The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears

Mar 16, 2010 Paul rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: whats-all-the-fuss-about, novels

Big disappointment. This is all about an Ethiopian refugee who's now been in Washington DC for 17 years and runs a grocery store in a poor neighbourhood. Now the author must know whereof he speaks, but I could hardly believe the picture he painted. In 17 years, we are to understand that Sepha, our immigrant, has made precisely two friends. And these two friends have only made two friends - each other. And none of these three immigrant friends have got married or had any long term relationships....more

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Jul 23, 2008 Emma rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears was the July selection for my book club, but I almost didn't read it because I knew I wouldn't be able to make the actual meeting. But, I decided to read it anyway and I'm glad I did.

My expectations going in may have shaped my feelings about the book. I knew that it was written by an Ethiopian immigrant and that it was about the Ethiopian immigrant experience in Washington, D.C. Before picking it up, I assumed it was a memoir. I thought it would be dense...more The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears was the July selection for my book club, but I almost didn't read it because I knew I wouldn't be able to make the actual meeting. But, I decided to read it anyway and I'm glad I did.

My expectations going in may have shaped my feelings about the book. I knew that it was written by an Ethiopian immigrant and that it was about the Ethiopian immigrant experience in Washington, D.C. Before picking it up, I assumed it was a memoir. I thought it would be dense and that my main motivation for turning each page would be because it was something I SHOULD read. I could not have been more wrong. It's fiction, very readable, and I learned a lot without feeling SHOULD-ed into it. Having lived in D.C. for two years, it was interesting to read a story that takes place in a familiar setting.

This is not a book, however, where much actually happens. It's the story of an Ethiopian immigrant (did I cover that?) named Stephanos who owns a corner convenience store and deli counter in Logan's Circle, which is on the cusp of gentrification. The novel unfolds in a non-linear fashion; time goes back and forth between the present day, a few years prior, the time when he first arrived in the U.S., and his previous life in Ethiopia.

The title comes from Dante's Inferno, at the point where the poet leaves Hell. This is a fitting image, as Stephanos (and most of the other characters) seems to be in a continual state of limbo, which is Dante's first circle of Hell. When he first moved to the United States, he barely interacted with the outside world because his heart was still in Ethiopia. Now, he's barely floating through the days, struggling to keep his store in business, though "struggling" implies effort. There are a few moments where Stephanos almost grasps "the beautiful things that heaven bears," taking control of his life, but these quickly slip by. The ending seems optimistic, but is ambiguous. Does Stephanos finally leave Hell, or does he once again get swept into the circle of limbo?

Circles are a prominent metaphor in the novel - most notably, Logan Circle itself, where General Logan proudly sits atop his horse. There's also the cyclical nature of gentrification . Stephanos boasts to two tourist that wander into his store that it used to be one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the District, full of senators, congressmen, relatives of presidents; you had to have connections, money, and power to live there. Since Stephanos has lived in Logan's Circle, it had always been run-down, but declined even further as the years passed by. Soon enough, a white woman moves into and restores the deteriorating Victorian mansion next door and developers begin evicting the long-time residents. Finally, there's the circadian rhythm of Stephanos's life, where most days resemble the day before - opening the store, watching the typical flow of customers, sitting with his two friends after closing each night.

The story is sad. Not so much in the horrifically tragic way, though the flashbacks to Ethiopia are heartbreaking. It's more that there is a quiet melancholy exuding from each of the characters. The novel is character-driven, not plot-driven, and each one's despondent state provides insight into the impacts of gentrification and about what it is like to be an immigrant. (less)

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Mar 24, 2008 Rajesh rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Rajesh by: Myself

Mediocrity’s Cookbook: A review of Dinaw Mengestu’s The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
By Rajesh Barnabas

(For The Ethiopian American, January 2007)

From majestic auspices a middle aged Ethiopian-American shopkeeper negotiates his own desires against the envisioned hopes of his family ancestry or more accurately – his interpretation of their hopes. Sepha Stephanos lives in DC. He moved out of his uncle’s apartment, estranged from the only relative he has in America. His mother and brother still...more Mediocrity’s Cookbook: A review of Dinaw Mengestu’s The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
By Rajesh Barnabas

(For The Ethiopian American, January 2007)

From majestic auspices a middle aged Ethiopian-American shopkeeper negotiates his own desires against the envisioned hopes of his family ancestry or more accurately – his interpretation of their hopes. Sepha Stephanos lives in DC. He moved out of his uncle’s apartment, estranged from the only relative he has in America. His mother and brother still live in Ethiopia. Instruments used to measure the significance of his life are found in the casual acquaintances of Logan Circle and his meditative walks around the Capitol. The setting’s resemblance to Addis sparks a flickering recollection of violent events that tore apart his family and destroyed the kingdom of Ethiopia.

Among many themes gently crammed into the short novel, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, a sense of a lost glory recovered or in the least resuscitated, persists. At times wistful, other times with begrudging sarcasm, author Dinaw Mengestu’s characters explore the emotions of first generation immigrants and their reticence to the motherland and any attempt at recreating that world among transplants in America. All three friends – Ken from Kenya, Joe from the Congo, and Sepha from Ethiopia pride themselves in keeping at arms length their own countrymen and customs.

Weary of aged emperors, disgusted by pubescent revolutionaries, the thirty-something Sepha consoles his expired ambition with incremental progress. Business at the corner store is okay. “Never good. Never Bad. Simply okay. Could be better. Grateful it’s not worse.” And when Sepha opens his shop on Christmas day, because he has no family near to celebrate with, the silence comforts him.

“There were no cars. There were no people on the sidewalk or in the circle. It felt as if the world had been abandoned by the people who had been busy making it and destroying it, and now the only ones left were timid shopkeepers like myself. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth, if not for eternity, then at least for a few hours once a year.”

Sepha has already seen during childhood the damage that misguided ambition can bring. Not everyone wants to be king or the inventor of Microsoft Windows, yet Sepha’s meditations are of a different micro-cosm, spoken in a softer language, and through a window of his own making. With Taoist temper, the character meanders through the middle of class, ethnicity, and generations attempting to do no more harm, trying to tell his story without being noticed. Sepha’s long introspective walks full of social commentary are reminiscent of the nameless narrator’s in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.

The plot of The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears wanders along stealthily building momentum and only contemplates sprinting. In this, Mengestu has a knack for the non-event, of anticipations, at describing the inner workings of inaction. Stephanos romance with the only white woman on the block is used for symbolism as much as suspense. With characters drawn so engagingly, I caught myself once nervously looking up from the book to see if Judith was around. This is quite a feat-- to make the reader vigilant of their surroundings.

Mengestu’s first novel is not a page-turner. It’s a book you have to put down and think about – a window into our own life and the world around. What are we doing? Where is this going? Where are we from? Who cares? Thirty years from now what stories will we look back on? Who will we remember? What does it all matter?

However dirty and shattered the window seems sometimes, it’s all we have. The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears debates whether we should be okay with that.
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Mar 22, 2008 Jack rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jack by: The City of Seattle

Sadly, this book never really took off for me. I liked the subject (it's about an Ethiopian immigrant living in a gentrifying neighborhood in DC), but I didn't really get into the characters so emotionally the story fell flat.

Half of the story is told in flashbacks telling about the narrator's burgeoning romance with a wealthy white woman who moves into his poor neighborhood, and the other half deals with the fall-out from that relationship. I didn't feel like the balance between these two stor...more

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Jun 21, 2007 Jeffrey Dinsmore rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of introspective fiction

Full disclosure: I know the author of this book. It is very difficult to judge a book by an author you know. Unless that author is me, in which case it is easy: prognosis - brilliant!

This is the story of an immigrant from Ethiopia and his relationship with his friends, neighbors, and in particular, a small girl in the neighborhood. Not a lot happens, but we learn a lot about the characters and the difficulties facing immigrants in America. The book is getting raves from reviewers, and deservedl...more

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Sep 04, 2011 Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Set in Washington, D.C., Mengestue's The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears describes Sepha Stephanos' life as an immigrant.

Stephanos fled to America from the Ethiopian Revolution, during which he witnessed his father beaten by soldiers. Today, he runs a convenience store in a rough neighborhood. Though Stephanos tries to get business from the business of commuters in the morning, the food stamp mothers in the afternoon, and the hookers in the night, his store is going out of business. Stephanos...more Set in Washington, D.C., Mengestue's The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears describes Sepha Stephanos' life as an immigrant.

