The Mookse and the Gripes discussion
This topic is about
An Orchestra of Minorities
Booker Prize for Fiction
>
2019 Booker Shortlist: An Orchestra of Minorities
I thought The Fisherman from a previous Booker list was underwhelming. Sounds as if this one is more meaty (pun intended).
Bought a copy in January and have struggled to read it ever since. A hundred pages in but there’s something resisting me continue – too elaborate prose maybe? I like the idea of chi-narrators more than the way it’s executed here – I preferred Freshwater in this respect.I could be wrong and end up loving it though!
message 4:
by
Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer
(last edited Jul 24, 2019 02:07AM)
(new)
-
rated it 4 stars
I did not fully appreciate the chi-narrators in this book although I liked a lot else about itMy review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
An extract ............The book is narrated by Chinoso’s guardian spirit - his chi. Chapters are told in flashback, effectively in the form of a defense statement drawn up by the chi to the higher powers, setting out Chinoso’s fate and his resulting actions, drawing on ancient Igbo parables, sayings and beliefs in an attempt to explain both, and with the ultimate aim of pleading for divine clemency for Chinoso’s actions, in particular his unwitting harming of a pregnant woman.
On the whole I think this approach works - the chi functions as a form of partial omniscient narrator, successfully re-appropriating the standard (but often criticised) form of third-party Western novelistic narration into a more ancient tradition of African story telling.
And the chi explores dialectic themes, first of loneliness and love in the opening Nigerian section; then fate and destiny, despair and hope in the Cypriot parts; then the ideas of hatred and forgiveness in the closing section.
Where I felt it did not succeed so well, at least for my own enjoyment, was when the chi character itself and its own parallel cosmological world took prominence - lacking any real context (and with the author seemingly unwilling to provide it) I often found myself skipping these sections (especially a lengthy sectional the end to the Cypriot part of the novel) in a mix of bewilderment and impatience.
I often struggled to see this element of the book as much more than a unnecessary and only partly forgivable distraction from the power of the main story.
I agree with GY's thoughts. I favored the main story over the philosophical subnarrative with the Chi character. I found myself comparing Obioma's integration of Igbo mythology with Emezi's in Freshwater and I felt Emezi incorporated myth more vividly which better suited fiction. I also felt the Nonso, the main character, might prove a bit too vain and sexist for Western taste, rendering him unsympathetic. I look forward to the women's view on this book.
I thought the opening scene of this book was wonderful.
Interesting observations re Nonso - and how as a reader does one balance Western liberal ideas on sexism against Western liberal ideas about avoiding cultural insensitivity.
This article gives the genesis of the novel https://www.theguardian.com/world/201...
The author recounts his own experience as a Nigerian student in (the largely unrecognised state of Turkish) Northern Cyprus and his realisation that many if not most of the other Nigerian students there had been swindled out of money they had paid in advance for fees and accommodation; and also deceived into believing that entry to Northern Cyprus would give them jobs, prosperity and the right to move anywhere in the EU.
The author himself had been able, via his family, to pay his fees direct to the University and from his degree was able to gain a place as a Creative Writing lecturer in the US. However his experience was very much the exception and one of his fellow students Jay (who appears as a character in this book) committed suicide as a result of his despair on arriving in Cyprus and realising the way he had been deceived. The author was clearly hugely affected by this incident and wondered about the Nigerian who had carried out the swindle, who was presumably unaware that his small momentary gain had such cataclysmic consequences. The article also covers an image of Northern Cyprus which stuck with the author - trapped birds trying to escape their fate.
In interviews about the book, the author has also talked about how this incident and other things he witnessed in Cyprus caused him to examine what he sees as the great topic of literature - the contradiction between free will and fate and how he interprets them through, not so much traditional Western views, but through the prism of the ancient Igbo philosophy of his ancestors
And to really understand the writing style that the author is aiming for and it’s very deliberate contrast in its expansive prose and layers of reality to what he sees as the minimalism and literalness that has come to dominate much Western literature, the following two articles are useful. Both also locate his writing firmly in a Nigerian tradition. Given a number of the expansive books on the longlist I feel that the judges may agree with his take.
https://themillions.com/2015/06/the-a...
