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So Little to Go On
Nita is a young teacher who is stationed in central Africa when a military coup forces her to be recalled. At a small airstrip, she joins a group of local citizens and foreigners who have all missed the flight that she's stunned to learn might have been the last one out. As tensions rise, Leandro, a charismatic Angolan journalist, tries to unite disparate travellers around a story-telling game. An intervention by Vernon, an elderly archaeologist, results in the adoption of an unlikely theme: who were the artists of the Palaeolithic era and why did they paint in caves?
The game starts off tentatively, but soon everyone is drawn in - only to be stopped short with signs of impending danger getting closer. After failed attempts to find out more, the group decides to embark on a long walk to safety, agreeing to continue the story-telling along the way to distract themselves from the threats around them. Many of the travellers dread their turn but no one refuses. Some opt for fables, some seek clues from personal experience, others make thinly disguised arguments for their beliefs, while a few attempt a literal account of events that might have happened.
But does their game about the past contain a subtle warning about their future they should heed...before it's too late?
The game starts off tentatively, but soon everyone is drawn in - only to be stopped short with signs of impending danger getting closer. After failed attempts to find out more, the group decides to embark on a long walk to safety, agreeing to continue the story-telling along the way to distract themselves from the threats around them. Many of the travellers dread their turn but no one refuses. Some opt for fables, some seek clues from personal experience, others make thinly disguised arguments for their beliefs, while a few attempt a literal account of events that might have happened.
But does their game about the past contain a subtle warning about their future they should heed...before it's too late?
328 pages, Paperback
Published April 28, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 17, 2021
I really enjoy books built around an idea so interesting that one wants to read it just to see what the author does with that idea. In the case of So Little to Go On, D. M. Dickinson provides two interesting ideas.
Idea 1: a mixed group of Europeans and Africans, men and women, young and old—among them a journalist, a volunteer with an NGO, attendees at a conference on low-cost housing, an MD, an entomologist, an archaeologist, a priest, a politician, and an elderly other with her adult son—stranded on the tarmac during a possible coup in an unnamed African country decide to hike 50 miles along jungle paths in order to reach the nearest border.
Idea 2: after cave paintings arise as a topic of conversation at the airport, the group agrees they will each tell the others a story that might explain the origin of cave paintings: who the artists were, what the images meant, why they were painted in caves that are difficult to access.
After an opening scene at the airport when the promised plane never arrives, the chapters alternate between descriptions of the group's journey through the jungle and tales invented by the different group members. This is the point where I have to acknowledge that I found a significant proportion of the characters in the novel difficult to like. The opening chapters, during which the group of strangers awaits the plane, then sets out on their journey were almost painful reading—not because anything particularly tragic happened, but simply because they consist of little beyond small talk among the group, punctuated by moments of hostility that may or may not have been caused by the precariousness of their situation.
I was ready to walk away from this book until the sharing of stories began. At that point, I was hooked. The monotony of their journey punctuated by the imaginative flights of their stories worked beautifully. There's not much of an arc to the novel: people hike and are crabby or pleasant, depending upon their personalities. It's the origin myths for cave painting that sustain readers, just as they sustain the novel's characters.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own.
Idea 1: a mixed group of Europeans and Africans, men and women, young and old—among them a journalist, a volunteer with an NGO, attendees at a conference on low-cost housing, an MD, an entomologist, an archaeologist, a priest, a politician, and an elderly other with her adult son—stranded on the tarmac during a possible coup in an unnamed African country decide to hike 50 miles along jungle paths in order to reach the nearest border.
Idea 2: after cave paintings arise as a topic of conversation at the airport, the group agrees they will each tell the others a story that might explain the origin of cave paintings: who the artists were, what the images meant, why they were painted in caves that are difficult to access.
After an opening scene at the airport when the promised plane never arrives, the chapters alternate between descriptions of the group's journey through the jungle and tales invented by the different group members. This is the point where I have to acknowledge that I found a significant proportion of the characters in the novel difficult to like. The opening chapters, during which the group of strangers awaits the plane, then sets out on their journey were almost painful reading—not because anything particularly tragic happened, but simply because they consist of little beyond small talk among the group, punctuated by moments of hostility that may or may not have been caused by the precariousness of their situation.
I was ready to walk away from this book until the sharing of stories began. At that point, I was hooked. The monotony of their journey punctuated by the imaginative flights of their stories worked beautifully. There's not much of an arc to the novel: people hike and are crabby or pleasant, depending upon their personalities. It's the origin myths for cave painting that sustain readers, just as they sustain the novel's characters.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own.
May 15, 2021
Stories within a story.
