Literary Fiction by People of Color discussion
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Under the Udala Trees
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Discussion: Under the Udala Trees
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ColumbusReads
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Dec 31, 2015 02:28PM
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I'm picking up my copy on Monday. I'm really looking forward to reading with the group again!Happy New Year!
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Happy New Year!"
Karen, I really believe you're in for a treat. Took me by surprise, really. Wonderful writing, wondeful story.
I read it and loved it and I'm looking forward to our discussion. If anyone is partial to audiobooks, this one is narrated by Robin Miles and she's wonderful.
I read this book and also enjoyed it. I did read Happiness, Like Water. I am not necessarily a fan of short stories but I did find myself enjoying the stories in the collection and the beautiful lyrical language that it felt me hoping that the author's next release would be a novel (and it was)!
I read it and loved it too. Should be a great discussion!
Columbus wrote: "We'll start this discussion in 7-6-5-4-3.....hours. Several in this group, including myself, picked this as one of their favorites of the year. I was pleasantly surprised by this book and thought t..."Happiness, Like Water was a 5 star for me.
Happy New Year everyone!!Ooh dear, I must be the only one who is yet to read it then.
Better catch up then.
Columbus wrote: "Though I'm not exactly crazy about short story collections I'll likely read Happiness, Like Water as well at some point. Has anyone read that collection yet?"I love short story collections, so I will definitely have to add this to my TBR pile. Now if I can only find a copy of the ebook (out of luck at the library). I'll see if they'll order it in for me.
poingu wrote: "I read it and loved it and I'm looking forward to our discussion. If anyone is partial to audiobooks, this one is narrated by Robin Miles and she's wonderful."I love Robin Miles. I've got my Audible copy on my iphone ready to go, as soon as I finish the audiobook I'm listening to now. I should get started on Under the Udala Trees by Monday.
A bit off topic but since short stories was mentioned, I cannot recommend highly enough those of Ama Ata Aidoo:No Sweetness Here and Other Stories, Diplomatic Pounds & Other Stories, and The Girl Who Can, all of them excellent.
Mod
She's on a book tour where she's reading/signing in New Hampsire, New York, St Louis, Portland, Camden NJ and elsewhere for those in one of those area's. Also, lists awards/recognitions and other sources for her short stories and essays.
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2014 O'Henry Award Winner
2014 Lambda Literary Award Winner
2014 New York Public Library Young Lions Award Finalist
2014 Rolex Mentors and Protégés Arts Initiative Finalist in Literature
2013 Society of Midland Authors Award Finalist
2013 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, Long-listed
2013 Caine Prize in African Writing Finalist
Editors' Choice, New York Times Sunday Book Review, Sept. 20, 2013
The Guardian's Best African Fiction of 2013
2012 United States Artists - fellows for literature
Here's the short story that was short-listed for the prestigious Caine Prize and is also featured in her short story collection, Happiness, Like Water.
http://www.caineprize.com/pdf/2013_Ok...
Just picked up the book today and will be ready to join the discussion hopefully by the 6th. Looking forward to it!
Mod
Cool, Michael! Join us when you can!
I hope to join. I am waiting for an ebook copy.
Mod
Part 1 / Jan 3-6
Part 2 / Jan 7-10
Part 3 / Jan 11- 16
Part 4 / Jan 17-20
Part 5 / Jan 21-24
Beginning with Part 6 (January 25th), the entire book will be open for discussion.
Let's now start this most interesting and exquisite novel praised by the likes of Edwidge Danticat, Tayari Jones and Justin Torres (all authors we've previously read and discussed)!
Mod
I keep notes on every book I read and this one is no exception. The early note I have for this one reads:
-The air raid sounds and bomber planes followed by scampering to the bunker for cover is quite familiar in reading these stories of the Biafran conflict, Nigeria-Biafra War or Nigeria Civil War whichever one might prefer to call it. It might've been a constant part of life during that time but It never ceases to be chilling to read about.
