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Graceland (Today Show Pick January 2005) |
by: Chris Abani
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780312425289
Edition: 1st Picador Ed
ISBN: 0312425287
Label: Picador
Manufacturer: Picador
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: January 26, 2005
Publisher: Picador
Studio: Picador
Alternate Versions:
- Becoming Abigail
- Nervous Conditions
- Things Fall Apart: A Novel
- Purple Hibiscus: A Novel
- Half of a Yellow Sun
- see more
- Books > Specialty Stores > Custom Stores > Qualifying Textbooks > General AAS
- Books > Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Action & Adventure
- Books > Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Men's Adventure
- Books > Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary
- Books > Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Literary
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
"A richly detailed, poignant, and utterly fascinating look into another culture and how it is cross-pollinated by our own. It brings to mind the work of Ha Jin in its power and revelation of the new."--T. Coraghessan Boyle
The sprawling, swampy, cacophonous city of Lagos, Nigeria, provides the backdrop to the story of Elvis, a teenage Elvis impersonator hoping to make his way out of the ghetto. Nuanced, lyrical, and pitch perfect, this is a remarkable story of a son and his father, and an examination of postcolonial Nigeria, where the trappings of American culture reign supreme.
The sprawling, swampy, cacophonous city of Lagos, Nigeria, provides the backdrop to the story of Elvis, a teenage Elvis impersonator hoping to make his way out of the ghetto. Nuanced, lyrical, and pitch perfect, this is a remarkable story of a son and his father, and an examination of postcolonial Nigeria, where the trappings of American culture reign supreme.
Average Rating: 
Rating:
- Grace in Hard TimesThe news out of Africa is so bad so much of time that it takes a writer of rare skill to make us pay attention. Nigerian Chris Abani is such a writer. He tells Elvis Oke's bumpy, brutal coming of age story with immense skill and verve.
We follow Elvis, an aspiring dancer and Elvis Presley impersonator, as he and his family migrate from their rural village to the teeming slums of Lagos during the early 1980s. Abani's supple prose pulls in Igbo tribal lore, the smashed remnants ... Read More
Rating:
- Achebe Mark 2?Having recently heard the author address a Brisbane Writer's festival I searched and read this novel hoping that some of the emotive eloquence from his speech would be lodged between the covers. I confess to disappointment. The narrative unfolds quite convincingly, threading together Elvis's life from the premature death of his mum when he is five to his departure for the questionable dream of America(Graceland?) age 16, and alternatively slipping between the early and later years. The writing, at best ... Read More
Rating:
- Coming of age in NigeriaThis is a powerful coming-of-age novel, spanning the life of Elvis Oke from age 5 to age 16. Elvis is an Igbo boy from Akikpo, Nigeria who moves with his father to Lagos in 1981 after his father's bankruptcy and his mother's death from cancer. Nigeria is in turmoil after the tragedy of the Biafran war and a series of brutal dictators. Elvis lives in the slums reading Rilke and dreaming of becoming a dancer (he's already a creditable Elvis Presley impersonator). The distance Elvis travels to become a man ... Read More
Rating:
- A Master Storyteller - A Masterful RenderingChris Abani ranks right up there with Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka in my book. He peels away the glossy shell of life and dives right into the soft underbelly where life and death compete side by side.
Graceland took my breath away with its vivid rendering of Lagos and Nigeria, it's compassionate protagonist, and its heartfelt stuggle to do more than merely survive. Abani writes with such passion and insight that I was easily swept away with every sentence.
I used to work in ... Read More
Rating:
- Great BookGraceland was an amazingly dark story of what is going on in urban Africa. Book I was brilliant and the characters were unforgettable. The story moves back and forth between urban Lagos and a small village where Elvis and his family spent his childhood. This was a really effective way of showing the drastic difference between the two cultures. Elvis loses his mother and his father becomes more of an alcoholic and loses his way, but this book is all about redemption and his father is only one example.
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