Oprah's Bad Book Club Pick
Uwem Akpan's Say You Are One of Them is a lousy Oprah Book Club choice. As the editor of Gods and Soldiers: the Penguin Anthology of Contemporary African Fiction, and as the editor of the literary magazine Tin House, one would think that I would be happy with Oprah's choice of an African short story writer. But I am not. Akpan, a Nigerian Jesuit priest, is a maudlin, sappy writer, and his book only reinforces Western stereotypes about Africa -- that it is a wasteland of child soldiers, poverty, and corruption. While there are serious problems in much of Africa, this is not the only reality. And strictly from the point of view of African fiction, Oprah could have done a lot better.
The stories in Say You Are One of Them are drawn directly from the well-known African headlines, but with little added imagination. They have nothing of the power of Akpan's countryman Uzodinma Iweala's searing novel about a child soldier Beasts of No Nation or Senegalese author Boubacar Boris Diop's novel about the Rwandan genocide Murambi, The Book of Bones. Akpan's writing is pedestrian and plodding, but that has never stopped Oprah before. I am sure Akpan, who by all accounts is a very nice person who is dedicated to doing good work around the world, will make for compelling daytime TV. It is just a shame that this one mediocre book is going to be put forward to stand for all of African fiction. My hope is that it will only be a jumping off point and that some of Oprah's readers will be curious enough to seek out other, better African fiction.
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I might just be overly protective of my teacher's work but I think it was unreasonably harsh...considering especially that the "alternatives" are not so "great". The "alternatives" have contrived images of their settings. It is clear, they have not spent as much time there and so they are not as real as Fr Uwems...However.. I agree, Fr Uwem has had good experiences (teaching me should be one of them I should hope) that he has committed in his account of the African child's life...perhaps he should include them in his laer works...but that does not make his work any less monumental. Its a sob story..but at least, its a good sob story
I have no comment on Akpan's writing (if it was in the New Yorker I'm sure I read it but it didn't stay with me at all because I can't remember it).
But regarding Uzodinma Iweala's book, Beasts of No Nation, my body involuntarily shuddered when I read his name and the name of his book just now in the article above - that's how searing an experience it was for me.
Valentino Achak and Dave Eggers's What is the What is another very good African story.
As an aside, I'm a more-than-occasional reader of Tin House so my thanks go to Rob Spillman for his work there.
What does Iweala know about suffering in Africa?.....he never even lived in Nigeria...its one thing to say, these are the only things that are happening.....its another thing to not acknowledge that bad things happen in Africa,...and at a slightly more alarming rate than in other places
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