Review: Segu
Avis de journaliste - Kirkus ReviewsClotted family saga set in 19th-century West Africa; not a first novel, but first major US publication for this French author, herself a descendant of the Bambara. The Bambara lived in Segu, a warlike, slave-owning kingdom near present-day Mall They were fetishists and ancestor-worshippers, and their slow eclipse by the rising force of Islam is the theme of this novel, which covers the years 1797-1840, and, while set mainly in Segu, also ranges far afield, from Timbuktu to Lagos, from London to Brazil. It is the Traore clan, outranked only by the royal family, on which the author focuses, but there are so many of them, and so many viewpoint switches, that the going is rough, and made rougher by the author's favorite narrative device, the rhetorical question: ""Who would suceed Amadou Cheikou? Who would have his symbols of sovereignty? His son Amadou Amadou? His younger brother? Or one of his father's younger brothers?"" What we have, then, is an endless, wearying chronicle of births, weddings, deaths, rapes, suicides and executions, without dramatic highlighting or even a lead character to act as guide, though there is an obvious candidate in Tiekoro, the first of the family to convert to Islam, and the one who years later is executed for his faith, shortly before Islam's final triumph over Segu. But even Tiekoro gets lost in the shuffle, as the focus shifts to the secondary theme of Westerners importing Christianity, and the tribulations of brother Malobali, and nephew Eucaristus, at the hands of the missionaries. The grand theme of a religious movement reordering lives is barely discernible in this classic case of a can't-see-the-forest-for-the-trees fiasco.
Review: Segu
Avis d'utilisateur - Karen Silvestri - GoodreadsThe book was very good, as I would expect from Conde. I never made it to the end though; this was not the story's fault though. Now that I am over 50, reading 'real' books is difficult, so I read ... Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Segu
Avis d'utilisateur - Øystein Bjaanes - GoodreadsI had high hopes for this book. I've partly grown up in Africa (though on the wrong side of the continent, Ethiopia), and I have a MA in history focusing on Ethiopia (even though that's about modern ... Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Segu
Avis d'utilisateur - GoodreadsOne of the best novels I've ever read. First novel for me that gave a perspective of slavery from the point of view of Africa and the disapora.
Review: Segu
Avis d'utilisateur - Tinea - GoodreadsI read this years ago, before heading to live in Mali for several months. I am thinking back on this intergenerational, magical realist epic that paints history in broad and intimate, familial strokes ... Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Segu
Avis d'utilisateur - Vidyaratha Kissoon - GoodreadsBrilliant book.. telling a story about intertwined lives connected to Historical events.. and putting nuances to the ugly transatlantic slave trade Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Segu
Avis d'utilisateur - Anita - GoodreadsBeautiful historical fiction about the history of Mali. Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Segu
Avis d'utilisateur - Dolly - GoodreadsI honestly cannot remember much about this book other than I read it for my African History class at school. I wish I could say that it had more of an impact on me... Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Segu
Avis d'utilisateur - Deborah Parker - GoodreadsInterwined a great deal of historical and cultural information in a very nicely paced way. I felt a sense of being there with some of the characters. Consulter l'avis complet
