Great African Reads discussion

Happy September reading, everyone! Our selection this month is Ancestor Stones: A Novel by the award-winning Aminatta Forna from Sierra Leone.

I had actually read Ancestor stones in August, before it came up as our September contemporary literature read. Definitely worth it. Now I have to read some of her other books - a couple of which are on my TBR shelves

I read The Memory of Love last summer and could not put it down! Ever since then I've been wanting to read Ancestor Stones and The Devil that Danced on the Water. I just haven't gotten to them yet.

Louise wrote: "I read The Memory of Love last summer and could not put it down! Ever since then I've been wanting to read Ancestor Stones and The Devil that Danced on the Water. I just haven't gotten to them yet."

excellent! i'm really looking forward to Ancestor Stones. Do you think you'll be able to join us this month? if not, no worries...we keep the threads open so you can come back to revive the discussion if you would like.

I am planning to get to Ancestor Stone this weekend.
I also have The Memory of Love and The Devil that Danced sitting on my shelf unread.

Marieke wrote: "Happy September reading, everyone! Our selection this month is Ancestor Stones: A Novel by the award-winning Aminatta Forna from Sierra Leone."

Good choice! I have it and have been meaning to read it for ages. Read Memory of Love last year and enjoyed it quite a bit.

Marieke wrote: "Happy September reading, everyone! Our selection this month is Ancestor Stones: A Novel by the award-winning Aminatta Forna from Sierra Leone."

I also bought Ancestor Stone a while back and it's still in my TBR pile. I'll join in this month for sure :)

Yay, Yejide! I'm glad!

Friederike: excellent!

Nina, i hope you will join the discussion. :)

Beverly, i will start reading this weekend. I'm trying to get a couple of things out of the way before i start. and i like the idea of reading it in practically one fell swoop: the weekend is best for that.

Still waiting for it from library :)

Melanie wrote: "Still waiting for it from library :)"

I'm trying so hard, Mel, to create more lead time... :)

Oh no worries, Marieke! I am currently juggling three books at the moment so a little lag time is a good thing. :-)

I started Ancestor Stones a couple of nights ago. Promising start! I think I'm going to like this one.

I am in the process of reading Ancestor Stones (I do not know where this month went). I have finished the first section - Seeds and am almost finished with the second section - Dreams.

A couple of comments:
I like the title of the book - I think it fits the stories being told and keeps with the theme of "African sensibilities".

The format of the book is interesting - each of the women telling their story in each of the sections. I am wondering if I would be better off reading each of the women's stories through by person instead of reading by seconds.
I do like the oral telling aspect of the stories.

So far my fav is Asana's story - I like her use of language to tell her story.

i just finished the first part, "Seeds," this morning. the writing is really poetic, so i've decided to read it slowly but also to take a few days in between each part. i'm also planning to go back and jot down a little summary of each story from the first part because even though they were quite different, the first person technique makes it harder for me to remember who experienced what...does anyone else have that problem?

Beverly--i'm seriously considering reading the book a second time narrator by narrator...

Marieke wrote: "Beverly--i'm seriously considering reading the book a second time narrator by narrator..."

That sounds like a good idea. I have finished Seeds and can see already that I will have to go back to each voice separately later. Very interesting structure.

ok ok ok, count me in, I have this one on my book shelf for quite a while now, started it , and put it away again. But, I'll start again..... You've inspired me.

David wrote: "ok ok ok, count me in, I have this one on my book shelf for quite a while now, started it , and put it away again. But, I'll start again..... You've inspired me."

Haha! Yes! This is excellent. :)

i haven't scribbled down my little summaries yet, but i did (while reading) write down this passage:

"So why do I say 1931? I'll tell you. Because that was the year of Haidera. That much I know. I read it in a book by a professor of history. An English professor, but who wrote our history, if you understand me. And he said Haidera came in 1931. So I said to myself, well then that is the year of my mother's story too. The man who wrote that book, he did not think much of Haidera. A fanatic, that is what he wrote in his book. That Haidera as a fanatic. He said not so many people followed Haidera. But he was wrong. There were many people who loved Haidera Kontorfili."

This was from Mariama's story called Stones.

i think this is my favorite story so far.

