Great African Reads discussion

I finished it this morning...i enjoyed it immensely despite the tragic ending. Is anyone else done? i think i am going to read dervla murphy's book before launching into Dog Days...I'm really enjoying this Cameroon grouping.

I just finished it. I am interested in how Toundi's point of view changes through the book.

It's also interesting that Oyono plays with narrators, like many of the authors we've read. The narrator of the opening never reappears at the end.

i wondered about that too, andrea! after i finished i reread the beginning. i confess i felt a little perplexed and wondered about the disjointedness of having an omniscient narrator who doesn't reappear...but then i thought, "maybe it's a story without a beginning or an end." however, i don't actually think that is what happened with the book. the first narrator, who finds the houseboy (sorry...his name is escaping me and my book is at home) on his death bed, was reading the boy's diary. the rest of the book was supposed to be the diary...i think...but it doesn't *quite* work? now i need to go read the end again...does the story come full circle?

The diary just ends and that's the end of the book, I think. I guess the narrator is just used to introduce the diary. Another Cameroonian novel I just read recently, The Poor Christ of Bomba, by Mongo Beti, is also a diary, but the diary just begins, without any backstory. I wonder if the fact that the narrator discusses being "French" and therefore having a special feeling for Toundi, is part of the purpose of including him?

I haven't read this particular book, but I think it's a style thing. African writers often seem to think that if the story is told in first person, they need to provide a frame to explain to whom it is being told. To Western readers, the frame may seem irrelevant.

that's interesting insight, LeAnne...i don't know much about literature development in African writing, but what you say makes sense to me.

I wonder if anyone else has thoughts on another question I am thinking about. About one quarter of the way through the book, Toundi has a conversation with Madame in which he tells her he is not very Christian and clearly implies some criticisms of colonialism and the rest of the system. Where did this awareness come from? It seems almost just to pop up. Is it because of what he has heard the other men say about Madame and the other whites?

Andrea wrote: "I wonder if anyone else has thoughts on another question I am thinking about. About one quarter of the way through the book, Toundi has a conversation with Madame in which he tells her he is not v..."

can you point out the passage more specifically? i'm trying to find it. i can't recall having any reaction to that but its an interesting question. could his awareness have come from his observations of the segregated church services? i need to reread the passage, though...