Natives

by Inongo vi Makomè, Michael Ugarte (Translator)

Having achieved professional success in Barcelona at the expense of family life, best friends Montse and Roser are dissatisfied and sexually frustrated. Over an evening cognac, the two friends hatch a plan to find one of Barcelona's many illegal African immigrants, whom they plan to employ as the object of their sexual desires. When Montse finds Bambara Keita on a park bench at the Plaza de Cataluña, she know he is the one, and invites him home. Keita's rags-to-riches experience means sacrificing some of his values in order to survive, as the two women take turns hosting — and hiding — him at their homes. When Roser is offered an attractive new position in Berlin, Keita is forced to make a difficult decision.

Genres: Fiction

206 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Dzekashu MacViban · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inongo’s prose is beautiful (the translator as well deserves credit here) and it switches from a comic to serious tone with the same ease that it changes from a monolingual to a multilingual text, combining English, Pidgin, Spanish and other languages.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had such a great premise!! Two privileged Spanish women hiring a sex slave? Imagine the potential –introspective examination on themes of immigration, female emancipation, racism…but no…instead the author chooses to dwell on the sex orgy.
Shallow character development, with more telling than showing, multiple translation errors (he instead of she, confusion in names of the characters) and those bloody parables from his father/grandfather …heavens! As if the only way Bambara can remind the reader he is an African is by narrating folklore now and then
I picked up this book out of nostalgia for the city of Barcelona. I want my money back. Really. I was promised great literature but instead all I got was graphic porn (description of big body parts and raging hormones )

Surprisingly, I liked the ending. Probably because it blows a hole through the Ménage à trois and finally gets to humanize the characters.
That might be the only redeemable aspect of the book.

[Derrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very powerful and unique story. The language and cadence is a bit wonky--you can really tell it's a translation--and it focuses just a bit too much on the details of the sexual encounters but otherwise an excellent read and an easy one at that.

[Sam Heaps · Rating 5 out of 5]

But. Really. Exquisitely poignant and hilarious in perfect turns.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the other reviews for this are great, but it just didn't appeal to me. Another reviewer's comments seem right on the money to me:

This book had such a great premise!! Two privileged Spanish women hiring a sex slave? Imagine the potential –introspective examination on themes of immigration, female emancipation, racism…but no…instead the author chooses to dwell on the sex orgy.

I don't mind racy content, but this just felt clinical and long-winded. The author or the translator (or both!) get vagina and vulva mixed up, too, which is annoying. I would've liked to see more about the characters and less repetitive depiction of the sex they have.

Also, the English translation is very poorly proofread! There are obvious typos and at least one instance where the wrong character name is used when two characters are talking to each other.