Stephanos fled to America from the Ethiopian Revolution, during which he witnessed his father beaten by soldiers. Today, he runs a convenience store in a rough neighborhood. Though Stephanos tries to get business from the business of commuters in the morning, the food stamp mothers in the afternoon, and the hookers in the night, his store is going out of business. Stephanos tries to send money home to his family, but they are actually now doing better than he is. In fact, they're wiring more money to Stephanos in America than vice versa.

Mengestu captures the loneliness and the powerlessness of Stephanos, though he is not above dangling opportunities for prosperity or relationships above his hero. When Judith and her daughter move in next door, it seems like Stephanos might finally be able to form relationships that will assuage his loneliness. Mengestu refuses to allow these opportunities to become anything more than dreams.

Mengestu's refusal to offer us a happy ending, repeatedly, throughout his narrative makes for very frustrating reading. Is this because we, or perhaps I, often read novels to escape reality rather than face it? This may be why I gave The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears three stars rather than four. Still, I did find the writing inconsistent. Mengestu's descriptions of immigration are powerful, but at other times his writing is flat. I could never decide whether this was intentional. For example, the romance between Stephanos and Judith lacks chemistry. That makes sense, but I couldn't tell whether it was purposeful.

There are a few nice touches. Stephanos has two friends, Kenneth and Joseph, who are from Kenya and the Congo, respectively. Once a week they play a game in which they challenge each other to identify coups. The game begins when one person calls out the leader of a coup (African coups only), and the others have to respond with the year and the country. Stephanos reflects that they have been playing this game for years without repeats. I also found Stephanos' relationship with Judith's daughter, particularly their creation of Henry the Chauffeur, touching.

But I mostly found The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears a difficult read. I readily admit that others may walk away with a greater appreciation of it than I did.(less)

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Sep 11, 2008 Marguerite rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

A thoughtful, sometimes comic, book that explains the American immigrant experience better than anything else I've read. Shopkeeper Sepha appears to embody the American dream, but with his heart still in Ethiopia, his hopes are exiled. He bides his time selling beer and diapers and playing a drinking/trivia game about African coups with two fellow immigrants. Hope arrives in the form of new neighbors, the advance guard of a trend to gentrify the decaying D.C. neighborhood where he has a small st...more

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Apr 20, 2008 Peter rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a magnificently simple book. Deceptively simple, like the Old Man and the Sea, in that you breeze through it and think "nice story" but when you pause for one moment and think about it, you realize that it is so much more than a nice story.

A blend of the political uncertainties and accompanying atrocities of the African continent with the ever present class struggles (overlaid by racial tension) of America. The parallels and similarities are clear but woven through the book in a way that...more

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Feb 13, 2008 Kay rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: modern-fiction, fiction

Reviews I ran across about this book intrigued me, so I decided to check it out. I've got lots of Ethiopian students at the college where I teach, plus the novel is set in nearby DC, so I was intrigued.

However, I have to say that overall the book was a disappointment. My main problem was with the choice of first person narrative. I don't think it worked well, particularly given the obvious "MFA" quality of the writing. I kept thinking, "Gee, with this sort of insight, I can't believe this guy ha...more

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Oct 05, 2008 Osho rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: around-the-world, 2008

Ethiopia.

Some have said that this is a slow novel in which little happens. While I think these comments are true, they are not negative, and stopping there misses the point. Nor is it simply a story of the erosion of the immigrant's dream. Sepha Stephanos is not just an immigrant from Ethiopia who fled the war and didn't get the girl. The story is more subtle than that. Stephanos is paralyzed by memory and guilt. This guilt isn't just because of what he did and didn't do in Ethiopia or the U.S.;...more

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Nov 23, 2008 Sheryl rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: just about anyone.

Recommended to Sheryl by: Anne

One of the most beautifully written books I've read in a while. I could not put it down.

