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Onitsha

by J.M.G. Le Clézio, Alison Anderson (Translation)

3.66 of 5 stars 3.66 · rating details · 202 ratings · 31 reviews

Onitsha tells the story of Fintan, a youth who travels to Africa in 1948 with his Italian mother to join the English father he has never met. Fintan is initially enchanted by the exotic world he discovers in Onitsha, a bustling city prominently situated on the eastern bank of the Niger River. But gradually he comes to recognize the intolerance and brutality of the colonial...more

Paperback, 206 pages

Published April 1st 1997 by Bison Books (first published January 1st 1991)

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Mar 10, 2010 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

Each family member is reaching for Onitsha in his or her own way – Geoffrey through religion/legend (interesting that a different typeface is used – first sense that this book is also about Geoffrey, that he has a soul – p 71); Maou through people, and Fintan through the sense of physical location – also, while the initial impression is that each is just in his or her own world, they are aware of each other’s reaching out.
Surprised to find out that Geoffrey is Fintan’s father – p 67 – sense befo...more Each family member is reaching for Onitsha in his or her own way – Geoffrey through religion/legend (interesting that a different typeface is used – first sense that this book is also about Geoffrey, that he has a soul – p 71); Maou through people, and Fintan through the sense of physical location – also, while the initial impression is that each is just in his or her own world, they are aware of each other’s reaching out.
Surprised to find out that Geoffrey is Fintan’s father – p 67 – sense before is that Fintan is a child from some prior relationship, Maou trying to bring him and Geoffrey into a family relationship, not too successfully, because Geoffrey beats Fintan
Impressions of color, especially gold, throughout – p3 – sun illuminating Maou’s “dark, gold-flecked hair” ; p 186, “The water seemed immense, the color of mud, shot with gold.”; “everything … would wash away in the golden alluvium of the river.”
Carryover of color idea to race – extreme is the black convicts digging the swimming pool while the British white people are having a garden party; even on the ship and later in the ex-pat Onitsha society, sense that Maou is a second class passenger, perhaps too Mediterranean/swarthy for the group.
Image of pregnancy throughout – although Maou, in the current story, is only definitively described as pregnant later on
P 50 – She felt a hollow space deep within, a space she could not fill… she knew what was inside her, what was eating its way into her, and she could do nothing
P72 – Birth/rebirth in the legend
P 93 – Geoffrey describing African legend, that a child is born the day that he is created – Maou (re birth of Fintan) “remembered that that had caused her to shudder, because she already knew that she was expecting a baby, had known since the beginning of summer. But she hadn’t told him.” P 94, “the wave inside her grew bigger, going through Geoffrey’s body too.”
P154 – sense of shared pregnancy – “Maou thought of Oya, of the child who would be born here by the river.”
Need for preservation of the land – Kingsolver, Wolf Totem – p 56 – Bony’s anger over Fintan’s destroying the termite mounds (this is god)
Sabine Rodes – who is he – fringe of society, Maou first likes him but then something repels her – reference on last page that he was OBE
Pikni – pickaninny? Per M-W, probably from Portuguese, diminutive of pequeno – small – (offensive) – black child p107
Lot of sense of the author’s own experience – e.g., description on p 62 of seeing Bony’s circumcised penis, and Bony’s comments about Fintan’s uncircumcised penis looking dirty and like cheese
(less)

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Jan 27, 2009 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars

It wasn’t until the end of the novel that I really connected this novel with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel, Half of a Yellow Sun which was based on the Biafran War in the 1960ies where the eastern part of Nigeria, primarily represented by the Igbo people, were hounded into succession and an attempt to found their own state. Or that I began to wonder why so much of the literary output of Nigeria (besided Adichie, Chinua Achebe in the previous generation and Chris Abani more recently)—at least...more It wasn’t until the end of the novel that I really connected this novel with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel, Half of a Yellow Sun which was based on the Biafran War in the 1960ies where the eastern part of Nigeria, primarily represented by the Igbo people, were hounded into succession and an attempt to found their own state. Or that I began to wonder why so much of the literary output of Nigeria (besided Adichie, Chinua Achebe in the previous generation and Chris Abani more recently)—at least that which has got attention in the West—comes from this area of the country.