Why did the father decide not to go into the bunker do you think? I kind of foresaw something happening when he grabbed Ijeoma and said, "I want you to know that your father loves you very much. I want you to always know it and never forget it." I thought then that this isn't going to end well.
Columbus wrote: "Under the Udala Trees is broken up into six parts, so how about we take a leisure approach to the book and go through each section separately. Here's the proposed schedule:Part 1 / Jan 3-6
Part 2..."
Sounds good
Just started reading Under the Udala Trees today--looking forward to reading again with the group.The only other book I've read about the Biafran war was Half of a Yellow Sun (Chimamanda Adichie). I loved that book, and that's providing helpful context for this novel.
I have read both Radiance of Tomorrow and Half of a Yellow Sun and I thought that the difference with how the Biafran War was presented compared to how in Under the Udala Trees is that the first two are about the war and/or the war is in the forefront.For me the war was in the background in Under the Udala Trees. It did shape some of the events /actions regarding Ijeoma's life but the main issue facing Ijeoma and the majority of the story would have happened with or without the war. The war is there in the background shaping the political, social, and emotional landscape but that is not necessarily driving the story.
Beverly wrote: "The war is there in the background shaping the political, social, and emotional landscape but that is not necessarily driving the story. "Yes, and I loved that aspect of this novel. A lot of my favorite war memoirs leave room for other things to happen besides non-stop slaughter and mayhem. It seems from these memoirs like you can be right in the middle of a civil war and even so have mostly still moments, of boredom, of regular life happening around you. The "life goes on" aspects of the novel felt quite realistic to me, especially since Ijeoma is a child during the war.
I love too the war is not in the forefront of the story. I also like that Okparanta only includes information about the war that a child would know. Very powerful perspective.
Columbus wrote: "Why did the father decide not to go into the bunker do you think? I kind of foresaw something happening when he grabbed Ijeoma and said, "I want you to know that your father loves you very much. I want you to always know it and never forget it." I thought then that this isn't going to end well."First let me say that I am about 30% in and I am really enjoying the book. I'm currently juggling 3 books right now and this one is getting more unputdownable... Anyways, in part one my only note was "Wow war really messes with people's minds." Both Uzo and Ada seemed to have lost their coping mechanisms. Uzo in particular struck me as selfish. To paraphrase Ta Nahesi Coates, dude lost "the dream". He couldn't cope when his reality wasn't reality. His wife and children were sacrificed to his vision of the dream. He died thinking of himself as a martyr. His last remnant of "the dream" and self esteem was to die in the conflict. His declaration of love for Ijeoma was another part of that "dream". He gets to die nobly (in his mind). He'll live on in the minds of his children in high regard.
When I speak of "the dream", I'm not referring to the Biafra conflict (I know very little about that). I am referring to Uzo's perceived place in the world and the notion that once he realized his beliefs would not become a reality, he opted to stay in the dream rather than stay and support his family and help sort through the wreckage of their lives after war. Right side of the war or not; I found his actions to be self serving. But, as I mentioned earlier which probably could have summed up my answer much more succinctly... war messes with people's minds.
Mod
Haha, I certainly can identify with "the dream" from Coates, Monica. I'm only juggling two books now, something I rarely do, the Coates book which is riveting and Camus' the Stranger which I'm loving as well. Both are getting about equal attention.
just picked up the book over the weekend. and I'm very much enjoying it so far.
I just picked this up at the library today. I will be starting as soon as I finish another book!
Hello everyone,I am only about 5% in. The writing is beautiful from the first few lines.
I am also realising how little I know about the conflict.
Feeling sad the Dad did not go into the bunker :(.
My book is in transit to my local library. I'll probably have it tomorrow.
I finished Part One this morning and it is a wonderful book so far. For now, I'll stay away from spoilers and just say that the writing is top notch and I found the end of part one gut-wrenching!
Got mine today. Haven't started it yet. Sounds like a good one. Look forward to discussing.
I just purchased my book today. Time to play catch up.
Monica wrote: "Columbus wrote: "Why did the father decide not to go into the bunker do you think? I kind of foresaw something happening when he grabbed Ijeoma and said, "I want you to know that your father loves ..."Loved your comments, Monica. I appreciate your highlighting of the selfishness angle; I was thinking a bit about how sometimes the cultural responses to grief manifest as unequal hardships for women - the men become alcoholics or kill themselves in other ways, while the women somehow find a way to carry on despite the suffering and take care of the families. Not sure this is totally true in this example, since the mother doesn't seem to be able to take care of anyone any more either, but it is something I was pondering. And I was thinking about how the women incorporated wailing into the funeral ritual - I don't know any more about Nigerian customs than what I'm reading here but certainly there are similar rituals in American female culture, but the men are expected to be stoic or respond in anger or violence, instead of letting their grief out and finding a way through.
To the question of "why", my first thought was what Ijeoma thought: "Maybe the thought of having to live out his life under a new regime where he would be forced to do without everything he had worked for... where Biafrans would be considered lesser citizens - slaves - like the rumors claimed, was too much for him to bear." I was thinking as Biafra was destroyed, so her father was destroyed, and he decided to make real what was already true for him - in his mind he had already died. To do it in a way that he still thought of himself as a martyr and a loving father, I suppose that was a cheat, though.
Karen Michele wrote: "I finished Part One this morning and it is a wonderful book so far. For now, I'll stay away from spoilers and just say that the writing is top notch and I found the end of part one gut-wrenching!"I am only 10% in and I completely agree.
I really feel for both Ijeoma and her mum. Difficult for them to not feel abandoned.
Mod
I thought part 2 was very interesting. I found the mother's selective interpretation of the scripture amusing. Amazing how one can bend it to suit their own purposes but cannot allow themselves to see the downside of such. In times of uncertainty, we humans seem to cling to absolutes no matter how absurd they might seem in calmer times (this is not to say that her interpretation would have been different in calmer times). Ijeoma and Amina seemed to have a sexual sophistication and maturity I'm pretty sure I didn't have as a 13 year old. However, I didn't grow up in the middle of a conflict with daily bombing. Any day could be your last. They seemed to seize the day. My question is do you think that Ijeoma's sexuality would have asserted itself so viscerally in a peacetime environment? I just think she might have had time to just be a little girl for a little while longer.
well, I doubt she would have had the same opportunity. she was being kept in a storage room outside of the main house as was her friend, since they were both servants and not family. not a lot of after hours supervision or even observation. I think her mom's selective interpretation of biblical scripture was all that unique though and I doubt mom really saw any downside. I think mom wanted to kill that sort of behavior before it became normal for her daughter.
It did seem that the relationship was Ijeoma and Amina was very influenced by circumstances. Ijeoma's father had just died and she had been abandoned by her mother. The teacher and his wife forced her to live in their shed and treated her like a servant. Amina was the only person who cared about her and connected with her. It does seem like the intensity of their relationship may have been caused by the extreme circumstances.
I'm really impressed by the way she plays with the timeline, moving backward and forward in time. There's a lovely tension there while we watch the mother's reaction to the situation, while the situation itself has not yet been explained. By the end of part 2 we're still only guessing about what probably happened.
I've just begun the book. The writing is beautiful. It drew me into the story immediately.
Monica wrote: "Ijeoma and Amina seemed to have a sexual sophistication and maturity I'm pretty sure I didn't have as a 13 year old."I will wait until we get to Part III before I say much about this, but I think some of it might have to do with younger expectations in that time period/culture - one of the characters talked about the real possibility of being married at age 12. Not sure that automatically gives you sophistication, but certainly an awareness of things that children that young might not think/talk about in other cultures.
Alexa wrote: "I'm really impressed by the way she plays with the timeline, moving backward and forward in time. There's a lovely tension there while we watch the mother's reaction to the situation, while the sit..."This aspect really got to me. I couldn't believe Ms. Okparanta skipped ahead so far! I was first of all, surprised, that Ijeoma was reunited with her mother at all, I figured she would never hear from her again...
I recently read another book that included scripture and exorcisms for homosexuality (Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit) and so I was not eager to read this part. All in all, it was a pretty unpleasant section of the book, and it was pretty thorough in highlighting the standard arguments I have heard people use from the Bible against homosexuality. But I was impressed with Ijeoma's internal dialogue throughout all this, and how she incorporated her own analytical thinking and the storytelling of her father to think through to her own conclusions/skepticisms. I was heartbroken her only solution seemed to be to deceive her mother.
The other thing that made an impression on me was the juxtaposition of Part I where her mother abandons her, and Part II where her mother "begin[s] working on cleansing [her] soul." I was actually more traumatized by the latter. I can see that different people will have different reactions, and of course, I can't really know unless I have experienced both things, but I am much more sensitive to the idea of a parent condemning me for the things that make me me, than to the idea of them abandoning me because I am a burden. At least with abandonment, I have the freedom to make up fantasies where I am a martyr for my family's survival, or where my mother was hit by a train and that is the reason she can't come back for me. Better than being face to face with their disgust in you day after day. I'm curious how others feel about that...
I had a very different reaction - although everything you've said is very thought provoking and I may need to rethink my opinions here. My initial reaction (probably in contrast with Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit) is how relatively gentle the mother was being. No screaming, just 15 minutes of quiet bible reading a day. Mostly, I think, because she doesn't see this as a question of identity but rather as a single example of wrong-doing. As if her child had been caught in a single episode of thieving, and so they discuss the rights and wrongs of theft, but the mother doesn't see her daughter as having made a permanent lifetime career choice.And we're left not knowing (yet). Was this simple childish exploration and experimentation or a true expression of desire?
But after reading what you wrote Michael, I'm afraid I'm perhaps being too simplistic and not looking at the undertones.
well, context is everything, but I'd say mom was in a state of panic. and as we find out, there is a real price tag on this behavior. but as we've seen in laws passed in various African countries of late, it's not an acceptable lifestyle choice in many places. having grown up in the Deep South, and gone to an evangelical elementary school, the selective use of Bible verses felt rather familiar, however unpleasant. I tended to react more emotionally to mom's biblical emphasis on avoiding mixing of people. now, that's something I'm more familiar with. However, like Michael, I was also impressed with Ijeoma's pretty mature reaction to her mother's efforts and for that matter questioning other aspects of religious teachings. having to hide her true nature from her mother is sad, but given the time and place, I don't know what other choice she would have had.
Alexa wrote: "I had a very different reaction - although everything you've said is very thought provoking and I may need to rethink my opinions here. My initial reaction (probably in contrast with [book:Oranges ..."Thank you for your candid thoughts, Alexa. I admit (and George's "mixing of people" example seems to demonstrate), we all have our own buttons that might be pushed by different sections of the book, so your mileage may vary. I think I was constantly on guard during this section because I know how much fear and anger lies just below the surface when people calmly tell you that they want to save you from yourself. In the beginning Ijeoma seemed to suspect it, too (p.67):
"The look on (my mother's) face was the look of a person watching a gradually sinking boat from afar. She seemed about ready to scream at the captain of the boat, but she seemed also to understand that if she screamed, the captain could not possibly hear."
Not surprisingly, the calmness her mother had been presenting during the mind-numbing repetition of the lessons all falls apart when she realizes Ijeoma has not been converted (p.86):
"Pray!" she screamed. "... Why do I not see your lips moving? Why do I not hear any sound coming out of your mouth? Pray, I say! No child of mine will carry those sick, sick desires. The mere existence of them is a terrible disrespect to God and to me!"