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May 17, 2013 Barksdale Penick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Even though this is the story of an Ethiopian immigrant in Washington DC, I found much to relate to in our hero, who runs a small food market in a downtrodden but gentrifying portion of Washington, and I can't really put my finger on why. On the surface, we couldn't be more different. I am white, he is black; I have never lived outside left my home country; he was forced from Ethiopia. I suppose I have ambition, while he is content to keep his store just barely scraping along, shuttering the doo...more Even though this is the story of an Ethiopian immigrant in Washington DC, I found much to relate to in our hero, who runs a small food market in a downtrodden but gentrifying portion of Washington, and I can't really put my finger on why. On the surface, we couldn't be more different. I am white, he is black; I have never lived outside left my home country; he was forced from Ethiopia. I suppose I have ambition, while he is content to keep his store just barely scraping along, shuttering the doors at the height of business hours to go see a friend. He doesn't keep his little store clean and attractive--I think I would if I had a little store. He loved calling himself a student, but didn't finish; while I did finish college. He occasionally seeks the comfort of the prostitutes who frequent his store; I am happily married and don't need that.

The obvious point of attraction to me is his friendship with a ten year old girl, the daughter of his neighbor, one of the first white women to move into his neighborhood. The little girl comes into his store after school and they eventually read Dostoyevski together aloud, even ignoring customers if they are mid-chapter. And our hero is remarkably nonjudgmental about those around him, observing much but not taking stands. At the end of the book, there is a scene where he is some distance across the square from his store, and he knows exactly how many steps there are from his seat to the front door. I would know that.

I found this a heartwarming book about the human condition. He could have more, and he could do more with his life, but instead rolls along at a languorous pace. The woman next door might have loved him,but our hero seemed to see from the start that it would never work and so backed away. Maybe he was right, but he didn't reach out for someone who wanted him to be closer. And so he runs his shop, and wonders if he should order more supplies for the woeful deli stand he maintains. He is probably there today, waiting for to walk into his store. I would love to do that.(less)

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Feb 02, 2013 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this book right after reading Anita Brookner's "Look At Me," a novel to which it bears almost no superficial resemblance but which it is in fact very much like. Both these writers come from immigrant cultures, both feel themselves to be outsiders, as do their narrators. In "The Beautiful Things" (the title comes from Dante) a lonely Ethiopian immigrant in Washington, DC, Sepha Stephanos,is adopted by a couple -- in this case a single mother, Ruth, and her mixed-race daughter, Naomi -- but...more I read this book right after reading Anita Brookner's "Look At Me," a novel to which it bears almost no superficial resemblance but which it is in fact very much like. Both these writers come from immigrant cultures, both feel themselves to be outsiders, as do their narrators. In "The Beautiful Things" (the title comes from Dante) a lonely Ethiopian immigrant in Washington, DC, Sepha Stephanos,is adopted by a couple -- in this case a single mother, Ruth, and her mixed-race daughter, Naomi -- but the relationship ends badly, in this case because, while the mother and daughter remind Sepha of his own lost family, they also spark hostile feelings in their gentrifying neighborhood, with disastrous results. In the end Sepha is alone again and arguably worse off than before.

There are so many wonderful things in this novel, not least the evocation of the African immigrant community in Washington, and the beautifulk relationship that develops between the child Naomi and the grown-up child Sepha, that it's a shame it doesn't jell as successfully as I wanted it to. Part of the problem having Sepha, who lives in a state of depression and denial, narrate his own story. I kept wanting to shake him into consciousness: Look, I wanted to tell him, you are heading for disaster here -- wake up! But the reason for his self-narcotized state -- his memories of the horrific disasters that befell his family in Ethiopia -- isn't revealed or even glancingly referred to until deep into the novel. And he is the one telling the story to us, so we never get a hint, until later, that there's more to his state of mind than what appears on the page.

I also found the character of Ruth too undeveloped for her important role in the novel; and I wanted to know why Mengestu had named the daughter Naomi. In the Bible Ruth is the daughter in law of Naomi, and when Naomi's husband dies she prepares to go back to her own country, but Ruth (whose own husband has also died) says she won't be parted from her mother in law and will go with her. This scenario has some parallels in the novel, but in other respects it's bafflingly different. And although it may seem unfair to beat up on the author for a Biblical allusion, you can't just call people Ruth and Naomi and not mean something by it. What does Mengestu mean?? The allusion -- which is unavoidable, it's like calling two characters Clark Kent and Lois Lane -- is confusing because it leads nowhere.

