Oil on Water by Helon Habila

Helon Habila is a new wave Nigerian author, presently a professor at George Mason Univ.  The novel Oil on Water (2010) follows two Port Harcourt journalists, Rufus and his mentor Zaq (dying of dengue fever, p. 150), into the Niger Delta in search of a kidnapped oil executive (p. 72) James Floode's wife, Isabel Floode (p. 191).  Of course, the kidnap assist is provided by her driver Salomon, and let's be clear that the executive has impregnated (p. 218) his girlfriend Koko (p. 202).  Naive he is too as he laments on the rebel attacks on the oil infrastructure "The people don't understand what they do to themselves..." (p. 103).

The story line aside, the style of writing is based on interwoven flashbacks, while our journalists are seeking the wife on Irikefe Island (imaginary, p. 225).  The book opens on "our ninth day on her trail" (p. 5).  Their odyssey is Conradian, and the flashback hazy style is reminiscent of Heart of Darkness.  Nigeria's dictator Sani Abacha (p. 236) died in 1998 - he was famous for colluding with Big Oil, this story unfolds ten years later.  Yet the triangular entanglements between rebels, the oil companies, and the Nigerian military are ever present.

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Biafran flag (sunrise)

Ogbunigwe land mine

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's sophomore effort Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) is an oeuvre of great gravitas, more so than any other African author I have read.  Achebe's simple yet powerful Things Fall Apart (the first sentence of the novel alludes to that work) and Okri's The Famished Road, a classic of magic realism, have been the gold standard for Nigerian literature.  With the Nigerian-Biafran War as a backdrop (1967-1970), the author has put a face to the conflict in a scholarly fashion.  In fact two of her grandfathers died in the war (frontispiece).  This was the war that made "Harold Wilson syndrome" (p. 338) or kwashiorkor the poster child of suffering.

The novel is narrated entirely from the point of view ("POV") of three of the leading characters: Ugwu, a 13 year old houseboy (p. 5), Olanna, his Master's (Odenigbo) wife, and Richard, lover to Kainene, Olanna's twin sister.  The reader only knows what they know, albeit sometimes limited.  The British Army has arrived "to finish us off" (p. 274) and "Lagos says Chinese soldiers are fighting for us" (p. 346).  The facts are never "authorially" approved.  We never hear from Odenigbo or Kainene. They are only observed from the outside.  For example, Olanna is brought news that Ugwu, press ganged into the Biafran army, has been killed.  We later learn he has survived.  Each chapter is told from a single POV, the leading word in each chapter is a character's name, the POV key.  Adichie crafts the POV very carefully.  just when you think she has slipped in chap. 26, Ugwu reveals that he "pretended not to have heard" (p. 293) Olanna and Muokelu talking in private !

Olanna Ozobia (p. 27) and Kainene are London School of Economics (pp. 40 and 57) graduates, the Igbo elite, Olanna beautiful, Kainene brilliant.  Kainene is lover with Richard, despite his repeated impotence (p. 63).

The book jumps around between events that took place during the early 1960s and the late 1960s in 4 sections.   This structure is used for dramatic effect, as two distinct acts of infidelity are revealed (pp. 231 and 234) to the reader well after the war is underway.  The war parties are tribal (p. 20), mainly the Hausa and the Igbo (referred to as the Jews (Holocaust reference, p. 50) of Nigeria due to racist attitudes).  The "Igbo were surly and money-loving" (p. 55).  The Igbo, under Colonel Ojukwu (p. 158), secede from Nigeria on July 6, 1967 (p. 161) to form the Republic of Biafra (named after the Bight of Biafra, p. 158).

There are 8 references to a book entitled The World was Silent When we Died, a work in progress (p. 374).  At first we ascribe it to Richard, yet he is not a finisher and we ultimately learn that Ugwu is the author (pp. 396, 433).

There is a healthy usage of the Igbo language.  Nkem means "my own" (p. 24).  "Speak with water in my mouth" (p. 226) means unheard.  An afia attack is to go behind enemy lines to buy food (p. 293).  An ogbunigwe is a Biafran land mine (pp. 317, 359).

Many English words are italicized, implying euphemisms, e.g., when Odenigbo uses the word experience (p. 186) and brief rash lust (p. 225). 

