Starburst: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)This novel is different & somewhat less predictable than his earlier books. It is an entertaining novel about what can happen when one boldly believes in hope & dreams. Angelique Pascal is a fine Violinist excited by her invitation to perform at the Edinburgh International festival. the main conflict comes from the very unwanted overtures of her manager, a man obsessed with her unique beauty. She gets panicked after a very threatening confrontation with him, & spills her soul to Jamie Stratton a young graduate who insists she take refuge with him.
As the subplots develop, so to do the characters. There is an aspiring comedian who works as a brash bartender, a misguided thief, an elderly director, & a younger beautiful director. All the characters to varying degrees shoud be on the therapists couch. Their individual baggage adds to the main story. Most of their paths will cross during the festivals run as they all search for their own road to happiness. A good fast read.

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Absurdistan: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)Sometimes the 2nd novel is a let-down. ABSURDISTAN follows a debut, THE RUSSIAN DEBUTANTE'S HANDBOOK that is frankly, hard to top. Shteyngart has done it. ABSURDISTAN is the story of Misha Vainberg aka "Snack Daddy." The son of a Jewish Russian Gangster, "Snack" got an education at a ritzy private American college called Accidental, kind of a cross between Antioch and Oberlin. After his father assassinates a competitor, a guy from Oklahoma, "Snack Daddy" is unable to obtain a visa to return from Russia to his beloved New York. His girlfriend is back in New York and Misha finds out that she is being seduced by one of his former classmates, a Professor Shteynfarb. Misha is determined to find a way back to America. He heads to Absurdistan, an oil-rich former Soviet republic on the Caspian. From his perch in the penthouse of the Hyatt Snack Daddy watches the country dissolve into civil war. All he wants is a Belgian passport and his next meal. ABSURDISTAN is a comic farce and a tour de force. I laughed my way through it.

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Say You're One of Them Review

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(More customer reviews)Say You're One of Them is a book of five short stories written by Uwem Akpan. All of the stories are set in Africa and are told from a child's perspective. They deal with such topics as slavery, religious conflict, genocide and poverty. These are stories of love and sacrifice. They are stories of compassion and confusion. They make you wonder how children can grow up and survive under such circumstances. Some of the stories will leave you feeling numb.
The story that had the biggest impact on me was My Parent's Bedroom. It's the story of Monique, a young girl living in Rwanda with her Tutsi mother and her Hutu father. There is conflict between the two tribes, which Monique and her brother Jean don't understand. It all comes to a horrifying ending for their family when their mother makes the ultimate sacrifice. I can't describe the horror I felt at the end of this story.
I enjoyed Say You're One of Them and think it's a significant book, but I found some of the dialogue very difficult to read. I think it would have been even harder if I didn't know some French. There were times when I had to read sentences several times to extract their meaning. Here's an example of dialogue, chosen at random:
"My mama no be like dat," Jubril argued. "I say I dey come. I go join una now now. Ah ah, no vex now. Come, pollow me go fark dis cows, and I go join."
This book isn't a fast read, but I think it's an important one. The title of the book comes from the fact that children in Africa sometimes have to deny their identity and say they're one of "them" (another tribe or religion) in order to survive. You will be a different person after you've read this book.

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