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africanbookaddict's review against another edition
4.0
!!! https://africanbookaddict.com/2016/11/06/as-the-crow-flies-by-veronique-tadjo/
This work was originally written in French - as Veronique Tadjo is Ivorian (from Côte d'Ivoire- Francophone West African nation). Wangui wa Goro (who also translated Ngugi wa Thiong'o's novel - Matigari, which I loved) displayed her fantastic powers and translated this work of art as well. I'm grateful to wa Goro, because without her superb skills of interpreting and transforming this work into English, some of us would really be missing out on some awesome texts.
But I have to admit - this novella is not for everyone. Some readers may not appreciate the format of this book. Its made up of several (interconnected) stories, poems, observations... However, I believe writers would LOVE the heartfelt, lyrical anecdotes Tadjo spills onto these pages. Its actually really hard to review this book since it touches on a lot of different things: like desire, homesickness, (unrequited) love, immigration, poverty, privilege - almost any, and everything that can be felt and observed is portrayed in this book.
It took me a while to finish this (over a month), thanks to school work. But I'm glad I stuck with this and finished it despite the discombobulated format which can be seen as confusing, YET wonderful at the same time.
Y'all be sleeping on the African Writers Series books. Yes, most books in this series may be printed in (silly) small fonts; yes, books in this series may have awful book cover art. But they will always be true African classics :)
MORE ON africanbookaddict.com soon! Plus, some lovely quotes from this book.
This work was originally written in French - as Veronique Tadjo is Ivorian (from Côte d'Ivoire- Francophone West African nation). Wangui wa Goro (who also translated Ngugi wa Thiong'o's novel - Matigari, which I loved) displayed her fantastic powers and translated this work of art as well. I'm grateful to wa Goro, because without her superb skills of interpreting and transforming this work into English, some of us would really be missing out on some awesome texts.
But I have to admit - this novella is not for everyone. Some readers may not appreciate the format of this book. Its made up of several (interconnected) stories, poems, observations... However, I believe writers would LOVE the heartfelt, lyrical anecdotes Tadjo spills onto these pages. Its actually really hard to review this book since it touches on a lot of different things: like desire, homesickness, (unrequited) love, immigration, poverty, privilege - almost any, and everything that can be felt and observed is portrayed in this book.
It took me a while to finish this (over a month), thanks to school work. But I'm glad I stuck with this and finished it despite the discombobulated format which can be seen as confusing, YET wonderful at the same time.
Y'all be sleeping on the African Writers Series books. Yes, most books in this series may be printed in (silly) small fonts; yes, books in this series may have awful book cover art. But they will always be true African classics :)
MORE ON africanbookaddict.com soon! Plus, some lovely quotes from this book.
rosebrown's review against another edition
reflective
2.0
I love poetic prose and short stories. So this should have been “it” for me . But nah, honestly I don’t have a single clue what it is about or whether it was about fragmented short stories interwoven to give a bigger story or just random short stories. Maybe I’m dumb or something, this book literally took its toll on me. Some lines or prose here and there touch my heart but overall I couldn’t get what the author was trying to convey. Normally a book of this length just takes me 1 or 2 hours to finish but this took me 3 days.
anetq's review against another edition
4.0
Short prose pieces come together to form or just suggest narratives about life and love in multiple places. Well written.
alic59books's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
ninachachu's review against another edition
3.0
A book that I have been meaning to read for a long time, and I guess I am glad that I finally did. Though I have to admit that I found Tadjo's style in this novel is not really to my taste. The individual sections are lyrical and interesting, but how they all tie in together is not always clear to me.
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