Theft
In his sensitive and cheerfully unrushed fashion, Mr. Gurnah advances the trajectories of the trio to explore the mutable nature of family ... Fruitfully explores the meanings of work and love from Karim’s and Badar’s different points of view. The novel is also attuned to the influence of Tanzania’s political evolution on the characters’ private lives ... Each of these subjects is richly developed in the novel, though none is prioritized, so that it’s possible to read far into this book, find it entirely engrossing and yet not really know what Mr. Gurnah means to say with it.
Read Full Review >>
There’s something almost disorienting about Gurnah’s narrative as he moves from one person to the next, willfully thwarting our desire to settle on a protagonist ... Delicate ... Karim develops into a dashing, volcanic, morally compromised character who catches the eye. But Gurnah’s heart — and ours — lies elsewhere in this novel. Writing a story around a young man as subtle and apparently insignificant as Badar is a kind of argument about the value of true character.
Read Full Review >>
Gurnah’s stoic prose isn’t always well suited to the tragic, even operatic events that unfold ... Yet for all the narrator’s reticence, a satisfying melodrama breaks through. The story builds to an engrossing climax ... In Gurnah’s hands, however, theatrics are never an end in themselves
Read Full Review >>
Related Books