As different as his voice is and should be -- and it is the voice that is among the glories here -- Dinaw Mengestu could have done with a little more of Anita Brookner's control of her materials in writing this lovely but somewhat unsatisfying book. But let's remember that it's a first novel -- and look forward to what he will do next.(less)

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Nov 21, 2012 Cook Memorial Public Library rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club-book, immigrant-stories

Sepha Stephanos, an Ethiopian immigrant, has fled the Red Terror in his youth and settled in a gritty neighborhood of Washington, DC. His friends Kenneth, an engineer, and Joseph, a waiter, both share his African immigrant status. When Judith, a white professor, and her daughter, Naomi, a bi-racial 11-year old, move in and completely renovate a run-down mansion as part of a "gentrification" of the area, Sepha begins to feel the stirring of connected and affectionate relationships with them.

His...more

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Nov 17, 2012 Francesca Forrest rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-group

Gentle in tone and intimate in its focus, this is exactly the sort of book I was hoping it would be when I suggested it as a possibility for my book group. Sepha Stephanos, an Ethiopian immigrant to the United States, has just two friends, Kenneth (from Kenya) and Joseph (from Congo/Zaire), and spends his days alone reading in his rundown convenience store in a poor neighborhood in Washington, DC. The neighborhood is beginning to be gentrified, and Sepha is befriended by a white incomer, Judith...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Peter rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's all about balance.

And Dinaw Mengestu walks many a tightrope in what may seem at first to be a relatively small novel in scope. The major rope he must walk is between the personal and the political. When a character's past is steeped in revolution and trauma, it can be hard not to let that take over a book. And, alternately, one of my biggest fears about this novel was that our protagonist, Sepha's present story was never going to compete with the political upheaval that split his family in...more It's all about balance.

And Dinaw Mengestu walks many a tightrope in what may seem at first to be a relatively small novel in scope. The major rope he must walk is between the personal and the political. When a character's past is steeped in revolution and trauma, it can be hard not to let that take over a book. And, alternately, one of my biggest fears about this novel was that our protagonist, Sepha's present story was never going to compete with the political upheaval that split his family in Ethiopia. In his new life, he mans a dying convenience store in D.C., and gradually becomes infatuated with a white gentrifying-type lady in his neighborhood named Judith. Can this tale really pull its own weight compared to angry mobs, and the downfall of his entire family?

The answer is: most of the time. While I thought the love-esque story could have risked more, I did like the way the present material had such a distinct melancholy mood and pace compared to the emotionally-charged flashbacks. Sepha is a meditative dude, and he and his fellow immigrant drinking buddies like to talk about what America is and isn't. They all have warring philosophies based upon their own difficult attempts to find a place of their own in our nation's capital. The material with Sepha's friends really shines in its combination of gallows humor (they often try to stump each other with African coup trivia), and the very earnest desire they share to help one another through the daily misfortunes of life in D.C.

The true gem in this novel though, is the relationship between Sepha and Judith's biracial daughter, Naomi. This is probably the real "love story" in the novel. Naomi lets Sepha fill the role of her absentee father with a child's open willingness. She's precocious but desperate for an authentic parental relationship. Sepha lets himself fall headfirst into a relationship with a daughter he'll never have. Like all great loves, it isn't meant to be. And the moments where this becomes clear to Sepha are among the most heart-rending in the book.

At times I wished the book would have left the confines of Sepha's store and street a bit more often. Sure it was a great microcosm, but I'll admit to some claustrophobia down the stretch. And as I mentioned, the interactions with Judith The Gentrifyer could have used some of the emotional impact of the daughter's story. But in the moments where Mengestu's novel truly transcended the confines of its tiny frame, it really came to life. The personal is political. The two can't be separated. Once we were in a place to see that, the small actions of a store clerk became much more. (less)

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Aug 12, 2012 Susan added it

Seventeen years ago, Sepha Stephanos fled the Ethiopian Revolution after witnessing soldiers beat his father to the point of certain death, selling off his parents' jewelry to pay for passage to the United States. Now he finds himself running a grocery store in a poor African-American neighborhood in Washington, D.C. His only companions are two fellow African immigrants who share his feelings of frustration with and bitter nostalgia for their home continent. He realizes that his life has turned...more

