Monday, January 6, 2014

What I am reading-Tomorrow died yesterday.


I read this book based on  the recommendation of a friend and I throughly enjoyed it. Its based on the oil crisis in the niger delta in Nigeria, and the story is told  from the point of view  or four sometimes five characters. What struck me about the book was the writers unrestrained style. He switched point of view  and time period quickly without restraint yet engaged me( the reader) enough to keep up with the story. I m appreciated his creativity.

Maybe I am biased because his book is similar to my novel, Still ( shameless plug I know :) )  because bith have multiple POV's  but  his writing style proved to me that multiple characters can tell a story and readers are intelligent enough to keep up with the story.

What also struck me about this book was the subject matter. For the first time, we have someone from Niger Delta telling their story from their perspective. Its not the culturally skewed perspective of a white observer, and indifferent country man or any government propaganda machine. He just simplly tells the story through these characters eyes.  Prior to reading this book, when I thought of the Niger delta I thought of human right struggles and  kidnapping of oil workers. His book makes the situation in the Niger Delta personal and provides explanations if not justifications for the actions of the kidnappers, the government, the Niger Delta leadership and the poor people that are caught in the middle.  I do recommend this book because not only does he entertain you, he also makes you think, his job as a writer is done.
Well done Chimeka Garricks.

1 comment:

  1. I saw your post on Chimeka Garricks twitter account! I too absolutely enjoyed the book. See my review here http://www.bookmarathon.blogspot.com/2013/01/book-1-tomorrow-died-yesterday-by.html . We certainly need more reviews on African lit ;)

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