Chigozie Obioma

I feel conflicted about this story. I appreciate its grand scope and design, and the Igbo cosmology, but there were glaring issues in pacing. I was reminded of the writing style of Dickens, in which every detail is painfully laid out significant or not, and I couldn't help wonder if this story would have been better in an episodic format. The writing is sophisticated, complex, and dense. A slow read to be sure, but not undeserving of your time. Due to this style, Chinonso's character was well-developed, and we, the readers, know him completely, in his lowest of lows and highest of highs. The character development of the First Incantation paid off in the Second and Third, as we glumly followed poor decision after poor decision, and ultimately, saw our protagonist become consumed by illogical rage. When the prose focused on Chinonso's life I was captivated, but often Obioma disrupted the story by yanking us out of the earthly realm into the chi's narrative, which droned on and on with an unfortunate verbose proclivity. A particularly infuriating instance came at the end of the Second Incantantation. I had planned to set the book down for the evening at this juncture but at the height of the action, I was entranced and turned into part three eagerly. Yet, the story came to a grinding halt as Chinonso's chi began lecturing anew. In fact, I found it so infuriating that I did set the novel down for the evening and did not pick it up again for several weeks. When I finally did, I found the remainder of the story uneven and repetitive. That is not to say that Obioma's depiction of Chinonso's spiral is not realistic, but the writing of it lagged. By the last four pages, I was begging for any redemption. Ultimately, the ending left me disappointed and a bit regretful. I am still struggling to decide if the payout here was worth the buy-in.

Although it was not an enjoyable read, Obioma's An Orchestra of Minorities is incredibly in-tune with human emotion and suffering, especially for the most vulnerable members of a society - the lonely. Ironically, I was most excited about this book because it was narrated by a chi...and yet, that very character is the book's undoing.… (more)

An absolutely gut-wrenching, sob inducing book, but it ended on a hopeful note. It was a wrecking ball, filled with biblical allusions, nods to Chinua Achebe, undercurrents of Nigerian politics, but mostly with rich and vibrant descriptions of the day to day lives of a group of brothers. The boys' lives are dictated by their serious, stern father, who wants them all to be successful professionals when they are older, and they also have to live under the constraints of their society and country, which experiences a bloody coup, which is symbolic of what happens to the boys in this book. The boys decide to become fisherman, much to the consternation of their parents, who have much grander visions of who they should be, they have a run-in with a local mad-man, who prophecies that the eldest brother will be murdered by one of his brothers. He takes this to heart, and walls himself off from his brothers, using derision and obstinacy as his weapons, which confuse and hurt his brothers. The prophecy from the madman becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for these brothers, and their lives are ruined or destroyed by what occurs. It was written sparsely, but the structure was a bit odd. We are treated many times to what the protagonist, Ben, imagines might have occurred, as well as to scenes of importance being skipped or told out of order as Ben recalls events. It created a strange flow to the story, with a feeling of everything being upended at times, which worked well to mirror the events that occurred in the book. It ended on a hopeful note however. I can definitely see how this won the Man Booker prize.… (more)