Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o has long been considered one of the main contestants for the Nobel Prize in Literature - and rightly so, as his writings on Kenyan culture and about the consequences of the British rule over his home country are invaluable for everyone trying to understand African history or coloni ...more
This is one of those books that make me happy I decided to embark on my literary world trip. Minutes of Glory might not be a happy book, but it's one that speaks volumes for the country it tells the reader about, Kenya.
Minutes of Glory by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is a collection of 16 short stories organized thematically under the headings Of Mothers and Children; Fighters and Martyrs; Secret Lives; Shadows and Priests. The stories cover a range of topics dealing with Kenyan culture, the impact of British colonialism, ra ...more
I grew up reading Ngugi wa Thiongo' and with this collection, I'll admit that I enjoyed reading every story. This collection has the crispness Ngugi is known for, not just in how he unpacks the stories but more so how his characters are as flawed as much as they seek to take charge of the course of ...more
As my first, Ngugi wa Thiong’o read, I must say I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. Set over decades in Kenya, In Minutes of Glory, Thiong’o introduces us to some interesting flawed characters. Narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator; Thiong’o weaves together in congruent ...more
Minutes of Glory and Other Stories represents a superlative collection of work by noted Kenyan author by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. The stories here represents divisions among communities that infect individuals and reduce them to their best--or worst--selves.
Some of these divisions affecting identity might ...more
I’ve read other African authors, don’t think I’ve ever read a Kenyan one and I do try to read internationally, so that was the main appeal of this short story collection found on Netgalley. It promised minutes of glory and provided 175 or so minutes of…something, not glory per se, but maybe enlighte ...more
Una serie de cuentos clara, real, magnética. Logré descubrir una nueva cultura a través de ellos. Conocer la manera en que piensan en Kenia,. Cómo se ven atravesados por el choque cultural, la diferencias sociales y de clase. Cómo afecta esto en particular a las mujeres. Una maravilla literaria. ...more
Minutes of Glory and Other Stories is a slim anthology of short stories, an introduction to the writings of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, a Kenyan scholar who has seen revolutionary changes in every facet of Kenyan and Ugandan society.
The stories are haunting and filled with struggle. The first few stories sta ...more
Great storytelling. Ngugi's stories are complex and deal with the concepts of identity and culture in varying degrees.
I enjoyed the stories involving women protagonists. I felt that those stories showed perspective without being gender biased. Although these were short stories, I felt connected and ...more
Thanks to The New Press and NetGalley for the advance review copy.
This is a series of well-written short stories, all by the same author. The stories are written from the perspectives of a wide range of different Kenyans ranging from beer hall waitresses to white colonialists. Some of the themes cov ...more
great read for understanding the influence of colonialism and Christianity in Kenya. highlights include The Ghost of Michael Jackson (critiques the hypocrisy of religious leaders), Wedding at the Cross (politics of respectability in a marriage), A Mercedes Funeral (reflection on the way political le ...more
This remarkable collection of short stories, written by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, has the power to conquer the reader’s attention with its style and the magical atmosphere that pervades all of them. In fact, nature is described as an active actor that shares and represents the feelings of the characters. S ...more
Short story collections are one of my least favorite genres as the relative uneven quality stories often becomes a major let down. However, I am pleased to say that this collection of short stories from one of Africa’s greatest writers is, on the whole, very good.
I got this as an Advance Reading Copy (so the final version could be different). I was already in the middle of several books, but I got so absorbed by this one that I still read it in three days. The stories are organized thematically—Mothers & Children, Fighters & Martyrs, Secret Lives, and Shadows ...more
That aside, Minutes of Glory is a short story collection to describe. Thiong'o provides readers with slices of life stories of Kenyans before, during and (immediately) after the colonial era focusing on the region of the country. He weaves in themes of colonisation, race and religion into the everyd ...more
This was my first experience with Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and I look forward to reading on of his novels. I enjoyed his writing style and how none of his characters were perfect. They were all flawed, all real. I also learned a lot about Kenya's transition to colonial independence, a subject I knew almost ...more
Usually, in a short story collection, there are lots of ups and downs. It's the type of book that normally gets an average rating because of that. This book though, it's got strong story after strong story with only one exception. I was only unable to connect to the Mercedes story, and after a coupl ...more
Short stories from a Kenyan writer (now in his 80s a literature professor in California), mostly from the 1960s, touching on the lives of native Kenyans, colonialism, the Mau Mau rebellion, later freedom, and the changes under newly developed national wealth and a new class of leaders (many corrupt, ...more
Early on in my reading of this, I was a little on the fence. I enjoyed the stories, but it took me reading through a handful of them before I started getting used to Ngũgĩ's style.
That being said, don't pass this collection by. After reading a few stories, I reached that quickening where I didn't wa ...more