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Carol Jones

Author of The Boy With Blue Trousers and The Concubine's Child

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All articles filed in The Gift of Rain

Reading Now

By: Carol Jones July 13, 2018
Author, Book Review, LiteratureTan Twan Eng, The Gift of RainLeave a Comment on Reading Now

A rich and complex narrative of divided loyalties…

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Author, Book Review, LiteratureTan Twan Eng, The Gift of RainLeave a Comment on Reading Now

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This famous Kenyan play was first performed in 1977. It centres on a poor farming couple who face pressure from wealthier neighbours to bear the expense of a formal wedding when they married traditionally many years before. Needless to say, calamity ensues. Its themes of class struggle, poverty, marriage, and modernity vs tradition in a post-colonial society made it very political, which in turn made the writers targets of the regime at that time. The play was shut down and the writers were arrested, later fleeing the country. . Ngugi wa Thiong'o is both a playwright and novelist, as well as an academic. Although his early works were written in English, he later decided to write in his native Gikuyu and Swahili, translating the work into English. . What other writers can you suggest who have faced oppression because of their work? There are so many! #iwillmarrywheniwant #ngugiwathiongo #kenyanwriters #kenya #africanliterature #bookstagram #bookish #books #igbooks #africa #booklover
REVIEW First published in 1979, Kindred by Octavia Butler is renowned as the first science fiction novel written by an African American woman. It's true that it involves a time slip but there's not much science involved and the mechanics of the time slip are never explained. Suffice to say, a contemporary (1976) African-American woman is suddenly wrenched from her life and the arms of her white partner and transported back to antebellum Maryland to save the life of a slaveowner's son, a boy who she subsequently discovers was one of her ancestors. Each time his life is in danger she is dragged back to this dangerous time with disastrous consequences for herself and others. . To me the book has more in common with Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad than a fantasy like Outlander. By adding this fantasy element to what is essentially an exploration of a dark period of history, it allows the author to stand outside looking in on the lives of characters who are both slaves and slaveowners. It allows Butler to explore how and perhaps why, the intolerable comes to be tolerated, and the unconscionable effect this has on those enslaved and the dehumanising effect it has on the slaveowner. Despite the dark theme and sometimes violent events, the novel is filled with engaging complex characters, a brisk pace, and lots of dialogue. It isn't a difficult read in that way. . Definitely a recommended read, and the irony that I read a novel about slavery while sitting poolside in Africa, isn't lost on me. I count myself lucky that I wasn't born in that era. #kindred #octaviabutler #sciencefiction #historicalfiction #bookreview #currentlyreading #currentreads #bookstagram #bookish #books #igbooks
If you're in Melbourne it's the last chance to book to hear me in conversation with Trevor Hay about my new book at Eltham Bookshop at 6.30pm on Monday 19 August. I'd love to see you there. #theboywithbluetrousers #elthambookshop #bookclub #booktalk #bookstagram #bookish #historicalfiction #nowreading #booklovers #bookevent #melbourne
Three weeks bouncing across Kenya and Tanzania in a Landcruiser isn't conducive to reading unless it's an audiobook. And listening to your own book narrated by the delightful voice of Sarah Ovens is even better. A new experience for me, and one I really enjoyed. Sarah's narration added a completely new dimension to a book I thought I knew inside out! Finished listening on the beach in Zanzibar. #theboywithbluetrousers #audiobook #sarahovens #bookstagram #bookish #books #igbooks #africa #booklover #aussiewriters #writersofinstagram #historicalfiction
I remember reading this book by Chinua Achebe thirty years ago, and picked up this edition in Arusha, Tanzania, photographing it in the Amboeseli reserve in Kenya. Chinua Achebe, of course, was Nigerian. He was a pioneer of African literature, a novelist, poet, critic and academic. Things Fall Apart is his acclaimed first novel and the most widely read novel in African literature. "The story is the tragedy of Okonkwo, an important man in the Ibo tribe in the days when the white men were first appearing on the scene." Have you read any of Achebe's works? #africanliterature #chinuaachebe #Amboeseli #nigerianwriters #bookstagram #bookish #books #igbooks #africa #booklover
Karen Blixen's famous memoir Out of Africa pictured outside the home in Nairobi, Kenya, where she lived for seventeen years until 1937. The house is now a museum. The memoir, and numerous works of fiction written under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen were completed and published after she left Africa and returned to Denmark. It was interesting to see the house where she lived, complete with some of her original furniture, sourced for the movie with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. Although I recently discovered that the outdoor scenes were filmed on an island in the middle of Lake Naivasha in Kenya. Apparently the producers shipped in the wild animals for the movie. The only other of her works I have read is Seven Gothic Tales. She is also the author of Babette's Feast, made famous by another movie of the same name. Have you read any of Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen's works? #outofafrica #karenblixen #isakdinesen #Nairobi #kenya #writersofinstagram #bookstagram #bookish #books #igbooks #africa #booklover #aussiewriters
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