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Jul 17, 2012 Meryl rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears was recommended to me after I saw the Tony-winning play, Clybourne Park, which also tackles the subject of gentrification. Sepha Stephanos, a lonely African immigrant, maintains his struggling corner store while losing himself in great works of literature and swapping trivia about African coups with his two other African friends. It’s an unusual glimpse into the psyche of a man who works intermittently, expects little and goes unnoticed by most. That is, un...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Katie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was an engaging and intimate trip inside the head of an Ethiopian immigrant to the U.S. who lives in DC and runs a convenience store. I almost ranked it lower because I found it so sad and melancholy (almost hopeless), but then I thought, that doesn't make it bad. It's just a downer. But I thought it was a very good book, mostly exploring themes of just utter displacement. And how you can't go home again.

There's also a lot in here about modern urban neighborhoods and gentrification, which w...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Ron rated it 5 of 5 stars

The central character and narrator of this melancholy novel, Sepha, is a 30-something Ethiopian immigrant, living in Washington, DC, in a run-down neighborhood that is suddenly showing signs of gentrification. After 17 years in the States, he has long since reached the point of accepting his fate - an endless exile from the country of his birth and the mother and younger brother who survived the revolution that he himself escaped at the age of 19. A shopkeeper now, operating a little market, he...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Suzanne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Truly a beautiful book! It's hard for me to imagine that this young, driven author was able to describe so well the aimlessness, the lack of drive and energy of Sepha. The novel is about Ethiopian immigrants, but it is really about anyone who is detatched and lost.
The setting is D. C., but it is really about any neighborhood which is in decline. The residents hate that the Circle is so poor and ugly and hate that its gentrification will dislocate them.
Sepha easily falls in love with ten year old...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars

Rating: 4.25* of five

How wonderful it is to find a first novel that feels so accomplished and tells such an engrossing story. I can't imagine that real, enjoyable talent is becoming rarer in a world that contains such eloquent proofs of its health.

Mengestu tells the story of three friends, African immigrants all, who meet in Washington DC, for so long the home territory of nativist sentiment in our republic of exclusion. I don't think a recap of the plot will help anyone decide whether or not to...more

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Sep 19, 2011 Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a certain type of book for a specific kind of reader -- if you are looking for a thick, meaty plot that traverses geography, that portrays passionate love (and its downfall), and that has grand sweeping adventure, you will be disappointed. This is a book for people who enjoy introspection in the minute details of life -- who enjoy reading between the plot and deciphering the actions, thoughts, and feelings of a protagonist through furniture, clothing, movement, small conservation and so...more

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Jun 04, 2011 Meredith rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read this on a 12-hour plane ride to Ethiopia, because somehow, reading the Hunger Games trilogy felt inappropriate. I had a hard time finding modern Ethiopian literature, but this book was well-reviewed and the author highly lauded.

I found it a pleasant read, never unbearable, but ultimately hollow and uninspiring. Something was missing. I think my main problem was the plodding plot and prose -- I admittedly can't get into character-driven novels, especially when they are depressing, and esp...more

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Jun 01, 2011 Rosemary Titievsky rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 123-book-club

It's complicated. I didn't enjoy this book. I get why so many respectable literary folks have sung it's praises. For a brief moment I wondered if me thirteen years ago would have found it heady. Would I have overlooked the annoying instances of paragraphs filled with the same sentence, only slightly altered? The last paragraph. Eek. Maybe. Maybe I'd get all douchey and argue it was part of the circular "technique" that pervades the narrative and not some lazy, I like they way they all sound and...more It's complicated. I didn't enjoy this book. I get why so many respectable literary folks have sung it's praises. For a brief moment I wondered if me thirteen years ago would have found it heady. Would I have overlooked the annoying instances of paragraphs filled with the same sentence, only slightly altered? The last paragraph. Eek. Maybe. Maybe I'd get all douchey and argue it was part of the circular "technique" that pervades the narrative and not some lazy, I like they way they all sound and I can't pick, oversight.

So, rather than just straight up agree with my book club buddies Tim and Jacob, which I do, I've decided to regress back a couple decades and play the bright-eyed college geek. How would I argue the worthiness of this book? I'd get all obnoxiously psychoanalytic.

