanzado, ya que la historia avanza de forma muy paulatina que me desesperó un poco, pero valió la pena totalmente seguir hasta el final.
El libro es hermoso porque se centra en una historia de amor, enmarcada en el contexto histórico de la colonización de África a manos de los europeos, desde británicos, franceses, hasta españoles e italianos, lo que nos permite aprender mucho sobre esa etapa de la historia que yo desconocía totalmente.
Pero lo interesante también es que esta obra es autobiográfica pues el autor se refleja en uno de los protagonistas (Rashid), un joven que abandona a su familia para estudiar en Londres y convertirse en escritor, no sin antes transmitir la profunda nostalgia que lo cobijó durante todos los años que estuvo en la deserción (por eso el título), y que golpeó fuertemente a su país y familia estando él tan lejos.
Amor, machismo, añoranza y dolor son varios de los temas y sentimientos que este libro evoca.
Te recomiendo mucha paciencia y también tener google a la mano para traducir todas las palabras y modismos que el autor emplea, ya que en ciertas ocasiones el contexto se nubla un poco por la barrera del lenguaje. Si sigues estas recomendaciones, el libro te recompensará. El tema de si merecía el Nobel o no, sigue estando sobre la mesa, yo me inclino porque hay, como en todo, mejores autores con repertorios más extensos y ricos, pero no está de más que conozcas la obra de Abdulrazak.
La obra está dividida en tres partes, las cuales, les adelanto que conectan de una forma hermosa al final. Y se los comparto de una vez porque he de confesarles que estuve a dos de abandonar el libro ya muy avanzado, ya que la historia avanza de forma muy paulatina que me desesperó un poco, pero valió la pena totalmente seguir hasta el final.
El libro es hermoso porque se centra en una historia de amor, enmarcada en el contexto histórico de la colonización de África a manos de los europeos, desde británicos, franceses, hasta españoles e italianos, lo que nos permite aprender mucho sobre esa etapa de la historia que yo desconocía totalmente.
Pero lo interesante también es que esta obra es autobiográfica pues el autor se refleja en uno de los protagonistas (Rashid), un joven que abandona a su familia para estudiar en Londres y convertirse en escritor, no sin antes transmitir la profunda nostalgia que lo cobijó durante todos los años que estuvo en la deserción (por eso el título), y que golpeó fuertemente a su país y familia estando él tan lejos.
Amor, machismo, añoranza y dolor son varios de los temas y sentimientos que este libro evoca.
Te recomiendo mucha paciencia y también tener google a la mano para traducir todas las palabras y modismos que el autor emplea, ya que en ciertas ocasiones el contexto se nubla un poco por la barrera del lenguaje. Si sigues estas recomendaciones, el libro te recompensará. El tema de si merecía el Nobel o no, sigue estando sobre la mesa, yo me inclino porque hay, como en todo, mejores autores con repertorios más extensos y ricos, pero no está de más que conozcas la obra de Abdulrazak.
May 23, 2024
Σε μια παραθαλάσσια πόλη της Ανατολικής Αφρικής, ένας εξαθλιωμένος Βρετανός, περιθάλπτεται από τον Χασανάλι και την οικογένειά του. Η γνωριμία του με την οικογένεια των ντόπιων θα εξελιχθεί σε σχέση με την αδερφή του Χασανάλι - μια σχέση καταδικασμένη και ντροπιαστική για την εποχή εκείνη. Έτσι ξεκινά το πρώτο μέρος του βιβλίου, γνωρίζοντας μας την τοπική κοινωνία και το πως οι ιθαγενείς αντιμετωπίζυν τους Βρετανούς απικοιστές. Στο δεύτερο μέρος, γνωρίζουμε μια οικογένεια δασκάλων, αρκετά χρόνια αργότερα και τον τρόπο που μεγαλώνουν τα παιδιά τους, τον συγχρωτισμό με άλλες φυλές, την θρησκεία, την εκπαίδευση και τα στερεότυπα από τα οποία δύσκολα ξεφεύγει κανείς.
Σε αυτό το βιβλίο του που κινείται σε αργούς ρυθμούς, ο νομπελίστας συγγραφέας, περιγράφει τη ζωή και την καθημερινότητα των ανθρώπων της μετέπειτα Κένυας, τις οικογενειακές σχέσεις, την εντιμότητα απέναντι στην πίστη και όλα όσα οι άλλοι περιμένουν από εσένα, την ανάγκη για αποδοχή μα και την θέση της αγάπης ειδικά όταν συγκρούεται με το καθήκον.
"Είχαμε πολλά ακόμη να μάθουμε για το κακό που ήμασταν ικανοί να κάνουμε ο ένας στον άλλον και πόσο εύκολα θα γινόταν κάτι τέτοιο άπαξ και αρχίζαμε."
Σε αυτό το βιβλίο του που κινείται σε αργούς ρυθμούς, ο νομπελίστας συγγραφέας, περιγράφει τη ζωή και την καθημερινότητα των ανθρώπων της μετέπειτα Κένυας, τις οικογενειακές σχέσεις, την εντιμότητα απέναντι στην πίστη και όλα όσα οι άλλοι περιμένουν από εσένα, την ανάγκη για αποδοχή μα και την θέση της αγάπης ειδικά όταν συγκρούεται με το καθήκον.
