1 post tagged “current obsessions”
What is your current obsession(s)?
Submitted by eijsr.
I got a chance to read this before it was released and found it to be one of the best written books I've read in years. The author writes as if he's conversing with a friend. No flowery language and no SAT vocabulary words. His descriptions leave me with vivid pictures in my head of people and scenes from the novel.
It is the story of an Ethiopian expatriate and convenience store owner who is content to read all day in his store and serve his customers until the house next door to him is purchased and restored by a white woman and her bi-racial daughter. He becomes friends with his new neighbors and thinks beyond his little store for the first time in fifteen years.
The story discusses such issues as gentrification, revolution, and assimilation.
The fact that this is Mengestu's first novel is amazing. I'm hoping there are many more after this one. He is a brilliant writer.
I guess I'm obsessing on it a little because it is the first book I've read that I was expected to review. That someone thought enough of my skills to trust me to review it is pretty empowering. Not only all that, but the author is reading from his book this evening not far from where I live, so not only did I get to read and review this book, but I get to see, and maybe even meet, him in person.