I have finished Ancestor Stones and really enjoyed. While like others have mentioned at first I was not sure of the format but when reading the second section (Dreams) it all came together for me. The author is writting the book with "African sensibilities" (as was mentioned in the letter Abie received informing her of her inheritance of Kholifa Estates)and this format helped to honor the African oral storytelling tradition.

So I continued to read the stories the way the book was written.

So really appreciated the telling of the story with "African sensibilities."

I thought it was interesting how the "country" was not named in the book. There was references and reviews stating this was Sierra Leone.

I also liked the sections of the book - Seeds, Dreams, Secrets, Consequences as to me this follows the life cycle of a woman (and men) and made these stories and themes more universal.

very good point, Beverly, despite giving the sense of the individuals behind each narrator, most of what they describe could apply more or less to many African countries,especially West Africa and the Sahel.

I am about to finish Secrets...

Beautifully written....still reading and hope to finish this weekend. Good choice!

David wrote: "Beautifully written....still reading and hope to finish this weekend. Good choice!"

i'm also enjoying it and now that i've gotten further i see maybe i don't need to read each woman's story separately. i have finished the first two parts. i like reading big chunks and then putting it away for a few days.

Finished this yesterday and I really liked it! As others have commented, the format was a little confusing at first, but that confusion was resolved in the second section. After I finished, I did go back and re-read (mostly) the entire first section, and that helped clarify things. It was worth the time to do that.

And I agree with Beverly that the format honors the "African oral storytelling tradition."

Good choice, and I'll look up her other novel! Has anyone read it? The Memory of Love?

I am close to the end and will also go back to the beginning to refresh my memory. I agree that the structure is no problem after a while.

I read and enjoyed Memory of Love. Very different in some ways. written more in a popular novel structure. I think I like this one even better.

I finished it a couple of days ago. I like it a lot but found "Consequences" the weakest section, relatively speaking. Still, it would have been difficult to write the endings differently. Any thoughts?

I have not read Ancestor Stones yet, but did read The Memory of Love last year and LOVED it!!! I couldn't put it down.

Not bad. I liked the the cinematographic part where the old sisters were taking a bath together at the end. However what I missed was the feeling that some books give you, to really feel connected to the main character. The stories of the 4 women were a bit too scattered and lacked depth -for me that is of course. However, I'm curious about her latest book and want to read it...

David wrote: "Not bad. I liked the the cinematographic part where the old sisters were taking a bath together at the end. However what I missed was the feeling that some books give you, to really feel connected ..."

Interesting comment, David. I was thinking about the personal engagement with the Abie or any of the aunties for my review and I didn't feel it either. I had no problems with being a bit scattered and enjoyed reading it as a portrait of a family and time.

i finally finished this. i really loved it! it was a very different format for me and sometimes i found the first-person storytelling for all the women confusing, the poetry of the writing and the themes and threads that came through made up for that.

Friederike, i'm curious about why you found Consequences to be the weakest section? i'm having trouble deciding for myself which sections i liked best and which i thought weaker (relatively speaking). all in all i thought it was a beautiful book.

Marieke wrote: "i finally finished this. i really loved it! it was a very different format for me and sometimes i found the first-person storytelling for all the women confusing, the poetry of the writing and the ..."

I haven't fully formulated my thoughts yet, but it felt a bit too scattered to me, she may have been trying to wrap up too many threads. But this not my final "verdict"... Once I write a review, it might sound different.

Friederike wrote: "Marieke wrote: "i finally finished this. i really loved it! it was a very different format for me and sometimes i found the first-person storytelling for all the women confusing, the poetry of the ..."

I looked at the book a little differently - I saw the stories as showing that life is a journey that ongoing so not necessarily closing the circle. I thought the stories told by the aunts was to allow for family history to be passed on from one generation to the next.

yes, i felt with the ending that as a reader the book is actually continuing even though it ended, if that makes sense?

i didn't read the last section for resolution of anything, but i did feel that some stories were stronger than others. i liked seeing the other women show up in each others' stories, so the connection was often there. i think i would have to reread this though, in order to form my thoughts on what i liked about it and where i thought it fell a little flat.

Beverly, I agree with the concept that history was being passed on to Abie. And also your point Marieke that it was good to have the aunties show up in each other's story... It felt to me not always organic, but I have to go back to it.