Set in Kampala, Uganda. Reviewed on 2018/05: https://www.instagram.com/p/BifNqnZnJTt/
I’m not going to lie to you. I initially came to this book because of the great cover illustration and the opportunity to read something published by @transitbooks They are a tiny independent and nonprofit publishing house based in #oakland CA with a thirst to bring poignant international titles to the US. You should check them out! #kintumade sense for this month’s #literarytrip so I decided to give it a shot. #JenniferNansubugaMakumbi takes the reader to a cyclical voyage into the depths of #ugandanhistory with all its demons and tragedies and how it still has a vivid impact on the country #uganda today. Sounds like a thrilling and adventurous story, correct? Well, the result is not quite like that. The keywords here are #cyclical and #accumulation . I believe #makumbi is most interested in how both our collective and individual silences accumulate with the passage of time. At the end only a return to the sources could possibly helps us alleviate our sufferings or even understand the root causes. I know a lot of the reviewers have compared Makumbi to #Achebe . There is definitely something of that #biblical original sin kind of story. But there is also a sense of #garciamarquez and how he deliberately confuses the readers with nonlinear plots to produce an effect of feeling lost, broken and purposeless. However I’d argue that Kintu should have remained in the realm of 2 or no more than 3 stories. After the 4th story, the plot becomes repetitive, redundant and quite frankly irrelevant. Of course that is only me as a non-Ugandan talking. I’d love to hear what people in Uganda have to say about this book after being heralded as such an important literary achievement over there. Overall I wish Makumbi would have kept each chapter as the rich and separate #shortstories that they already are. #recommended #transitbooks #kampala#ugandanliterature #ganda #twins #curse
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