Say Youre One of Them

Posted on 03 January 2018 by Uwem Akpan

Uwem Akpan s stunning stories humanize the perils of poverty and violence so piercingly that few readers will feel they ve ever encountered Africa so immediately The eight year old narrator of An Ex Mas Feast needs only enough money to buy books and pay fees in order to attend school Even when his twelve year old sister takes to the streets to raise these meager funds, his dream can t be granted Food comes first His family lives in a street shanty in Nairobi, Kenya, but their way of both loving and taking advantage of each other strikes a universal chord In the second of his stories published in a New Yorker special fiction issue, Akpan takes us far beyond what we thought we knew about the tribal conflict in Rwanda The story is told by a young girl, who, with her little brother, witnesses the worst possible scenario between parents They are asked to do the previously unimaginable in order to protect their children This singular collection will also take the reader inside Nigeria, Benin, and Ethiopia, revealing in beautiful prose the harsh consequences for children of life in Africa Akpan s voice is a literary miracle, rendering lives of almost unimaginable deprivation and terror into stories that are nothing short of transcendent. Free Download [ Say Youre One of Them ] author [ Uwem Akpan ] – kino-fada.fr It s difficult to justify giving this book five stars as there are so many problems with it But to give it less would not acknowledge that its flaws and difficulties are outweighed by how it opens your eyes, gives you clear vision into things you didn t even know you d been shortsighted about before.Firstly, two of the stories are novellas of considerable length and extremely difficult to read This is because, in an effort to give local flavour to the dialogue, letters are transposed, French w It s difficult to justify giving this book five stars as there are so many problems with it But to give it less would not acknowledge that its flaws and difficulties are outweighed by how it opens your eyes, gives you clear vision into things you didn t even know you d been shortsighted about before.Firstly, two of the stories are novellas of considerable length and extremely difficult to read This is because, in an effort to give local flavour to the dialogue, letters are transposed, French words, local words and words that seem to have no meaning but...I m so angry with this book I could spit I can t even rate it, I m so angry with it.I certainly would never recommend it even though I think everyone should read it.It is an important book to read.I m glad I read it even though it was the most horrific, awful, despairing, bleak, pessimistic, horrific, sad thing I ve read sinceever.Glad is not the right word not at all the right word All those other words are right.5 amazing 1 did not like it Yes Both.You can t like this how can anyone I m so angry with this book I could spit I can t even rate it, I m so angry with it.I certainly would never recommend it even though I think everyone should read it.It is an important book to read.I m glad I read it even though it was the most horrific, awful, despairing, bleak, pessimistic, horrific, sad thing I ve read sinceever.Glad is not the right word not at all the right word All those other words are right.5 amazing 1 did not like it Yes Both.You can t like this how can anyone LIKE this It s like povert...Stories of abused and battered children in Africa are legion, but few cut as close to the bone as this collection by Uwem Akpan His five tales, two of which are novella length, are told with the uninhibited, truth filled voices of the children involved Each one takes place in a different country but the theme is universal the biggest challenge faced by children in Africa is staying alive.Akpan, a Jesuit priest with an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan, piles on details a Stories of abused and battered children in Africa are legion, but few cut as close to the bone as this collection by Uwem Akpan His five tales, two of which are novella length, are told with the uninhibited, truth filled voices of the children involved Each one takes place in a different country but the theme is universal the biggest challenge faced by children in Africa is staying alive.Akpan, a Jesuit priest with an MFA in creative writing from the Univers...This isn t a work to which I can assign stars it would be like ranking tourist visits to concentration camps this one wasinteresting, that one wasintact, the other had the best museum shop, when in fact they are all horrific and unforgettable To further the analogy, reading Uwem Akpan was like reading Elie Wiesel devastating and heartbreaking, with details as vivid and palpable as yesterday The difference is that decades of history and a Western world romance with WWII have almo This isn t a work to which I can assign stars it would be like ranking tourist visits to concentration camps this one wasinteresting, that one wasintact, the other had the best museum shop, when in fact they are all horrific and unforgettable To further the analogy, reading Uwem Akpan was like reading Elie Wiesel devastating and heartbreaking, with details as vivid and palpable as...I decided to read this book because of popular review People loved it Time loved it Essence loved it Entertainment Weekly loved it Maybe I should have checked my sources all owned by Time Inc duh but I figured that a book generating this much positive press would be worth reading.I won t go back on this opinion it was worth reading It was as about worth reading as most other books I have read nothing spectacular, but not a waste of my time, either What seemed wasteful in Akpan s bo I decided to read this book because of popular review People loved it Time loved it Essence loved it Entertainment Weekly loved it Maybe I should have checked my sources all owned by Time Inc duh but I figured that a book generating this much positive press would be worth reading.I won t go back on this opinion it was worth reading It was as about worth reading as most other books I have read nothing spectacular, but not a waste of my time, either What seemed wasteful in Akpan s book was the way that the lengthiest stories were the least effective Perhaps it was their length that diluted them perhaps if they had been shortened to the size and style of the stories that impacted me the most, that left me what felt like a taste of experience or shock, they would have felt lik...Uwem Akpan graphically portrays horrendous conditions in several African countries child trafficking prostitution rape murder, religious conflict Sharia mandated amputations starvation etc These stories are no doubt grounded in fact, but two defects in the collection detract from its potential power First, th...Say You re One of Them by Uwem Akpan Tragic, frustrating, majestic, bewildering are all words I would use to describe this short story collection I have never read so many sad tales that did not come out of Russian literature This collection is breathtaking in so many ways that mere words do no justice Akpan is a true artist that paints with words a world so tragically wrong that it bothers you to your core To know that such a world exists shames us all Yet the writing is so beautiful that Say You re One of Them by Uwem Akpan Tragic, frustrating, majestic, bewildering are all words I would use to describe this short story collection I have never read so many sad tales that did not come out of Russian lit...This cover has one of the most beautiful photos I kept seeing it in the bookshop, picking it up and dithering but ultimately putting it down again In the end, a few people on Goodreads got me interested in it they were talking about how it was the latest book in Oprah s book club but that they d read the sample story and it was so depressing and they didn t want to read something that upset them.That actually made me want to read it I want to be confronted, to be challenged, to be emotiona This cover has one of the most beautiful photos I kept seeing it in the bookshop, picking it up and dithering but ultimately putting it down again In the end, a few people on Goodreads got me interested in it they were talking about how it was the latest book in Oprah s book club but that they d read the sample story and it was so depressing and they didn t want to read something that upset them.That actually made me want to read it I want to be confronted, to be challenged, to be emotionally involved, to be taken out of my comfort zone, to learn something new, to experience something different Sometimes I want a fun story, or a romantic one, and that s fine too But I also thirst to have my intellect engaged, and to explore a culture, a way of life, an attitude or unde...This book brought me to tears, multiple times I actually had to put a little bit of distance in between finishing it and reviewing it The author, Uwem Akpan, wrote these stories to draw attention to the children of Africa and the struggles they face It is tempting to dismiss it as merely fiction, to reassure myself that people surely do not live this way, but I know too much of the reality to be able to do so The stories themselves are fiction of course, but pull from very real events I wou This book brought me to tears, multiple times I actually had to put a little bit of distance in between finishing it and reviewing it The aut...I think the point of the book was to leave you unsettled, to make you feel and empathize with characters in which our western culture individuals will probably never meet I absolutely love books that dive into other cultures, religions and social systems I love Africa and used to believe my calling in life was to minister to HIV AIDS orphans, so I ...

English
03 January 2018

Uwem Akpan