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Chinelo Okparanta

Autor(a) de Under the Udala Trees

5+ Works 863 Membros 39 Reviews

About the Author

Chinelo Okparanta was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. She was ten years old when her family moved to the United States. She is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University (Bachelors of Science), Rutgers University (Master of Arts), and the Iowa Writers' Workshop (Masters of Fine Arts). Her short mostrar mais stories have been published in Granta, The New Yorker, Tin House, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review TriQuarterly, Conjunctions, Subtropics and The Coffin Factory. Her first short story collection, Happiness, Like Water, won the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction and was named one of The Guardian's Best African Fiction of 2013. Her essays have appeared in Granta AGNI, The Story Prize blog, and the University of Iowa International Writing Program blog. Her first novel, Under the Udala Trees, was published in 2015 and won the 2016 Lambda Literary Award in the General Lesbian Fiction category. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos
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Obras de Chinelo Okparanta

Under the Udala Trees (2015) 647 cópias
Happiness, Like Water (2012) 172 cópias
Harry Sylvester Bird (2022) 42 cópias
La felicità è come l'acqua (2019) 1 exemplar(es)

Associated Works

Granta 118: Exit Strategies (2012) — Contribuinte — 83 cópias
Granta 139: Best of Young American Novelists (2017) — Contribuinte — 70 cópias
The Gonjon Pin and other Stories (2014) — Contribuinte — 22 cópias
A memory this size and other stories (2013) — Contribuinte — 19 cópias
All about Skin: Short Fiction by Women of Color (2014) — Contribuinte — 11 cópias

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Data de nascimento
1981
Sexo
female
Nacionalidade
Nigeria
Local de nascimento
Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Agente
Jin Auh

Membros

Resenhas

From a childhood of war, a young Nigerian girl grows up at odds to the religious ideals of her country and family. Leading to a life fraught with sadness and difficulties.
A word of warning that the synopsis on the back of this book of being a 'coming of age' story and about 'young love' is misleading. The young love plotline is treated as a matter-of-fact stepping stone summed up in 25 pages of a 300+ page book and as a flashback. There is more focus and time spent in the book quoting biblical stories and sayings and rhetoric that pushes anti-queer love.
All that being said, I understand the strong sense of religiosity portrayed as Nigeria is a highly religious country and the story itself was well written with a good pacing structure to keep the reader moving despite the heavy content.
It is a beautifully written book, but also incredibly disheartening and ends with a sense of hopelessness. A strong impact to remind others that queer love is something still illegal, highly victimized, and punishable by death in some places.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
WhiteRaven.17 | outras 29 resenhas | Apr 23, 2023 |
Listened to the audio. The narrator was very good. Not sure I could of read this without audio.
 
Marcado
dmurfgal | outras 29 resenhas | Dec 9, 2022 |
Another book that is so difficult to read because of the real life issues people face. outcasts, killed all for being LBGQT
 
Marcado
MPerfetto | outras 29 resenhas | Oct 28, 2022 |
Harry Sylvester Bird is a satire about a young white man who thinks he is transracial (Black). He finds his parents' overt racism to be embarrassing, and when he leaves them for college and starts dating Maryam, a Black woman, he tries to "find himself" as the person he thinks he is.

The book itself is a cringe-fest - if you're not up for that kind of satire, this might not be the one for you. It's very clear early on that Harry is a caricature, and that the reader is not supposed to like him or root for him. Because of this, I can see readers either being quickly fed up with him or, as I did, become unable to look away from the trainwreck happening before them.

Still, Okparanta treads the line of satire well without falling into the trap of making the entire book eyeroll-inducing. Neither the plot nor the characters quite veer into farce territory, and the setting itself is eerily reminiscent of where the United States as a society is now without being over-the-top for comedic effect. I find it can be a delicate balance to make satire feel like a real critique versus satire for satire's sake, and Okparanta's ability to craft character and environment make for a read that is a great example of the genre.

Overall, I think if you know what to expect going in, you'll get more out of the book. The summary blurb might be a little misleading, as it's not as clear that you're getting a cringe-inducing satire here, and a good one at that. However, because of this, I don't think the re-readability is high; it's definitely worth a read, but not enough to make space on an already-full bookshelf (not speaking from experience here at all...).

Thank you to Mariner and NetGalley for providing a copy for review.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
bumblybee | Jun 27, 2022 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
5
Also by
7
Membros
863
Popularidade
#29,664
Avaliação
3.8
Resenhas
39
ISBNs
32
Idiomas
3

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