"Είχαμε πολλά ακόμη να μάθουμε για το κακό που ήμασταν ικανοί να κάνουμε ο ένας στον άλλον και πόσο εύκολα θα γινόταν κάτι τέτοιο άπαξ και αρχίζαμε."
November 9, 2024
Segundo libro que leo de Gurnah y me gusta mucho su estilo. Sin embargo lleva un ritmo lento. Debes tomar tu tiempo para leerlo.
Este libro, como ya mencioné, me gustó mucho al inicio, me perdió un poco al inicio de la segunda parte, pero al final me volvió a capturar. No sé si haya sido el momento pero estoy seguro que en un momento diferente, con más calma, lo hubiera disfrutado aún más.
Nos habla del racismo, intolerancia, problemas para adaptarte en un entorno diferente o incluso en la migración forzada. Hay mucho que decir de este libro pero la primera parte me encantó.
Este libro, como ya mencioné, me gustó mucho al inicio, me perdió un poco al inicio de la segunda parte, pero al final me volvió a capturar. No sé si haya sido el momento pero estoy seguro que en un momento diferente, con más calma, lo hubiera disfrutado aún más.
Nos habla del racismo, intolerancia, problemas para adaptarte en un entorno diferente o incluso en la migración forzada. Hay mucho que decir de este libro pero la primera parte me encantó.
September 17, 2022
I’m changing this book to 4 stars. It was flawed, but I realize now, Abdulrazak Gurnah, is going to break my heart at least 10 times. He is probably the person, living or dead, I’d like to be in the company of…Eating, walking, listening to music, smoking Dunhills in a garden, I want to just vibe with this humble genius. It’s�. The compassion! The insight. Cheers to the most handsome and empathic writer ever.
August 8, 2023
Mi-a plăcut cel mai mult dintre romanele autorului african și anticipam că îi voi acorda ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, dar e ceva grăbit și dezamăgitor în finalurile cărților lui Gurnah, parcă nu mai știe ce să facă cu ele și le expediază rapid în 50-60 de pagini.
January 31, 2022
The first book I have read by this year's Nobel Prize winner in Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah, who was born in Zanzibar but moved to England at age 18. All his fiction is set in East Africa and he is described as a Tanzanian author. Although his first language is Swahili, he writes in English. Desertion is a study of the personal relationships between the British and the African population, as exemplified in three interconnected stories of "desertion", set against the history of colonialism, independence and revolution. (The title could also refer to the British abandonment of the colony, or to a few other things as well.) I would recommend this book and I am looking forward to reading some of his other books as they come in on hold (I was between twenty and thirty in the queue for most of them.) Note: it is impossible to summarize this book without SPOILERS.
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The first part of the novel begins in a small Moslem village south of Mombasa in what would later become Kenya, in 1899 when it was still a British colony. A British "orientalist", Martin Pearce, abandoned and robbed by his guides, has managed to reach the village and is rescued by Hasanili, a shopkeeper. Pearce falls in love with Hasanili's sister, Rehana, and they live together for a while in Mombasa, and have a daughter named Asmah. Pearce then deserts her and returns to England.
In the second part of the novel, we are in an island off the African coast, presumably Zanzibar, in the mid-1950's, just before independence. We are introduced to a family of five, the parents who are both teachers, a daughter Farida, and two sons, Amin and Rahid. The main story here turns on the relationship between Amin and a woman named Jamila, who turns out to be Asmah's daughter. Anil in obedience to his parents breaks off his relationship, the second "desertion" of the novel.
The third part takes place in England, where Rahid (like Gurnah) has gone to study and remains as a professor. He marries an English woman named Grace, who later leaves him. In the final pages, he meets a granddaughter of Martin Pearce by his English wife and we learn more of the details of the first part.
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The first part of the novel begins in a small Moslem village south of Mombasa in what would later become Kenya, in 1899 when it was still a British colony. A British "orientalist", Martin Pearce, abandoned and robbed by his guides, has managed to reach the village and is rescued by Hasanili, a shopkeeper. Pearce falls in love with Hasanili's sister, Rehana, and they live together for a while in Mombasa, and have a daughter named Asmah. Pearce then deserts her and returns to England.
In the second part of the novel, we are in an island off the African coast, presumably Zanzibar, in the mid-1950's, just before independence. We are introduced to a family of five, the parents who are both teachers, a daughter Farida, and two sons, Amin and Rahid. The main story here turns on the relationship between Amin and a woman named Jamila, who turns out to be Asmah's daughter. Anil in obedience to his parents breaks off his relationship, the second "desertion" of the novel.
The third part takes place in England, where Rahid (like Gurnah) has gone to study and remains as a professor. He marries an English woman named Grace, who later leaves him. In the final pages, he meets a granddaughter of Martin Pearce by his English wife and we learn more of the details of the first part.
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