"The Old Drift" by Namwali Serpell (BR)

[Silvana]

This book did not make it to the voting phase but as usual, BR to the rescue! I think my buddies for The Prey of Gods BR last year might enjoy this one too, being a genre-bending Afro-futurism book as well.

The Guardian's review: https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

This would be my first full length novel set primarily in Zambia. Can't wait!

[Meredith]

This looks really interesting. I am a firm maybe on the buddy read. Adding it to my calendar, we'll see how swamped I am by mid-April. I did really like Prey of Gods. Along those lines, I also recommend Lagoon, if you haven't read it already.

[Rachel]

I quite liked prey of hods and I gifted my mother The Old Drift got Christmas so I’ve even got a copy nearby

[Silvana]

Glad to have you, Meredith and Rachel. I have to thank the Clarke Award or else I would not have known about this. Yay small awards :)

[Meredith]

I’m always impressed when my local library has books like this, less well known sci fi and fantasy. Someone who works there must be a knowledgeable fan.

[Silvana]

Meredith wrote: "I’m always impressed when my local library has books like this, less well known sci fi and fantasy. Someone who works there must be a knowledgeable fan."

How lucky! I wish I have library access with cool SFF collection.

[Silvana]

Starting tomorrow! Anyone else?

[〰️Beth〰️]

Read this when it first released. Looking forward to what everyone thinks.

[Rachel]

I am too far behind blarg. I’m about to get to Desolation 2 from library today plus finishing KSRs latest tome

[Silvana]

〰️Beth〰️ wrote: "Read this when it first released. Looking forward to what everyone thinks."

You can share your thoughts first!

[Silvana]

Rachel wrote: "I am too far behind blarg. I’m about to get to Desolation 2 from library today plus finishing KSRs latest tome"

I'm a slow reader nowadays, no worries.

[Meredith]

I've started reading this. It has a feel similar to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "One Hundred Years of Solitude."

I finished the section "Sibilla." I have one question I was confused about. (view spoiler)[ What was the connection between the Colonel and Lina? He just lives there? I was confused trying to keep track of the generations, thinking at first he was the same generation as Lina, but then his brother, Federico, was only 10 years older than Sibilla. (hide spoiler)]

[Bonnie]

Hello, noticed you are reading this, giving it a shot because it won the Arthur C. Clarke award and might be a good followup to Everfair. If I dislike it though I won't force myself 'cause it's not "assigned" ;-p

Agree, reminds me of One Hundred Years of Solitude.

[Bonnie]

Meredith wrote: "I finished the section "Sibilla." I have one question I was confused about. (view spoiler)[What was the connection between the Colonel and Lina? He just lives there? I was confused trying to keep track of the generations, thinking at first he was the same generation as Lina, but then his brother, Federico, was only 10 years older than Sibilla." (hide spoiler)]

"Sibilla" -Colonel
(view spoiler)[Maybe the brothers just attended the parties at Lina's place? I went back and looked. Colonel Giuseppe Corsale spent time in Abbysinia and Libya, was wounded in WWII East Africa campaign, returned to Alba, tried farming and local politics but mostly suited him to go hunting and attend parties and tell war stories. Maybe the Colonel and Lina bonded because they had both lived in Africa. (hide spoiler)]

[Silvana]

I am still in Sibilla's chapter. Having a bit chapter fatigue coz this part is so long omg.

Agree with Meredith and Bonnie, it felt like reading magical realism a la Allende and Marquez.

[Meredith]

Bonnie wrote: "Meredith wrote: "I finished the section "Sibilla." I have one question I was confused about. [spoilers removed]

"Sibilla" -Colonel
[spoilers removed]"

Those are good thoughts. I went back and re-read a bit and I wondered if he's (view spoiler)[ one of the fascist soldiers who moved into Lina's mansion after ousting the partisans and he just decided to stay. (hide spoiler)]

[Bonnie]

"Agnes"
(view spoiler)[
Questions (minor)
- when Ronald first arrived at George, Carolyn and Agnes' manor in Surrey, he noticed "two ebony busts of African slaves." How did he know the man and woman were slaves?

- when Agnes started going blind, "for every drop of sight that disappeared from her view, a small bump the same size formed under her skin" Does this matter? Will it come into the story later?


I hoped that Ronald & Agnes would be happy together, I feel so bad they are on the rocks. He shouldn't have gone to study in Scotland alone! (hide spoiler)]

[Bonnie]

"Matha"
(view spoiler)[Sad. So sad. So much lost potential. That bit at the end when she remembered visiting her mother in prison, This world is not enough. Matha had always resolved that she would turn the world right over, for her mother, as her mother.

Did some women consider abortion in that time and place? It did not say that she even thought about it.

At first mention of Martha's older brother Mulenga, I thought Oh! cool connection! That must be Harry Mulenga the butler from the "Sibilla" section. Ditto Martha's cousin Grace who took her in. Cool! That must be the Grace the maid from the "Agnes" section! But reading on, it did not appear that either of them was the same character as before. Did any of you think that?

I discovered that the little symbols separating book sections, upon peering closely, are Mosquitoes! (hide spoiler)]

[Bonnie]

The Mothers: Sylvia / Isabella / Thandiwe

A lot of references to smells and people's breath. And saliva. And hair.

The chapter name does not mean it's 100% from that character's point of view - mostly, but not all. Can also be from someone with no chapter name (Nkuka, Lionel), or a previous person (Matha, Sibilla).

I thought I would really like some of these characters --as people I mean; they are very interesting book characters-- and then it turns out they are not as smart as I originally thought, really not that good of people... I grow to realize I don't like them... (view spoiler)[e.g. Matha, Isabella, Lionel.