Which starts
In one of his essays, the late Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe stated that “no one be fooled by the fact that we write in English, for we intend to do unheard-of things with it.” That “we” is, in essence, an authoritative oratorical posture that cast him as a representative of a group, a kindred of writers who — either by design or fate — have adopted English as the language of literary composition. With these words, it seems that to Achebe the intention to do “unheard-of” things with language is a primary factor in literary creation. He is right. And this should be the most important factor
And which is a very interesting read
AND
https://themillions.com/2017/02/93351...
Which starts
Like most other art forms, fiction has undergone many configurations over the years, but its core has remained, as always, the aesthetic pleasure of reading. When we read, we connect to the immaterial source of the story through its outstretched limbs. The “limb” or variants of it are what the writer has deemed fit for us to see, to gaze at and admire. It is not often the whole. But one of the major ways in which fiction has changed today — from the second half of the 20th century especially — is that most of its fiction reveals all its limbs to us all at once. Nothing is hidden behind the esoteric wall of mystery or metaphysics.
Anyone else read this I have just read for the second time and feeling an absence of people to discuss the book with.
Starting it next - probably tomorrow.
Meanwhile my review just gets longer!
Mod
Still waiting for it to arrive - in the meanwhile Frankissstein and night boat have landed on my doorstep so one of those will be next
Gumble's Yard wrote: "Anyone else read this I have just read for the second time and feeling an absence of people to discuss the book with."This is one of the few I have read and I have been reading your notes and updates. I look at the novel as representative of the recent wave of good fiction coming from first Nigeria and now from other areas in Africa. I would not mind seeing the novel shortlisted.
I have read it. The narration by the chi takes a while to get used to, but it worked for me once I was. Sometimes it felt as if the story was secondary to the mythology, so the author may not have got the balance right.I haven't read your notes and links in detail yet GY, but will do soon.
I'm about 30% through and enjoying it so far. Listening to the audio book.
Just over halfway. Obioma has used the word “reticulated” 4/5 times and each time I am sure he actually wants “articulated”. For example, what is a “reticulated lorry”?Asking not as criticism but wondering whether it is deliberate. The chi narrator talks rather grandly, but I'm not sure whether that would mean he would use the wrong word occasionally.
99p on Kindle UK at the moment...
great spot - thanks Ang
Oh great, I’ve just bought it, thanks for letting us know.
I've finished this now, which means I've read 11 and need to wait for the Rushdie and Atwood to be published.In this one, I was interested in the different world view presented, and especially interested because it seemed so different to the other book I read that was based on Igbo cosmology (Freshwater). This one seemed much more benign and distant where Freshwater seem more malign and involved.
I wasn't that taken with the story, although discovering from Gumble's Yard's review that there is a true story behind it makes it more interesting in retrospect.
This is next up after Ducks for me. My whole Sunday will be devoted to Ducks and since I am home I can read my physical book!
Prepare yourself for a shock when you get to page 653 of Ducks (in the black limited edition) - there is a capital letter that isn't a proper noun or an acronym and isn't in the lion bits.
Mod
Mod
Paul wrote: "Prepare yourself for a shock when you get to page 653 of Ducks (in the black limited edition) - there is a capital letter that isn't a proper noun or an acronym and isn't in the lion bits."Hugh wrote: "I didn't spot that one - could be a typo!"
Apparently put there to check people weren't skim reading:
(yes this should probably be on Ducks thread but that is currently discussing mass shootings)
It was the one book I struggled a little with on a re-read Hugh so I can understand your viewpoint.
This is the one (published) book I have to come but may take a Booker break and read some women in translation given it is now August
Brief but very insightful.
Paul your typo in D,N has been reported and duly noted for future versions.
Mod
The more fascinating comparison for me is to Freshwater.
Mod
Yes - and for me. Two very different books coming from the same tradition.
I thought Freshwater was better on the spirits and much more creative. But although I found An Orchestra of Minorities somewhat difficult to engage with at first, I did like it. Chinoso was an interesting character. I did not always like him -- he had a bit of an anger management problem and sometimes treated women badly. It seemed as if he were a stand in for Job in the battle between God and the Devil, without getting to enjoy the happy ending.
The spirits in "An Orchestra of Minorities" have less power to interfere in their humans' lives than those in the other two books, but that is because the perfidious white man and his gods have caused the descendants of the old fathers to turn away from their own gods and weakened the power they had (as Chinoso's chi explains repeatedly).