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 

Purple Hibiscus (2003) is the debut novel from Nigeria's current leading author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  Diction is very simple, reminiscent of Chinhua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.  Indeed, the book's first sentence alludes "Things started to fall apart at home..." (p. 1).  The author writes about what she knows, as she grew up in Nsukka, SE Nigeria, near Enuga, as does her lead character, Kambili Achike.  The author went to Univ. Nigeria (Nsukka) - Aunty Ifeoma teaches there.  In brief this is a story about an upper middle class family struggling to live under the abusive control of a very religious father, Eugene.  The author imbues great sensitivity to the 15-year old daughter and her coming of age, as well as brother Jaja (allusion to Jaja Opobo, King of Defiance).  Ultimately, spoiler alert, Beatrice, the mother, poisons Eugene. 

 

Aunty Ifeoma cultivates purple hibiscus "rare, fragrant with the undertones of freedom" (p. 16).  The book’s namesake flower is a representation of freedom and hope. Jaja is drawn to the unusual purple hibiscus, bred by a botanist friend of Aunty Ifeoma. Aunty Ifeoma has created something new by bringing the natural world together with intelligence. For Jaja, the flower is hope that something new can be created. He longs to break free of his Papa’s rule. He takes a stalk of the purple hibiscus home with him, and plants it in their garden. He also takes home the insight he learns from Nsukka. As both blossom, so too do Jaja and his rebellion.

 

Aunty takes Kambili and her brother to a masquerade festival (p. 73), the Abagane mmuo, in which they are subject to idolatry, much to the chagrin of Eugene, who despises "pagan rituals" (p. 106). 

 

Papa-Nnukwu, Kambili's grandfather, tells his family how the tortoise cracked his shell (p. 157). During a famine, the animals gather. They are weakened by hunger. Lion’s roar is but a thin whine and Tortoise can barely carry his shell. Only Dog looks well. He insists because his family eats feces, they are still healthy. Since the rest of the animals won’t do what Dog does, they decide they must sacrifice their mothers to be eaten. Each week, a different mother gives up their life to feed the village. A few days before Dog’s mother is to be killed, the village hears him wailing. He tells them his mother has died of disease. They cannot eat her. A few days later, Tortoise hears Dog calling his mother. A rope descends from the sky. Tortoise learns that Dog’s mother is still alive, living in the sky with wealthy friends. Dog’s health has not suffered because he has been eating all along. Tortoise schemes, telling Dog he must take him up to the sky or else he will tell the village the truth. Dog agrees. Soon after, Tortoise becomes greedy, wanting not only his portion but Dog’s as well. Mimicking Dog, Tortoise asks for the rope to be lowered one day. Dog finds him and is furious. He calls to his mother and she cuts the rope. Tortoise lands on a pile of rocks and his shell is cracked to this day.

 

In Igbo legend, the tortoise is a trickster figure that deceives the other animals in the world. In this parable, the tortoise is punished for his greed. There is a parallel in this story to what is happening in Nigeria. Dog, or the government, is hoarding food during a famine. Dog lies about how he stays healthy, as the government misdirects funds into their own pockets. The greedy Tortoise aligns himself with Dog rather than telling the rest of the animals. If you are friends with those in power, no harm will come to you. 

 

The novel makes thinly veiled references to freedom fighters Del Giwa (as Ade Coker) and Ken Saro-Wiwa (Nwankiti Ogechi, p. 201), who was hanged Nov, 1995.

Looking for Transwonderland by Noo Saro-Wiwa

Obodu cable car

Noo Saro-Wiwa
 

Noo (pronounced "gnaw", p. 289) Saro-Wiwa is the expat daughter, living in Jand (slang for overseas, p. 73), of famous dissident Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was imprisoned in the 1990s for campaigning against Government corruption and environmental degradation by Shell Oil.  Noo and siblings were in prep school in London, when she got the call in November 1995 that her father had been murdered (p. 7).  Trained as a travel writer, Noo meanders around Nigeria as a tourist, ending up at her family homestead in Bane, near Port Harcourt.  Noo's family was Ogoni, "bit players in the drama of Nigerian history in which the Binis, Yorubas, Hausas and Igbos played a leading role" (p. 256).  After  reading the book, we realize Nigeria is much more than a base for launching "419" scams (p. 79).