Wow, Aunt Cookie (Nkuka, whom I admired for crafting a good life so purposefully) not only threw Sylvia out, she LOCKED HER OUT OF THE HOUSE. I mean that is ice-cold. Not to have a conversation with her and say (coldly!) "Obviously you can't live here anymore, you need to take your things and be gone by Saturday." Of course she should have had a conversation with her a couple months earlier when Sylvia failed the Jr. High exams, and say "So unless you repeat your grade and have one more shot at it, you're not in school anymore. You need to get a job and pay your own X." Like, what did Cookie think teen Sylvia was doing all day?! I don't like helicopter parenting, but how about a bare minimum of parenting.

There must be some deeper meaning (motif?) behind that accident when Balaji and Isabella hit the man with their car on their honeymoon; it has been circled back to several times. Balaji tells daughters about it (when he almost hits the poor cow?); Nonna Sibilla learns about it from the girls; Thandiwe hears the story by the bonfire, then again in more detail from the young American woman on the bus ride.

Vivid scenes!!
-Isabella finding her old dolls in the servants' quarters, gets laughed at, running away getting her marigold dress dirty
-Sylvia putting nail polish on toes.
-Sylvia spotting her former school friends at the hotel while she is there as a prostitute!
-To have Sylvia having affair with Lionel, and after sex at his home: sitting at Thandiwe's dresser, looking in her mirror, going through her cosmetics, studying her beautiful red wig on the stand. Then in later chapter, Thandiwe finds out about Sylvia and barges into the salon and has Sylvia do her hair. So bizarre and intimate.

All three chapters end at Sylvia & Loveness' (and, we find out Sibella is their silent partner!) salon, Hi-Fly Haircuttery. How seriously was Naila injured after falling from the jacaranda tree? Does the salon burn down, sabotaged by Thandiwe using Sibilla's long white hair? OMG. (hide spoiler)]

[Bonnie]

"Joseph"

First half was great.
Second half was confusing.
(view spoiler)[Everything surrounding Lionel's death was very moving IMO. Joseph angry with him for passing on The Virus to so many people (baby brother!). Angry with him for dragging a kid around to women's places "Meet Aunty" to have sex. Sex is what killed him. Feeling both sadness and fury.

Why did Joseph "hate his sister" when it seems like Carol did a lot to protect him when they were young?

Clinic:
Who are God /Dr. Ling /the familiar big-boned woman in the pin-striped skirt?
Why did Dr. Musadabwe keep sending texts and emails when he knew Dr. Banda was dead?
Why do kids work at a medical research lab?
If they are getting cells from the women with AIDS (who have a resistant mutation), what's in it for the women to keep coming in?
What do "the Chinese" have to do with it?

What does a Digit-All Bead look like, and do I want one?
Now the SF part is starting. Although I wish the book had the year as 2024 so I could pretend it is real and coming yet.
(hide spoiler)]

[Silvana]

Arghh Bonnie you're so fast!

ETA: Just finished the Agnes chapter. I enjoyed it better than Sibilla. The way the story interspersed with historical events is rather well told. Can't wait for the next chapters, look like they all have different POVs, am I correct?

Bonnie: Idk the answer to your first question but for the second one I also wondered the same thing. But you are already further than me so you might already the know the answer.

[Bonnie]

New Yorker interview with Namwali Serpell on fictionalizing Zambia
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/a-novelist-and-critic-on-fictionalizing-zambian-history


Study Guide - The Old Drift
http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-the-old-drift/

The plot summary is very detailed as a review or whatever. I want to see the symbols and themes but you have to pay to get more than one... I even considered paying it, then I could get the results of the 25-question quiz that I filled out, but don't know how I did!

[Silvana]

Bonnie wrote: "New Yorker interview with Namwali Serpell on fictionalizing Zambia
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-...


Study Guide - The Old Drift
http..."

oh thanks for these!

[Silvana]

Finally reached halfway! It's getting more interesting.

Bonnie wrote: ""Matha"
Sad. So sad. So much lost potential. That bit at the end when she remembered visiting her mother in prison, This world is not enough. Matha had always resolved that she would turn the worl..."

(view spoiler)[ I did not remember about Grace appearing before but yeah I guess so? Or else where did she get the connection and able to 'rescue' the kid?

I really love this chapter - it's the craziest (astronaut?? weepers?? and the imageries just wow. (hide spoiler)]

Sylvia - this chapter made uncomfortable
(view spoiler)[because of the pervert 'daddy' and gosh her journey is just too sad :(( if only Cookie did not taker her and her being raised by the nice lady in the beginning :( I hate Cookie a lot. If only she decided to take care of Matha a bit but she was too selfish. (hide spoiler)]

I hope to finish in the next few days. Wow this book is so vivid.

[Silvana]

I finished! What a ride. The novel could felt a bit dense at times, so many things packed into almost 600-pages, so it's best to savor it gradually.

I love how the author combined all the historical events including the then Afronaut project.

This is so epic, and might be my favorite multi-generation novel to date (aside from Semiosis).

It is indeed genre-bending, from surreal/magical realism to a bit of SF (both soft and hard). I think everyone would find some parts of it that appeal to them. I for one enjoy everything so I gave it 5 stars.

[Meredith]

I am still reading, up to about 45%. I feel like I need big chunks of time to read each section and absorb it. Can't just nibble a few pages at a time.

Folks who are enjoying The Old Drift, might be interested in this short story:
https://www.khoreomag.com/fiction/a-l...

[Silvana]

The book is packed indeed! Thanks for link, Meredith.