Members with This Book
Most Helpful Reviews
see all reviews
Liked It “What a powerful dark little book.” see full review » see other reviews » |
Newest Reviews
see all reviews-
“Song for Night is a story of a child soldier in West Africa (possibly the author's native Nigeria?), who gets separated from his platoon. While on a mission to find them, he is chased by the memories of losing his family and girlfriend, the people that he has killed, and the possibility of his own death.”
Dillon Y wrote this review Thursday, July 10 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“What a powerful dark little book.”
Crossbike wrote this review Monday, June 30 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“peter b said: Rated: 4 stars
Play Book Tag Shelf wrote this review Tuesday, October 28 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
It's a novel of child soldiers in civil war, with the Biafran War more or less the setting, though he doesn't really make much effort to render it in a historically-accurate way. The novel works more like a sort of horrific dream that could come out of any African civil war. Its main character is a boy just into puberty who has been conscripted into a ragtag guerilla band with a group of other children who are trained to walk deliberately into minefields to find and defuse mines. They have had their voice boxes slit so that they can't scream in fear or anguish (or talk). And yes, it's a horrifying series of images of children in war. It's a very different book from either GraceLand or Virgin of the Flames, though very much worthy of comparison to the former. It's no page-turner, but it's really powerful (it has a dreamlike quality that is at once harrowing and beautful). In any case, I think the whole I-couldn't-put-it-down thing is overrated. Sometimes you can't put a book down because the author plays on your idle curiosity. You can feel a bit used when you do finish a book like that, as if you've wasted your time chasing trivial sensations. This book is about the big issues, such as why people do such awful things to each other in times of crisis, and how people keep some sense of individual worth in spite of all. I guess I'd give it four stars--though maybe I'm underrating it.”
“This is my third novel by Abani (I haven't yet read Remembering Abigail). It's a novel of child soldiers in civil war, with the Biafran War more or less the setting, though he doesn't really make much effort to render it in a historically-accurate way. The novel works more like a sort of horrific dream that could come out of any African civil war. Its main character is a boy just into puberty who has been conscripted into a ragtag guerilla band with a group of other children who are trained to walk deliberately into minefields to find and defuse mines. They have had their voice boxes slit so that they can't scream in fear or anguish (or talk). And yes, it's a horrifying series of images of children in war. It's a very different book from either GraceLand or Virgin of the Flames, though very much worthy of comparison to the former. It's no page-turner, but it's really powerful (it has a dreamlike quality that is at once harrowing and beautful). It reminds you of a sort of African Hickleberry Finn--if that novel took place during a brutal war and the main character's sidekick were a beautiful adolescent girl rather than a grown man of a different race. Its pace is slow, circular, its images mythic in their weird multiformity. It reads more like a fractured dream vision than a realistic slice of life--more like the film Apocalypse Now than the novel Half of a Yellow Sun. You drift along with it rather than race forward intent on getting to the end quickly. Personally, I think the whole I-couldn't-put-it-down thing is overrated. Sometimes you can't put a book down because the author plays tricks on you to provoke your idle curiosity. You can feel a bit used when you do finish a book like that, as if you've wasted your time chasing trivial sensations. This book is about the big issues, such as why people do such awful things to each other in times of crisis, and how people keep some sense of individual worth in spite of all. And even though Abani's landscape of war is entirely imaginary, he makes it feel hauntingly real.”
peter b wrote this review Saturday, June 21 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
displaying 1-4 of 4
