Get Hold Of Our Lady Of The Nile Created By Scholastique Mukasonga Released As Readable Copy
Shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize
Another intriguing choice from the Republic of Consciousness list, which may just be my favourite, though it is the most conventional book on the list in form.
Mukasonga is a Rwandan Tutsi who has lived in France since, The setting is an elite girls' school in the hills of Rwanda, near one of the sources of the Nile, in the lates.
The story is told by an omniscient narrator, and the main characters are Virginia and Veronica, two of the few Tutsi pupils allowed to attend the school, and Gloriosa, a militant Hutu political activist whose scheming and deception brings about the violent conclusion, which foreshadows thegenocide.
The gradual transition from a simple rites of passage story into an allegory of the wider conflict is cleverly handled.
Highly recommended. É o segundo livro da Scholastique Mukasonga que leio o primeiro, era autoficção, baseado em sua infância este, é ficção.
Dos dois, é meu preferido até agora e entrou, sem dúvida alguma, para a lista de melhores de.
Não teria descoberto a autora se não fosse meu desafio em janeiro de não repetir nacionalidade dos escritores, agora quero ler tudo que ela já publicou.
A primeira coisa que me fascina nesse livro é como a autora conseguiu transportar as dinâmicas históricas e políticas de Ruanda na década de.
A história do país é muito complexa, cheia de disputas internas e externas, que culminaram no massacre deque é o máximo sobre Ruanda que eu sabia antes de ler os livros da Mukasonga.
Faz tempo que não sinto vontade de escrever uma resenha sobre alguma leitura, mas dessa vez não consegui me controlar.
Há muitas tramas entrelaçadas, enquanto ela desenrola todos os conflitos étnicos de Ruanda ao falar sobre a dinâmica de adolescentes vivendo em um colégio interno.
A cota para tutsis, as ligações com a Bélgica mesmo após a independência, o apagamento da cultura local em nome do cristianismo, como a sexualidade era explorada, o que se esperava das mulheres ruandesas.
. . Enfim, são tantas camadas, só que elas não são expostas de forma escancarada, vão se desenhando conforme o livro ganha vida.
As personagens vão se mostrando, aquilo que você achou que tinha sido deixado de lado ou era apenas um detalhe volta a ser amarrado lá no final.
Não é um livro feliz, mas é um livro muito bom tanto no quesito escrita quanto no mergulho histórico e cultural que ele proporciona.
É uma história extremamente política, como a outra obra de Scholastique, mas narrada, principalmente, pelo olhar das adolescentes.
Como aquele núcleo escolar espelha o cosmo da política ruandesa, É uma leitura que vale muito a pena, I read this book because of its inclusion on thelong list for The Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses.
The small press concerned here is Daunt Books Publishing:
Daunt Books Publishing is an independent publisher based in London.
Founded in, we grew out of Daunt Books, an independent chain of bookshops in London and the SouthEast.
We publish the finest and most exciting new writing in English and in translation, whether thats literary fiction novels and short stories or narrative nonfiction including essays and memoir.
We also publish modern classics, reviving authors who have been overlooked and publishing them in bold editions with introductions from the best contemporary writers.
Daunt Books itself is, of course, a fairly large concern listing nine outlets on its website.
“Our Lady of the Nile” was originally published inand has since then been awarded and nominated for various prizes including a nomination for the BTBA and a win in the Prix Renaudot.
In some ways it feels like an odd selection for The Republic of Consciousness Prize.
When you stand it against the other nominees init seems like the most conventional and least adventurous in terms of structure or form.
But that is not to say it isnt an excellent book, Its actually quite a dark book that puts a layer of satire over an underlying look at colonialism and at the creation of the opposing Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groupings.
Events in the school reflect events in the wider society and there is a sinister undertone as both head towards a violent climax.
I think what I appreciated most about this book was the insights into Rwandan history.
My thinking at the end of the book is that it is one I would like to reread after spending a bit of time learning a bit more about Rwandan history.
I am not sure when that will happen, but I hope I dont forget about it!
If you want to know more about the book itself, there are plenty of reviews on the internet.
There is no better lycee than Our Lady of the Nile,
Nor is there any higher,
"We're so close to heaven,"
whispers Mother Superior,
The school year coincides with the rainy season, so
the lycee is often wrapped in clouds.
Sometimes, not
often, the sun peaks through and you can see as far
as the big lake, that shiny blue puddle down in the
valley.
It's a girls' lycee, The boys stay down in the capital,
The reason for building the lycee so high up was to
protect the girls, by keeping them far away from the
temptations and evils of the big city.
Good marriages
await these young lycee ladies, you see, And they must
be virgins when they wed or at least not get pregnant
beforehand.
Staying a virgin is better, for marriage
is a serious business, loc
And so the novel begins well this is not the precise beginning, but very close.
We are introduced to the setting, a girls' school, a high school, to prepare Rwandan girls from elite families for thier future.
It is thes in a very young country and the future for most is thought to be marriage to important men, men important to the country's future.
This school is located close to the head of the Nile and near to that site is the Madonna for whom the school is named, Our Lady of the Nile, but Our Lady of the Nile was black her face was black, her hands were black, her feet were black.
Our Lady of the Nile was a black woman, an African woman, a Rwandan woman and indeed, why not loc
In an understated fashion that serves to underscore the simmering hatred that will erupt in an all too real fashion in later years, Mukasonga creates a world where there are classes of Rwandans within the school.
Through the words of Gloriosa, a Hutu student, we learn
Two Tutsi for twenty pupils is the quota, and
because of that I know some real Rwandan girls of the
majority people, the people of the hoe, friends of
mine, who didn't get a place in high school.
As my
father likes to tell me, we'll really have to get
rid of these quotas one day, it's a Belgian thing.
loc
Along with this struggle within the African community, there is the cultural struggle to be expected in a new nation caught between influences the pull of the European vs the call of the African.
The history of the missions vs the call of old ways,
There is so much here in this quiet novel quiet until the final chapters at least.
I found this to be very interesting, providing insights into what came later in the horrific killings.
It confirms my wish to read more African fiction,
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
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