Onitsha by JMG LeClezio


finished 12/26 ....... contemp French (Nobel).......... rating 10

Incredible and lovely book about a 12 year-old French/English boy, Fintan, who with his mother goes to live with his father in Africa. Everything, from the environment and history to the language and food is different in Africa and at first Fintan hates it. But George, his father is in love with it, searching for something personal in his imagined history of the place, and slowly Fintan and his mother grow to love it, too. The family does not involve themselves with the other colonists but rather develop relationships with the natives. They stay one very intense year.

The themes involve our search for a source whether it be religious, historical or maternal. The womb is the over-riding motif, I think.

Posted: Fri - December 26, 2008 at 08:13 PM        

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