Chukwu, Egbunu, et al, is an over-indulgent god to listen to pages and pages of chi-splaining about everything from the nature of the universe and spirit world, the history of the land and rivers, to the names of the days of the week and the mother god, etc. for our benefit. Not liking that authorial decision. This poor god lacks omniscience and thunderbolts for pedants?
I think this novel is largely unsuccessful. It consists of two strands: a straightforward (though ludicrously melodramatic) plot, and a whirlwind of Igbo cosmology. The device used to introduce the later into the former is a chi, or spirit, that lives in the body of his host, Chinonso Solomon Olisa and is the narrator of the book. This is a clever narrative device, but it doesn't work. This narrator can't decide how omniscient he should be, sometimes relaying the thoughts of his host, sometimes frustrated that he doesn't know what is going on with his host. But this is a minor quibble. The main problem with this narrator as chi is that it is a device by the author to explain and illustrate Igbo cosmology (I use that word for lack of a better substitute, it isn't religion). Nothing wrong with that, but it is simply stuck on to the narrative. It has absolutely nothing to do with the plot or the host. The placement of these Igbo asides often seem random, as though the author had compiled a certain amount of information to give the reader, and randomly sprinkled it throughout the book.A related problem with the book is the uneven register of the narrator's English. He explains early on that he had inhabited a host who was an English speaker, but since the Igbo world, and his host, are both non-native to English, the narrator, or should I say author, can't decide on exactly how western and English the narrator should be. Saying things like 'in the year the White Man refers to as 1969' over and over is simply annoying. As is referring to Jesus Christ as Jisos Kraist...repeatedly. And then the narrator uses a sophisticated Christian concept such as 'a face that bore the visible stigmata of his own suffering.'
The final problem I have with this book is the utterly ludicrous plot. Everything goes wrong, cubed. And then cubed again. I found myself giggling during the nurse-brings-him-home-for-cake scene. Come on! And then the ending of the book. Guess what? Things are about to get much, much worse. I see no point in this unremittingly grim plot. No lesson that this reader learned, and absolutely no connection between the cosmology and plot.
Mod
Good summary. Given the strength of the longlist the flaws in this book mean I increasingly don’t think it should be shortlisted and it was the one book which if anything got worse on a second reading.
Mod
Yes, in a weaker year it might be shortlist material, but of the 10 I have read or started, seven are stronger, and I expect at least one of the remaining three to join them.
I have it seventh currently but drifting down.
I’m about 60% through and my favorite parts are the Chi narrator and learning about Igbo culture and religion. I find that stuff fascinating, while the story hasn’t quite gripped me. It feels a bit long-winded, predictable, and Chinoso just seems so helpless. I also think they’ve foreshadowed the ending so explicitly that I know how this will play out and not sure I want to read it. But maybe I’m wrong.
Tom, that was almost exactly my reaction! I think you just wrote a precis of my review and the discussion Gumble's Yard and I then had in the coments.
Mod
Neil wrote: "Tom, that was almost exactly my reaction! I think you just wrote a precis of my review and the discussion Gumble's Yard and I then had in the coments."Glad you guys agree - I've been careful not to read reviews or much of what's been written above to avoid any spoilers
When you have finished some of the links above explain more about the genesis of the novel (much of the Cyprus part starting from personal experience) and the very deliberate decisions the author has taken over the style of writing.
The Mookse and the Gripes
Books mentioned in this topic
An Orchestra of Minorities (other topics)The Famished Road (other topics)
Freshwater (other topics)
An Orchestra of Minorities (other topics)
The second novel by Nigerian writer Chigozie Obioma, whose debut, The Fishermen was Booker shortlisted in 2015.
A contemporary twist on the Odyssey, An Orchestra of Minorities is narrated by the chi, or spirit of a young poultry farmer named Chinonso. His life is set off course when he sees a woman who is about to jump off a bridge. Horrified by her recklessness, he hurls two of his prized chickens off the bridge. The woman, Ndali, is stopped in her tracks.
Chinonso and Ndali fall in love but she is from an educated and wealthy family. When her family objects to the union on the grounds that he is not her social equal, he sells most of his possessions to attend college in Cyprus. But when he arrives in Cyprus, he discovers that he has been utterly duped by the young Nigerian who has made the arrangements for him. Penniless, homeless, we watch as he gets further and further away from his dream and from home.
Published in the UK and the US by Little, Brown (an imprint of Hachette).