I read a list of books which all the cool kids already know about in New York Magazine and I had already read one of them and have another of them kicking around in my queue of books to read. When I showed the list to my co-workers, my boss loaned me a book by an author who was on that list.
It's called Paradise and it's by Abdulrazak Gurnah. It's about a boy who is given into the care of a merchant. He learns that he's now a slave and his entire life is turned upside down. It's a sad book with some moments of hilarity and others of brutality.
What I liked about it
- good pacing with a distinct narrative voice
- protagonist who is both sympathetic and invested
- really different from most of the books I read
What I didn't like about it
- protagonist isn't very active for most of the story
- it's a sad book about slavery and deprivation
This is probably a good book for people who like sad stories. Like, say, Beloved or Farewell My Concubine.
posted at 23:39 PDT (-0700) (comments disabled) permanent link Technorati tagged as: book, review, slavery