Sepha is a man-child stuck. He actively tries to live without feeling, without doing more than he needs to in order to just be. He's haunted by his last go at ambition, which led to the beating death of his father before his eyes. There's the whole Dante's Inferno, will he won't he escape this self-inflicted / society-imposed limbo in Logan Circle of hell, hope, no hell, whatever. The Brother's Karamazov I'm not worthy to be my father's son, shit I killed my father, damn, we can really fuck up our kids stuff. There's the house, beautiful American dream can you make me feel any more shitty about my have-not status new neighbor, Naomi prison, that Judy built. Let's not forget that Sepha is state side because he was sent away, not because he wanted to go. Then there's Naomi, a 200-page thesis I have no time nor desire right now to address.

Man, but that last paragraph really sucked for me. Am I to believe there's a new spark? Didn't we just spend endless pages watching him run after finding out there's no way in hell, pun intended, he can pay? Ugh, Sisyphus, Sepha Stephanos.

You should definitely read this if you're into American Literature, concepts of American identity, psychology of identity, psychological ramifications of trauma, Dostoyevsky.

Me, I want to know the story of the mother and brother left behind.

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Dec 31, 2010 Megan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Megan by: St Louis Bookgropu

Shelves: 21st-century-fiction

thought it was interesting...didn't find myself really relating to any of the characters or feeling much like it was a window looking in either...

Seventeen years ago, Sepha Stephanos fled the Ethiopian Revolution after witnessing soldiers beat his father to the point of certain death, selling off his parents' jewelry to pay for passage to the United States. Now he finds himself running a grocery store in a poor African-American neighborhood in Washington, D.C. His only companions are two fellow...more

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Dec 28, 2010 Kirstie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Kirstie by: Mom

I really think this is an important novel for people in America who may not understand race relations, African coup and genocides, and an immigrant's perspective. The novel really deals with a sense of humanity in terms of an African immigrant who escapes brutality to start over in America and his two friends who continually recall the history of each revolution in each African country. It seems like every single country is wracked with a sense of political revolutions and violence.

In America,...more I really think this is an important novel for people in America who may not understand race relations, African coup and genocides, and an immigrant's perspective. The novel really deals with a sense of humanity in terms of an African immigrant who escapes brutality to start over in America and his two friends who continually recall the history of each revolution in each African country. It seems like every single country is wracked with a sense of political revolutions and violence.

In America, this violence is more subtle and takes place over a larger expanse of time. It's the violence that comes with re-gentrification and opportunity for profit. We all know the story-it's the story of Cabrini Green in Chicago, for example, and happens in many neighborhoods throughout probably every major city in America and beyond. A neighborhood is affordable to live in and, even if there is crime, there is often a sense of community and similar background. There is also a similar economics at play. So when people with money start to invest in housing in the place, suddenly the cost of housing for the people who have lived their all of their lives rises drastically. Those people are usually evicted and have to move to another location. Meanwhile, those buildings, often tenements, are razed and condos and townhomes that are much more $$$ are erected. I think this often happens because, in a housing boom, people buy into the idea of owning property but often people even in the middle-upper middle class bracket have difficulty buying the housing they want in the neighborhood they want..so they move to neighborhoods where housing is cheaper, which causes those neighborhoods to change in a way that excludes and discriminates against it's long term residents.

I don't think there's an easy answer to this dilemma and often I think it's something that results from local city government policy that perceives the existing citizens as trouble and instead of offering them support, the local government decides to try to push these people to different counties and cities to avoid dealing with the issues of poverty and crime altogether. The mayor and governors see these residents as a loss in terms of tax dollars and a financial strain, not the human factor at all.

But the novel also really shows the possibilities of unusual friendship,a kinship with oddly the great Dostoevsky, and a sense of what an African immigrant's life might be like here in all its assorted new perils and issues. My main issue with it is that it was waaay too short. These ideas and issues are too complex for a mere 228 pages to be fully explored. The novel would be much more realized at 500-600 pages imo.

Favorite quotes:

pg 38: "They had names like Chocolate and Velvet, always things that you could touch and taste because the imagination is nothing if not tactile."

pg 130: "I've never felt a disappointment so close to hatred again."

pg 162-163: "There was a unique fear that came with feeling that it was the inanimate objects around you that frightened you most."

pg. 169: "To what we hope is nothing short of a permanent dawn."

pg. 221: "Our weapons are not accidents. They're a part of who we are."(less)

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Oct 24, 2010 tina added it

While I liked this book, i wasn't blown away like the man who wrote its review for the NYTimes. For one thing, it's very bleak, which would be okay if more were happening in the narrative. But it's paced very slowly, which can be distracting. Stephanos is so circumspent that it's painful to exist in his world. I wanted him to grow a sack and get to it; ask the woman out already or close his damn store or go back home. After living through a civil war, watching his father get murdered, and being...more

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Aug 31, 2010 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars

From my review on DCist, 2007:

In Dante Alighieri's epic poem The Divine Comedy, the poet emerges from Hell with his guide, Virgil, and experiences something akin to a sailor seeing land for the first time in months.

"We climbed up, he first and I second, so far that through a round opening I saw some of the beautiful things that Heaven bears; and thence we issued forth to see again the stars."

It's one of the most powerful moments in the poem -- and probably one of the most accurate descriptions...more From my review on DCist, 2007:

In Dante Alighieri's epic poem The Divine Comedy, the poet emerges from Hell with his guide, Virgil, and experiences something akin to a sailor seeing land for the first time in months.

"We climbed up, he first and I second, so far that through a round opening I saw some of the beautiful things that Heaven bears; and thence we issued forth to see again the stars."

It's one of the most powerful moments in the poem -- and probably one of the most accurate descriptions of the emotions attached to escaping such a bleak environment and rediscovering the meaning of beauty.

In New York-based author Dinaw Mengestu's debut novel, which takes its name from that line in "Inferno," those emotions are familiar to the protagonist, a poor shopkeeper named Sepha Stephanos. Born in Ethiopia, Stephanos flees to the U.S. after his wealthy father is beaten and arrested by soldiers during the Ethiopian Revolution. Leaving behind his mother and brother, he moves to Washington D.C., only to discover that America is not that light at the end of the tunnel, but maybe just a phosphorus glow.

Using a government loan, Stephanos opens a grocery store in pre-gentrified Logan's Circle and spends his days playing games of "name that dictator" with two fellow African immigrants, Kenneth from Kenya and Joseph from the Congo. In these three characters, we see dreams deferred. Joseph doesn't see himself moving past his job as a waiter at a high-end restaurant. Kenneth, an engineer, has found limited success, but has a hard time gaining the respect he deserves. And Stephanos' plan to eventually turn his small shop into a full-fledged restaurant goes only as far as purchasing a new deli counter, which ends up gathering dust.

Then there is the changing face of Stephanos' neighborhood. Mostly poor and predominately black, the arrival of affluent white neighbors brings tension as well as despair for Stephanos as he watches his business decline. But it's gentrification that also brings beauty and friendship into his life, as a white woman named Judith and her biracial daughter Naomi move into the house next to his apartment building. While Stephanos has gone to lengths to abandon his Ethiopian heritage, the confused culture of America has left him emotionally isolated, and Judith and Naomi soon become the closest thing he has had to a family in years. But how long can that last in a neighborhood that is just as confused about its identity as Stephanos is?

With The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, Mengestu, a Georgetown graduate whose family immigrated to the U.S. during the Ethiopian Revolution, has presented a story that at times is heart-breaking, hilarious and sweet. He details Washington, D.C.'s past and present as seen through the eyes of his characters with loving care as well as unflinching honesty. While the book touches upon many issues, not in the least racism and the effects of gentrification, its most prominent themes are revealed in its literary references to Dante and even Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, which examined American life and politics in the 1800s. The words "family" and "country" might mean different things to different people, but the desire to belong and to hold onto the beautiful things in life is universal.(less)

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Aug 16, 2010 Lauren rated it 3 of 5 stars

I tried reading this book for a few reasons:
- Dinaw Mengestu is one of the NYers 20 under 40 (He's only around 32!)
- My goodreads friend Charity read it and liked it.
- I have been interested in books on Africa and slavery recently. (This book was about an Ethiopian living in America.)

I read about a third of the book yesterday, and although I liked the author's writing style -- lucid, descriptive -- I didn't find the story compelling enough to continue. This is somewhat strange for me, because I...more

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