Both the stranded travellers' hazardous trek across central Africa and the imaginative tales about how and why cave paintings were created come in bite-sized chapters in a neatly conceived what-comes-next narrative with a 'protect the planet' message .
Both the stranded travellers' hazardous trek across central Africa and the imaginative tales about how and why cave paintings were created come in bite-sized chapters in a neatly conceived what-comes-next narrative with a 'protect the planet' message .
July 3, 2021
The author clearly knows her Africa, the setting for a disparate group to set off together to get out of a country brought to a halt by rumours of a coup. Prompted by the recollections of one member who is an archaeologist, the remainder are persuaded to entertain each other by imagining how cave painting might have originated, and the results illustrate not only the various uses to which art has been put, but also how the origins of it which individuals postulate depend on their own experiences, culture and view of human nature - as indeed would apply if one were to ask people to speculate on the origins of many human activities. The theories presented vary in their plausibility, just as one would expect from a group of lay people, and also the individuals with whom most readers will sympathise less tend to tell more provocative origin stories. This provides plenty of material for thought, and at the same time the framework narrative keeps the reader avid to see how, or even if, the group will reach their goal. Although inspirations from the "Canterbury Tales" to Kipling's "How the First Letter was Written" are obvious the author has come up with a highly original narrative which certainly kept me hooked.
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July 25, 2021I enjoyed So Little To Go On and think that it’s a potentially inspirational read for book clubs and shared classroom reading. Its themes such as superstitions, beliefs and violence lends themselves to discussion, speculation and stimuli for creative writing. The thread of these stories is why the early animal cave paintings such as in Lascaux were painted.
For example one of these longer and short tales is quite shocking and another is very sad. These individuals meet in a shack of a waiting room at an airport from where they have intended to leave this country. The whole setting has a sense of menace and it feels unsafe. The military is making it’s presence and public services have stopped. Will they survive to narrate their story! A good pick up and put down read.
For example one of these longer and short tales is quite shocking and another is very sad. These individuals meet in a shack of a waiting room at an airport from where they have intended to leave this country. The whole setting has a sense of menace and it feels unsafe. The military is making it’s presence and public services have stopped. Will they survive to narrate their story! A good pick up and put down read.
Read
April 3, 2022This is an ingenious and hugely readable interweaving of stories 2022The story teller's art is to capture the attention of their audience and hold them spellbound from the very start. 'So Little to Go On' does this extremely well. I really wanted to know what would happen to the heterogeneous group of travellers who are thrown together in a dangerous situation that forms the over-arching story, while each of the tales they tell are so well differentiated that every one was a separate pleasure. Put together the whole gave food for thought about the past and how we interpret it, and what the future might make of the traces we leave behind. Highly recommended.
August 15, 2021
A a contemporary Canterbury's Tales made up of many stories. A group of people are stranded in an unnamed African country, following an attempted coup. They form a temporary tribe who reassure and encourage each other by telling wonderful stories mainly focused on ancient Cave Painting.
A fascinating read
A fascinating read
July 12, 2021
So Little to Go On stimulates and surprises in this modern tale of travellers in a volatile land. Original and very readable.
June 2, 2021
I’m quite a critical reader of fiction now, as there are only so many plots. I really liked the simple plot in this book where an unlikely group of people from a wide range of backgrounds are forced to set off on a long trek to avoid the danger of a sudden military coup. Each of the disparate members of the group agrees to tell a story around cave paintings.
What’s fascinating about this book is the range and depth of the stories, beautifully told, but each relevant to today’s world. I was mesmerised by the fertility of ideas - feminism, climate change, political theory....
A finely crafted novel which is to be savoured in bite sized pieces.
What’s fascinating about this book is the range and depth of the stories, beautifully told, but each relevant to today’s world. I was mesmerised by the fertility of ideas - feminism, climate change, political theory....
A finely crafted novel which is to be savoured in bite sized pieces.
June 3, 2021
I’m quite a critical reader of fiction now, as there are only so many plots. I really liked the simple plot in this book where an unlikely group of people from a wide range of backgrounds are forced to set off on a long trek to avoid the danger of a sudden military coup. Each of the disparate members of the group agrees to tell a story around cave paintings.
What’s fascinating about this book is the range and depth of the stories, beautifully told, but each relevant to today’s world. I was mesmerised by the fertility of ideas - feminism, climate change, political theory....
A finely crafted novel which is to be savoured in bite sized pieces.
What’s fascinating about this book is the range and depth of the stories, beautifully told, but each relevant to today’s world. I was mesmerised by the fertility of ideas - feminism, climate change, political theory....
A finely crafted novel which is to be savoured in bite sized pieces.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews