Under the Udala Trees group discussion (Jan '16)

[Alexa]

I have heard lots of people say that this was one of their favorite books of last year!

[Alexa]

My library copy of this is "in transit." I'm hoping that means I'll be able to pick it up today or by Monday at the latest. Does anybody else have it yet? Who else is planning on reading it?

[Pam]

I am. gonna head to the library tomorrow to grab / reserve it.

[Amanda]

I'm planning on it. I have it on my kindle ready to go :)

[Alexa]

I just now started this - l love this sentence from the very beginning: "It was 1967 when the war barged in and installed itself all over the place." And just before that she was talking about living life like butterflies - I thought that was a beautiful contrast.

[Alexa]

This is a great story! I'm really enjoying it. I particularly like the way it is told from the child's perspective, but she still has a lot of insight into her mother's character and motivations.

[Alexa]

And I'm finding the construction of the timeline quite artful!

[Pam]

question: does Ms. Okparanta qualify as a Woman of Africa given that she was raised, educated, and remains in the States as a citizen? does that matter for our book group or am I just being silly?

[Alexa]

I think we originally defined "Woman of Africa" as someone who was either born there or spent a significant chunk of her life there. Since she was born in Nigeria and lived there until she was ten I think she counts. It would be nice though if we can also get in some authors who are full-time residents. (It does kind of feel a little bit like cheating when they're currently Americans, doesn't it?)

[Alexa]

So what are people's initial reactions to this? I thought it was interesting how the child appears to understand the mother better than the mother herself does. (And perhaps better than the mother understands the child?)

[Pam]

Or for that matter, more than the father. I take that as a sign of resilience of the young; they know no other way therefore there isn't a wrong or a right, moree or taboo.

[Pam]

I also especially love the names; how the names beat witness to their truths before the reader even discovers them.

I especially like how the father's name is "the way"/and Ijeoma's name means " safe journey" as an offshoot of his.

[Alexa]

Oh, good point - I read right past that!

[Pam]

Okparanta has a curious way about editing or censoring some material, while going into detail with others.

Similarly, are her reveals. Ijeoma tells you or hints at what is to come, before going back in time to explain how all this came to be.

Has anyone else noticed this? What do you think of it?

[Alexa]

I really enjoy the way she shifts time about! I thought it was quite interesting to give us the whole section about her mother's reaction - before we ever get to see exactly what the mother is reacting to. I found that very powerful! It's such a novel way to create tension.

[Sokoto]

Loved this book. I thought that Okparanta's storytelling is true to how people tell oral stories. Memory comes in and out. Some things get revealed and then get fleshed out in non-chronological order.

Just ran across this interview of hers: http://www.consequencemagazine.org/re...

[Taylor]

Can't wait to start this, it's next on the pile!

[Amanda]

Me either. Starting either tonight or tomorrow. Really excited about this one.

[Amanda]

I'm at 25% and I love this. I was immediately sucked into the story. Sometimes child narrators irritate me but this is perfect I'm at the part (view spoiler)[where she and her mom are having the bible lessons and are discussion Sodom and Gomorrah. I just love her response - "It couldn't have been because they were selfish and inhospitable and violent? I asked. "It had to be that other thing?" "Yes," Mama said. "It had to be that other thing. It couldn't have been anything other than that other thing." (hide spoiler)] I like this kid :)

[Alexa]

Yes, she has the most wonderful logic!

[Amanda]

69% Do you guys watch Grey's Anatomy? I don't anymore but when I read this part all I could think about was Cali and "you can't pray the gay away"

(view spoiler)[.Prayer as a way to show God that He need not curse my child the way He had cursed the newborn at the clinic. If I could only pray enough, especially this last month of my pregnancy, perhaps all would be solved, done away with: the desires for Ndidi as well as the possibility of a harelip child.. (hide spoiler)]

[Amanda]

Finished! Loved it!

(view spoiler)[I really liked this one. I don't always like books where the ending feels too contrived but I was really glad that this was a happy ending or at least as happy as it could be. I really liked in the epilogue how she still had her faith despite everything and she still believed that things could change. I thought it was a very positive book in that sense. I was also very happy that Mama came around :) (hide spoiler)]

[Alexa]

I thought it was beautifully written! It's interesting that in many ways it's a deeply religious book. I'm thinking I want to read this all over again, just to savor her language. I also was interested in how her perspective on things is slightly different as she ages - I can't recall another story in which the narrator herself is clearly aging as she tells the story.

[Pam]

Hmmm. The epigraph was religious. "Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstrations of realities, though not behold."

What other ways do you see Okparanta being religious?

[Alexa]

Well it seemed like during almost all of her struggles she's reading The Bible and praying in church. All of the second section, where her mom is trying to "save her" she only thinks that her mom's interpretation is wrong, never that The Bible is wrong. She seemed to get a great deal of her faith in herself from her religion.

[Pam]

I took it the other way. That the faith in the epigraph wasn't referring to a religious faith, so much as a faith in oneself, and specifically in her sexuality.

Once I figure out how to write spoilers using the app/ get home to my personal computer, I'll explain my thought process.

[Pam]

Anyone else feel this way, too?

[Alexa]

Actually I do agree with you, I don't see the epigraph as evidence of her religious beliefs at all, but rather her discovery of the importance of her faith in herself.

I do see her religion in her epilogue though; she wants to see acceptance of herself in her bible and in her religion, and is hoping that's what she sees when she thinks about the "new covenant."

[Amanda]

I thought the whole book had instances of her trying to find acceptance of her self in her religion. The part towards the beginning when Mama was reading the bible to her. She never rejected the bible or God. Only her mother's interpretation of it.

[Pam]

Ah! I see. Great points.

[Alexa]

I was just remembering one point in this that truly infuriated me. There is a lot of horror going on in this, the war, the persecutions, the rapes - yet we as readers really are sheltered from a lot of it. One relatively minor piece of injustice, that I didn't feel at all sheltered from, is when her husband brings home the toy car and refuses to let the daughter play with it. I was furious! (And I feel rather shallow that that small bit of gender injustice pushed all my buttons!)

[Pam]

I think that is what bothered me the most. That the entire time that most vivid cruelest thing that made me FEEL angry happened to her daughter.

Horrible things happen around Ijeoma, but we the audience are either stuck in a cellar or Okparanta reveals it by explaining everything BUT what happened. I never felt worried for her. Even during the rape scene. I never felt concerned that things weren't ever going to be better because some of Ijeoma's reactions felt so... distant.

I think Sokoto nailed it when she said "I thought that Okparanta's storytelling is true to how people tell oral stories. Memory comes in and out. Some things get revealed and then get fleshed out in non-chronological order.

I'll even chalk this up to growing up in a post-traumatic world where everything goes wrong so you walk around being numb. If so, hats off to Okparanta. But it left me unconnected and even indifferent to Ijeoma.

[Alexa]

Interesting! I think the fact that everything happened at a distance left me feeling more connected to her. It's as if I was able to enjoy knowing her and admiring her coping techniques and spirit, while not needing to get too caught up in the trauma. Yes, the trauma was there, but it wasn't the focus, she was.

[Pam]

(From the readers guide) After her father’s death, Ijeoma begins to think that perhaps the nature of life is change. Does her view on this subject evolve throughout the story? Is change ultimately presented as a positive force or a negative one?