In the Prologue, she opines that Nigeria "has perhaps received fewer voluntary visitors than outer space" (p. 8).  All trips to Nigeria begin and end with Lagos, a chaotic city of nearly 20 million.  Appropriately her first task is to negotiate the traffic with the minibuses or danfos (p. 19) and also the 100cc motorcycles (Chinese Jinchengs) or okadas (p. 34), which buzz around the streets in their thousands, like a plague of giant flies."  She recounts a visit to the beach at Tarkwa Bay overwhelmed by the proximity of the oil tanker traffic (p. 42).

The arc of her storytelling follows Ibadan (Ibadan Univ., the Harvard of Nigeria; the dilapidated Transwonderland amusement park; Osogbo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site), Ajuba (the sterile modern capital like Brasilia; Zuma Rock, the Ayers Rock of Nigeria), Kano (Islamic area under Sharia law, the city supposedly had hand amputation machines from Saudi Arabia - p. 147; Gidan Makama, a museum), Nguru (most northerly town in Nigeria), Yankari Game Reserve (safari park), Jos (Wild West scenery on high plateau, museum has terracotta figurines), Maiduguri (Islamic City near Lake Chad), Sukur (Stone Age mountain kingdom), Calabar (site where slaves were sent on Cross River 500 years ago), Alok (stone monolith site), Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary (drill monkey site, jungle canopy walks), Obodu Cattle Ranch (jewel of Nigeria's tourist resorts near Cameroonian border, longest cable car in Africa), Benin (home of ancient Benin Empire), Esie (soapstone sculptures), Port Harcourt (gang driven, Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Icelanders, oil bunkering) and Bane (family home).

Noo poignantly describes effort to recover her father's bones in 2005 from a public field after being murdered by Sani Abacha's regime.  The bones were identified through forensic tests (p. 290).

Building Stories by Chris Ware

 

I could never imagine reading a "book" like this, but I was drawn in by The New York Times top 10 list for 2012.  This unconventional work is comprised of 14 printed works.  The stories pivot around an unnamed female protagonist with a missing leg.  Let's call her "LG" (Lonely Girl).  Here's a great source of angst for the reader: the parts of the work can be read in any order.  Since there is no end piece, the reader is tempted not to finish all the readings.  There are no page numbers, so I defer comments to each work.

 

Architecture figures prominently in the story, the woman lives on the 3rd floor of a Chicago brownstone apartment building.  The title, Building Stories, is a double entendre, and by little coincidence is abbreviated "BS."  Note prominence of those letters on box cover pictograph.  Chris Ware grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, home of Frank Lloyd Wright, three of his houses figure into the works.  It is not a surprise that the author has such a detailed architectural point of view.  In fact, the buildings talk in an anthropomorphic fashion.

 

Aside from the box itself, which has a small quantity of comic panels printed on it, Building Stories contains the following 14 pieces (I will comment on story highlights found in each):

1.  A 52-page wordless landscape booklet
• LG as mother tending to her daughter, Lucy.
2.  A double-sided accordion foldout of the protagonist in the snow
• LG ruminates on her dead end life while walking in the snow.
3.  A double-sided accordion foldout of the protagonist with her daughter
• LG's daughter Lucy ruminates on being between happy and sad and expresses concerns she may not be able to control her children.
4.  "Branford: The Best Bee in the World," a 24-page comic book
5.  "September 23rd, 2000," a 32-page hardcover Little Golden Book (including the New York Times Magazine serial)
• This book resembles a Little Golden Book.  In fact the print is very small and the reader is forced to bring the book very close to the face, by design.  We meet her landlord on the 1st floor, a quarreling couple on the 2nd floor (the girlfriend has wide "child-bearing hips...and all without bearing any child"), and a visit from a plumber who once lived in her apartment.  She considers the "architectural precedent: why is it always the attic where we banish our past?"
6.  A 16-page comic book featuring the couple from the second floor
• Here we are introduced to the 2nd floor couple, their past romance, and current state of the union (neglect, boredom).  The self-absorbed boyfriend, Lance, is a rock musician.  Future (150 years) aliens pick up memory fragment of the couple.
7.  A 16-page comic book featuring the old woman from the first floor
• Landlord recalls her lonely childhood and parents' demise.
8.  "Disconnect," a 20-page comic book
• LG is a married parent in this book, we meet LG's mother, who reveals that LG's father had an affair.  This info volunteered when it became noticeable that LG's architect husband, Phil, rarely at home.  As mother, LG's body has changed and there is a memorable scene of Phil laying naked on bed with his face deeply buried in notebook, while LG stands naked beside him, completely ignored.  LG finds her ex-boyfriend on Internet and they meet in Chicago.  LG dreams she finds book in bookstore about her life, arranged "in a carton."
9.  A 52-page cloth-bound hardcover book with no markings (a near-replica of Acme Novelty Library #18)
• This book contains the "heart" of the story of LG, including her heartbreaking stint as a nanny for family whose wife was in affair and her evolving body image and humiliating relation with her first boyfriend and subsequent abortion.  There are sections in this work that confirm her role as the actual narrator, namely how many of the comic strips are clipped or truncated.  This work is loaded with sexual imagery akin to Georgia O'Keeffe flower visuals, after all, LG's day job is a florist.  While nanny she confronts an awkward rough house session with the son in which he becomes aroused (she becomes aware that what is poking her "is not an action figure").  Her legless body is always a source of contemplation: "My real leg is buried in a decomposing bio hazard bag somewhere."  We also learn that she had a weak heart as a child.  Nevertheless, her boyfriend opines "I love you just the way you are."  This sentiment notwithstanding, he humiliates LG in bed with some porno films by insisting they masturbate, implying LG is less interesting than the video subject matter.  There is a reference to Tarkovsky, Soviet film director, whose style no doubt informed the author of BS.  The work ends with a rather pathetic scene where the nurse must hold her thigh during the abortion, since she has no legs for the stirrup.
10.  "The Daily Bee," a fold-out newspaper
• In which we are introduced to Branford and his girlfriend Betty.  Branford runs into some "hard air" in form of a windowpane and is caught inside a house.
11.  A single poster, folded in half
• LG recalls her high school boyfriend and prom date.  Much self reflection here, sees herself as product of parents.  Ware pushing boundaries of sexual realism with tender scene of LG and husband masturbating her in front of a mirror.
12.  A four-panel accordion-folded board
13.  A 20-page broadsheet



Unity Temple, Oak Park



Frank Lloyd Wright House & Studio (1889), Oak Park



Heurtley House (1902), Forest Ave., Oak Park

•  Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple, House & Studio, and Heurtley House figure prominently in this work, which picks up LG and Phil as they move to suburban Oak Park.  LG, Doomsday survivalist, frets about collapse of civilization.  Her friend Stephanie commits suicide.  On the way to the memorial service, her cat falls terminally ill.  Ware continues focus on quotidian aspects of life with a funny quad showing shopping, daughter care, dinner prep, and spousal fellatio (as a quotidian duty).
14. A 4-page broadsheet (including "Actual Size" from Kramers Ergot #7)
• LG learns her father is dying.  At a party years ago, LG reveals why her leg was amputated.  "Actual Size" refers to actual size baby in centerfold, originally appearing in book titled Kramers Ergot #7.  I have read reviewer comments saying large unwieldy size of broadsheet is "impolite."

This is Water by David Foster Wallace

 

In 2005, David Foster Wallace addressed the graduating class of Kenyon College (Gambier, OH) with a brilliant speech.  He begins with a parable that appeared in his novel Infinite Jest (p. 445):

 

There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, "Morning, boys.  How's the water?"  And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, "What the hell is water?"

 

DFW explains that the point of the fish story is that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.  In the day to day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have a life or death importance.  DFW feels the value of education is awareness of what is real and essential, hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

 

This is water.

This is water.

 

The book leaves one sentence out from the commencement speech on p. 58: "They shoot the terrible master."  The suicide references, of course, foreshadow DFW's own suicide in 2008.

Ravelstein by Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow wrote his last novel at age 85, soon after his own bout with mortality, having ingested a toxic fish in St. Martin while on vacation, and finding himself in the ICU for 25 days in a hospital in Boston. Martin Amis, in his memoirs (Experience) says "It is....in my view, a masterpiece with no analogues. The world has never heard this prose before: prose of such tremulous and crystallized beauty." The novel is a roman a clef about Allan Bloom, whom Bellow befriended as a fellow professor at the Univ. of Chicago. Bello encouarged Bloom to write a book based on his philosophy course notes, which would become a best seller, The Closing of the American Mind. Harriet Wasserman, Bellow's agent took on Bloom's book project, which made him wealthy. In a sense, Bellow's booklong prank got away from him, it made Bloom famous, so Bellow had to kill him, it's the Frankenstein myth (Max, The New York Times).