Blackass

Starts out as a Kafka pastiche, quickly expands to cover a lot more - the lingering effects of colonialism in society and culture, gender politics, etc etc. The problem, while it does all of that with both verve and sharpness, is that it doesn't really have time to dig into all the various things it sets up, and the plot never really knows where to go; the kind of book where I suddenly look up and realise I only have 12 pages to go and there is no way it can tie everything up. Which it can't. But the way there is still fascinating.

I agree with some of the other Goodreads reviewers -- great premise, skillfull writing, wonderful evocation of Lagos and Nigerian culture -- then a pretty dramatic stall. I was reminded of Jose Saramago's [b:Blindness|2526|Blindness|José Saramago|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1327866409s/2526.jpg|3213039], which has a similar mechanism -- start with a singular, strange event that changes everything then see what happens. Saramago goes deeper and deeper, surprising us with every new twist. ut Barrett seems to stall on a pretty predictable revelation of white privilege. That's fine and rings true -- but then what? What new aspect of race relations or Nigerian culture or Furo's family does the story reveal? Barrett doesn't show more seem to have that much to say other than the obvious. Also, I didn't get a deeper sense of Furo's humanity -- he seemed a vehicle to explore a racism we (should) already know about. show less

I felt like this book was anti-climactic. I was almost done when I had to return it to the library and I remember being sad that I had to take a break, but upon picking it up again I couldn't figure out *why*. In my opinion, there's no resolution in this book either. I don't feel like the main character ever truly finds his way, which is what I was waiting for the whole time. There's also maybe a sub-plot (though under-developed if that is indeed what it is) that was just confusing and distracting. Overall, glad I read it but would not recommend strongly.

An excellent book full of humor that depicts Africa as it is today. Its content is of actuality. The author is part of the narrative and the reader is challenged to find his/her place in it.

A very good novel. I wasn’t sure about the last third, I suppose it was simply a finalization of the metamorphosis. Perhaps it closely hues to Kafka’s I can't remember how that ends...

fiction (Kafka's metamorphosis translated to modern Nigeria)