[a:Teju Cole|1042875|Teju Cole|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1296114339p2/1042875.jpg]'s book is a learning experience. He writes beautifully, talks about historical tragedies, and the book has a challenging shifting narrator scheme and the same with many locations, starting in Maine, then Cambridge, MA to Mali and Nigeria and back. He discusses J.M.W. Turner's painting "Savers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying" which we've seen with its foreground of roiling seas and brilliant red sky and the ship Zong, plus the Africans, some in chains, which the slaver is throwing overboard, cargo he is transporting to America. Lloyds of London has since offered reparations. There were at least 130 who drowned in 1781. According to the BBC this ship and the crime paved the way for eventual abolition of the slave trade so something was learned by someone.

He also fields an interesting discussion of the unreliability of Western custody of artworks citing the WWII destruction of work by Van Gogh, Courbet, Murillo, Rubens, Titian, Goya, Botticelli, Tintoretto, and Caravaggio. by allied bombs. And there are references throughout to so many paintings (i.e. Chris Ofili's "Mary Magdalene" with a "violet so deep it could drown the eyes, in whose "Raising of Lazarus" there is a violet so base it could raise the dead."

In the beginning of the book, Cole includes a scene where his partner and he are shopping for antiques at a rural warehouse in Maine and find a couple of things they wish to buy including a ci wara, a ritual object representing an antelope and used by the Bambara people of Mali. Later, he goes to Mali for a conference and buys others of these sculptures. He also spends evenings listening to the music of the area at a club available on a playlist: https://open.spotify.com/queue

I'll skip a recap of the serial killer mentioned by a student in his creative writing class.
He also watches The Searchers and a 1994 film by an Iranian director, Abbas Kiarostami, Through the Olive Trees.
Art and music predominate but fewer books from this creative writing professor at Harvard. except for a handful of titles, Virginia Woolf's "The Death of a Moth." [a:Susan Faludi|117182|Susan Faludi|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1560239653p2/117182.jpg]'s [b:The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America|723244|The Terror Dream Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America|Susan Faludi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1316126301l/723244._SY75_.jpg|709477] about captivity narratives; [b: Invisible Cities|9809|Invisible Cities|Italo Calvino|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1468623303l/9809._SY75_.jpg|68476] and [b:Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali|469896|Sundiata An Epic of Old Mali|Djibril Tamsir Niane|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1223664019l/469896._SY75_.jpg|458208]. But I remind myself it is not about a WRITING professor, it's about a photographer! I had a hard time not reading it autobiographically. ( )

Much like Toni Morrison's Recitatif this book, Tremor by Teju Cole seems to give the finger to bigoted readers. But just like Morrison, Cole still feels the need to devote a novel to the issue.

The main character of this novel is a refined person, as is shown by his life, work and interests. He could be "Everyman". Still his particular intrinsic knowledge of African masks identifies him as an African or African-American man. Throughout the rest of the novel this is merely a possibility, but not necessarily so.

Tremor is a very well-written novel. Like Morrison's work it is a step in the direction of the ultimate emancipation of African-American writers, of becoming indistinguishably equivalent. Though topics and style would still be personal, there ought not to be a reckoning based on ethnicity or background. The international guild of writers, joined around a big table shared by writers from all ages and all continents, as envisioned by E. M. Forster come true. Cole's Tremor is already much closer to this ideal, as he no longer poses descent as a problem. Stll, complete equivalence is not quite there, but very close.

It seems that this awareness is still much stronger in American writers than elsewhere, although as a white person this is hard to gauge and appreciate. Perhaps ultimately, because of history and the critical movement, well-educated African-Americans will be better able to reflect on and understand history, than there white counterparts. In any case, from my perception this is a great novel. ( )

https://donut-donut.dreamwidth.org/870916.html ( )

Teju Cole is obviously a very skilled writer and this book is like eating a really well-prepared fancy meal when your tastes go more for comfort food. The is really no plot, but rather a series of musings by the Nigerian born narrator who is a professor of art/photography in some elite eastern college. There are so many illusions to obscure art and music pieces; I looked up some but some just not worth it.

A discussion of a painting called "The Slave Ship" also known as "Slavers throwing overboard the dead" which was interesting because I had just read "The Sacred Hunger" which is an account of that event which was more about whether or not insurance would cover than the dead of the slaves.

Cole points the ubiquity of white supremacy in Western culture. Why is the values of European white men more important than those cultures of Africa. There are many interesting little unknown "stories" but sometimes it was overwhelming.

I did enjoy the short paragraphs regarding people living in Lagos. It does give a peek into lives, beliefs, and values that are different than mine.

I probably could have enjoyed the book more if I had taken the time, but honestly, I was waiting for something more to happen which the author was just giving me food for thought. ( )

Billed as a novel, but really more of an autofiction novella, Teju Cole flexes his brilliance in Tremor. There is a main character, Tunde, a West African who now teaches at a prestigious school in New England (sound familiar?), and he does do a few things and flashback to previous events in his life, but mainly we listen to his musings about race, art, music, and life. Readers who enjoy smart literature where not a lot happens but the author gives a lot to think about will have their hands full with Tremor. ( )