She continued to scream in that fashion, and all the while I could only get myself to look wide-eyed at her. Finally I made to rise up, but she shouted at me to kneel back down. "Kneel!" she screamed, panting as if out of breath.
I did as I was told.
She placed her hands on my head, put pressure on it so that I turned my face downward toward the center table.
"Only your own prayer will save you now. I have prayed all I can for you. Now you must pray for yourself! Only God can save you!"
I just wanted to run as far, far away as I could reading that. I would lie, too, if it would save me from my mother's horror.
I felt like her mother was abandoning her all over again even though she was there. Perhaps the only thing keeping Ijeoma from sinking into despair and allowing her to process as she does is the initial abandonment. Even though we don't know exactly what happened, we can infer that she was thinking and feeling for herself and developed a sense of self without being barraged by any adult prejudices. I felt the same way, Michael, about the second passage you quoted. About 10 years ago at the high school where I taught we had a situation with two girls videotaped kissing ---- it's a long story, but the dean of our school at the time turned the tape over to the parents. One girl was sent out of state to a school to be "fixed". I was and still am angry and appalled as I write this now, so this section of the book just brought back to me a lot of feelings about the terrible things done in the name of biblical interpretation.
On a lighter note, I saw "The Book of Mormon" yesterday and laughed a lot of those feelings out of me!
Quite a powerful discussion so far. In part I, I had observed that the coping mechanisms for the parents seemed to have broken down during the conflict. I saw Ijeoma's mother as clinging to dogma/absolutes because she needed to calm her surroundings. George mentioned earlier, she was in a panic. While she did in effect abandon her child, it was not her intent. She was living in the illusion that she was going to build a life for her and her daughter in Aba. What she was in fact doing was running from all her responsibilities. Not forever, she just needed a break from it and that break extended for over a year. Her illusion is shattered by Ijeoma and in a sense very much by her own actions. She is brought back to reality very quickly and when that happens, her way of coping was to rely on the scriptures. People in distress sometimes cling to what they believe to be absolutely, unquestionably true. The absolute rules of life that require no nuance, no interpretation. It just is. By making sure that Ijeoma is I love this discussion because I never viewed the whole situation as horrific. The nuance of that was lost on me. My parents did not have to cope with war where they lived (though my dad is a Vietnam vet with multiple tours in country) and did not rely solely on teachings from bible to to instill a sense of right from wrong or survival in the world when trying to raise their children. I guess as Michael mentioned, because Ijeoma was so mature and intelligent about the way she viewed these lessons, I didn't really see what must truly have been soul-crushing, damage.
Karen Michele and Monica, you raise a lot of great points for me to ponder. I'm thinking even more now about how well Ijeoma coped with the situation from a self-esteem point of view. She obviously suffered from her mother's judgments, but she thinks the whole thing out from the point of view of addressing her own guilt, and trying to understand God's intent for her, instead of a more typical adolescent's need for adult/peer acceptance. She doesn't seem to lose her sense of self or spiral into depression if her mother and her don't see eye to eye. I think you are right, Karen Michele, that some of this is the relief of being with her mother again, and just appreciating the connection, even if it is a hostile one. But also I think she has a sense of independence that may just be her character, or may be from the things she has had to survive on her own, that seems to act as the foundation for her.
Mod
What a wonderful discussion so far. I'm finally caught up and about to start Part IV. I'm really enjoying it. Let me be a contrarian for a moment, though: I was wondering if anyone had any feelings on the relative lack of development of Ijeoma and Amina's relationship? It doesn't seem as if they have very many conversations or bonding moments (I mean, there are a couple) and their deep connection is sort of lost on me. Am I missing the point? After all, I suppose the story is not about Ijeoma and Amina per se, but the fallout itself.
Literary Fiction by People of Color
Books mentioned in this topic
An Untamed State (other topics)October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard (other topics)
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (other topics)
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (other topics)
Radiance of Tomorrow (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (other topics)Ishmael Beah (other topics)
Ama Ata Aidoo (other topics)