LeClezio’s novel spans the time frame of Achebe and of Adichie, with the novel beginning in 1948 when its main character, Fintan, first travels to Africa and 1969 when Fintan travels to France where his father is dying and from there, one speculates—since he resigned his teaching job—to Nigeria.

Fintan is 12 when he travels with his mother on the Holland Africa steamer from France to Nigeria. Mother and son are unusually close and both write on the ship—the mother (Maou, short for Maria Louisa), bits of evocative poetry and Fintan, a chronicle called “A Long Voyage”. On the ship with them is the new British DO (District Officer) at Onitsha—where they are headed—giving the reader a preview of the racial and cultural disconnect they’ll encounter at their destination.

In addition, we have the strange circumstances of their own voyage. In the 30ies Maou had married Geoffroy, an Englishman, in her home country, Italy. Shortly after their marriage he goes off, presumably to Africa, promising to send for her which he does only after his child is 12 years old!

Fintan resents the father he’s never met and doesn’t like him in person and we’re at first on his side as his father seems to be as insensitive as the other British functionaries in the local colonial government—including the DO met on the ship. Gradually, though, as Fintan toughens up his feet and runs with a local boy, learning the ways of the forest and the river, we learn of Geoffroy’s passion for the ancient myths and legends of the people who first settled on an island in the Niger. His interest borders on obsession, is deemed inappropriate by local whites. When Maou speaks up about British mistreatment of the people at the British club, she’s ostracized and the powers that be decide they have to go.

The point of view shifts almost imperceptibly between Maou and Fintan. LeClezio excels in characterizing the place, through descriptions of the sights and sounds of the forest and the river and the love of the land and the people that grows in mother and son. The sections that represent Geoffroy’s thoughts are printed in a different font to indicate a shift; at first they seem irrelevant to the contemporary world, though gradually people and events from the past seem to merge with those in the present. Readers hardly experience Geoffroy except through his research into the mists of history, though his sections communicate his intense emotional involvement with that past. Gradually, though, as Fintan comes to acknowledge and respect his father's understanding of the past, we see the small family of three standing implacably against the colonial establishment in what is a powerful, because understated, indictment of colonialism.(less)

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Feb 11, 2009 Annabelle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Le Clezio is this year’s Nobel laureate. This is a fictionalized memoir of Le Clézio’s childhood trip to Nigeria, where he lived with his father, whom he had never met until the age of10,who is Geoffery, an Englishman working for the United African Trade Company. His mother, Maou, is Italian and a free spirit. He has grown up in Europe on the French Mediterranean. She was poor and Geoffery left for the war in African soon after they married, so they lived with a women and an elderly woman they c...more Le Clezio is this year’s Nobel laureate. This is a fictionalized memoir of Le Clézio’s childhood trip to Nigeria, where he lived with his father, whom he had never met until the age of10,who is Geoffery, an Englishman working for the United African Trade Company. His mother, Maou, is Italian and a free spirit. He has grown up in Europe on the French Mediterranean. She was poor and Geoffery left for the war in African soon after they married, so they lived with a women and an elderly woman they called Grandmother. They take a boat for a month from France to Nigeria. The first third of the book is about this voyage, primarily from the boy’s, Finta’s, perspective. Le Clézio’s is masterful in rich descriptions of the natural and human world.
He uses the third person point of view, primarily describing Fintan’s life but also shifts to other characters periodically, Maou, Geoffroy, and Oya and Okawho, the fierce archetypal Africans.
He poignantly brings to life the detail of life at a given moment, for example Fintan watching African families in the hold who ride free from port to port for chipping away the rust, or Fintan watching his nude mother, or Oya being taken sexually in the hold of an ancient ship by Okawho. There are beautiful scenes of the river, the grandsslands, and the red, red earth broken open in fissures. The best part for me was when he is running wild in the grasslands learning to talk to the snakes and the gods of the rain with Bony, an African. But of course their friendship must fissure since the white colonists end up killing his uncle and brother in a chain gang digging a swimming pool for a white British official. There is horror in the eyes of Maou and Fintan at the genocide of the white colonists, and a romanticism for tribal Africa, but he also imparts a true love for the tribal people’s wisdom of the earth, gentleness and mythical roots. Sometimes it comes off a little like the noble white hero witnessing evil, while the locals live with evil. There is a second thread with Geoffroy being obsessed with an ancient story of an African queen, Meore, leaving Ethiopia to create a civilization in central Africa. Le Clézio juxtaposes the flow of Fintan’s story with dreams Geoffroy has of this ancient myth which doesn’t work too well. (less)

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Nov 23, 2008 Jayaprakash Satyamurthy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wow.

Like many other bemused Indian booklovers, I bought this book because it was the only work by this year's Nobel winner available in stores and I wanted to know what the fuss was all about.

I came away moved and impressed - convinced that, if Le Clezio generally writes at this level, the Nobel is well deserved.

It's the story of a young European boy and his mother who move to Nigeria to be with his English father, his family's various engagements with the country, its people and its heritage...more

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Dec 18, 2008 Kristianne rated it 3 of 5 stars

I ran into Sherman Alexie the other day and we talked about reading Nobel winners after they have been chosen for the award. We read these authors with a particular scrutiny since we know what apparently the rest of the world thinks of his/her work. That said, I really enjoyed Onitsha. LeClezio is a model post-colonial author, balancing European guilt and apology with the complicated paternalism of the colonists' tribal envy. He outlines these roles through the young and resilient main character...more

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May 21, 2009 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was curious about Le Clezio's writing after reading about his Nobel Prize, but even more when I read that his ideas of place and the modern nomadic lifestyle were appropriate for our times. This book is not a page turner, but it is very honest, filled with the innocence of the young protagonist, the beauty and danger of Onitsha (an African town), and the way places can grow inside us. Le Clezio is a marvelous writer who occasionally gets carried away by his love of names and myths, but I was v...more

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Jan 31, 2009 Jenny rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a small book full of exquisite details. It can be read on many levels -- as a story about a family that has been separated and is trying to come together, as a journey or quest, or as a description of the clash of unfamiliar cultures. It is the story of a young boy, Fintan, who in 1948 travels with his French/Italian mother from France to Nigeria to rejoin his British father. In Onitsha, each member of the family learns about themselves and the culture that they have come to join.

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Apr 18, 2008 Corinne Stoppelli rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: kimisse

Shelves: favorites

Un voyage au coeur de l'Afrique: trois acteurs, trois visions sensiblement nuancées.

Geoffroy travaille pour une compagnie française à Onitsha. Il demande à sa femme Maou et son fils Fintan, qu'il ne connaît pas encore, de les rejoindre.

Maou, forte de son passé d'enfant caché, espère de l'Afrique une libération, une brûlure agréable sur la peau.
Fintan se trouve projeté dans un conflit de culture et d'identité saisissant.
Geoffreoy se retrouve pris entre plusieurs feux: le milieu colonial dont il e...more

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Oct 24, 2009 Suzanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Not so much happens in this book. Another writer might have compressed the events into a short story, but then again, the slow pace mimics the way that time is experienced by children. Le Clezio is known for his descriptive writing, and there are definitely plenty of phrases worth lingering over in this book of a boy's journey to Africa to meet his father for the first time.

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Jul 10, 2009 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: africa, novels

Reading the first pages of this novel was not that exciting. To me it was extremely slow, and did not captivate my interest. But then… something happens; when Fintan, the young protagonist, docked at the banks of the Niger River with Moau, his Italian mother, a new oneiric world opens in front of the reader. I am glad I didn’t put the book down.
I loved the dreamy passages on the historical and mythological references on Africa’s legendary past -the charming black queen of Meroë and her search fo...more

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Apr 17, 2010 Vildan Arıcan rated it 5 of 5 stars

hmmm that was really awesome coz that author really deceived me..when ı have seen his photo I was just shocked to see a white half--frenchman:)

such an objective and clearly explained, empathic work...you gonna love the point of view...gonna experience all the things (pro/con) fromm the vantage point of a child, Called as Fintan.

"love" always ends if it has a link to materialism...colonial end...

