Not Without Flowers

by Amma Darko

A new novel from a scion of the new generation of writers in Africa. She tells the story of women in here it is misery, pain, agony, dilemmas, frustrations. She floats the reader on a world of inverted reality, which yet becomes the norm. With creative imagination, confronting the social realities, she seeks out the world of peace and tranquillity. But not without verisimilitude. The extremes of moral turpitude beget horrid outcomes, leaving suspense rather than resolution. Amma Darko Amma Darko is one of the most significant contemporary Ghanaian literary writers. She is the author of three previous Faceless (Sub-Saharan, 2003), The Housemaid (Heinemann, 1999) and Beyond the Horizon (Heinemann, 1995).

Genres: Ghana

372 pages, Paperback

First published May 10, 2003

About the author

Amma Darko (born 1956) is an African novelist.

She was born in Koforidua, Ghana, and grew up in Accra. She studied in Kumasi, where she received her diploma in 1980. Then she worked for the Science and Technology Center in Kumasi. During the eighties, she lived and worked for some time in Germany. She has since returned to Accra.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Jim Elkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought this at an art center in Accra, Ghana. It's a wonderful source if you want to learn about the status of Ghanaian women. In Ghana, for example, funerals are very important, and they often drain a family's resources. Some families need to keep dead relatives for years before they can get together enough money to provide the proper funeral, even though it may cost 20,000 Cedi or more. That's $10,000 in a country where one estimate of annual household expenditures is $1,800. In the novel, a polygynous man, with five wives, dies. There is a delay in his funeral, and so there is betting on when the funeral will take place. The idea is that people are betting on whether or not he was really rich: if he was, his family would have the funeral immediately.[return][return]You can also learn a lot about Christian practices, including (in the opening chapter) a place that basically keeps women captive, asking money from their families to exorcise witches; about attitudes to HIV; about polygynous customs; and about modern and traditional family values.[return][return]This is not, on the other hand, a good novel. The author, Amma Darko, writes in formulas. Each chapter starts with a mysterious description of someone or something, which is later revealed. Chapters often run like television scripts. The sense of psychological analysis isn't acute, and she is drawn to stereotypical plots and the configurations of romantic comedy.

[Asamoah Mavis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very educative

[Temilola · Rating 5 out of 5]

NOT WITHOUT FLOWERS is one of my best books after FACELESS. I always come back to both novels to read it again and there are some pages that i know word for word because i love the particular scene. Thumbs up to the writer.

[Nana Fredua-Agyeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of three books I've read from Amma Darko. She has some fantastic insight into child delinquency and the culture behind it. This writer portrays the hidden ghettos of Accra's city like no other. In this book she talks about polygamy and AIDS in a very different way, different from what you're currently thinking.

The following link leads to my review.

http://freduagyeman.blogspot.com/2009...

Thanks

[Krystal Tubbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting view into Ghanaian culture but not all of the story lines or things that were introduced in the story were wrapped up at the end. I wonder if this is just how stories are told is Ghana.