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Jan 25, 2009 Becky rated it 5 of 5 stars

Incredible and lovely book about a 12 year-old French/English boy, Fintan, who with his mother goes to live with his father in Africa. I'm reminded of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe as well as other more contemporary books about Africa - especially Nigeria.

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Jul 14, 2009 Gayle rated it 2 of 5 stars

I was given this book by my sister-in-law who is an editor at Nebraska Press otherwise I may not have chosen it. It was a story of a woman and her son going to Africa in the 40's to meet up with her husband. It was a difficult life and hard to imagine.

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Jul 25, 2010 Kathy rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is my first of Le Clezio's books. It's great. His descriptions bring to life this slice of colonial Africa and the young boy's experiences getting there and living there. I hope to read Desert by him as well.

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Dec 19, 2008 Lorraine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wow. I find myself mesmerized by LeClezio's dreamy style, the settings of colonial power built on the backs of the natives and the European children who observe it.

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Jan 20, 2009 Lisa rated it 2 of 5 stars

I started reading this book after Le Clezio won the Nobel Prize in literature. I could never get into the story. After 100 pages, I had to put it down.

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Aug 13, 2011 Rachel rated it 2 of 5 stars

For whatever reason, I just couldn't get into this book. I never really connected with any of the characters, and I found the story to be dull and slow-paced.

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Jan 25, 2009 Christina rated it 3 of 5 stars

I am not so impressed. Possibly not deep enough. Confusing with all the names and it would have helped to have some type of preface/author's note to check into to have some clue of part of the passages.

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Nov 13, 2009 Juanita rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow. 1940's. Going out to Africa by
ship. A month journey and then
there is Africa. Colonial Africa.

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Mar 08, 2013 Aman Singh added it

fuck off.......u bitch.....i jst wnt 2 read this book

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Oct 27, 2008 Oldesq rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While primarily focused on the life of young Fintan who in 1948 travels from France with his Italian mother to join his English father whom he has never met on the banks of a river in Onitsha, Niger, this small volume is actually about the refugee in all of us struggling to find meaning in our physical and emotional wanderings. At times, the language and description of the journeys, both internal and external, that the characters take through the heart of the river are breathtaking in their simp...more

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Jan 07, 2013 Caitlin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So far my favorite by Le Clezio.

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May 22, 2010 Nina Chachu rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I wasn't sure whether I would like this book, as various mentions of LeClezio had indicated that he was not an "easy" writer. This novel seemed to be almost autobiographical in some ways, and maybe that was one of the reasons I found it so moving. The different perspectives did work, though of course the major part of the book was written from the point of view of Fintam, a young teenager, on his first visit to his father's posting in post-World War II Onitsha.

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Mar 15, 2009 melissa/missy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This is the first work I've read by JMG LeClezio, the most recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. And I was amazed. Onitsha is both mystical and subversive--two traits that I love in literature, but there are so few books that manage both at once--and I was totally hypnotized by LeClezio's dreamy prose. A gorgeous read.

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Dec 11, 2010 Bob rated it 2 of 5 stars

Sorry to say, I just could never get into this book and stopped reading after about a hundred pages. My main criticism is it was just too slow. Judging from some of the other reviews, I may have missewd a good thing.

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Oct 20, 2008 Dawn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Le Clezio just won the Nobel Prize for Literature. This book takes you to Africa--through the eyes of the boy Fintan, I experienced the smells, tastes, and feelings that he experienced.

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Dec 28, 2008 Amanda added it

French vocabulary
Post World War II circumstances in West Africa

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May 26, 2010 Sammalpeura is currently reading it · review of another edition

Jäi kesken, koska hukkasin kirjan jonnekin. Nyt se löytyi, joten eiköhän jatku taas joskus. :)

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Oct 09, 2008 Elizabeth marked it as to-read

J. M. G. Le Clezio won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature.

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Sep 27, 2012 Rafa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Se puede sentir el calor, olor, sabor... del río Níger. Es muy bueno.

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About J.M.G. Le Clézio

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, better known as J. M. G. Le Clézio (born 13 April 1940) is a Franco-Mauritian novelist. The author of over forty works, he was awarded the 1963 Prix Renaudot for his novel Le Procès-Verbal (The Interrogation) and the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature.

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