Benin: Say You're One of Them

Say You're One of Them

by Uwem Akpan

Benin was really challenging.  A tiny country in West Africa, Benin has not produced many writers whose works have been translated into English, nor has it apparently inspired many to write stories set in its landscape.  Ann Morgan, whose blog "A Year of Reading the World" has provided much inspiration and useful suggestions for me, made the same realization when she struggled to find a book for Benin.  Like Morgan, I picked up a number of books that actually turned out to be set in Benin City, Nigeria rather than the country of Benin.  I finally settled on Uwem Akpan's short story collection, Say You're One of Them.  Only one of the stories was actually set in Benin, but all took place somewhere in West Africa.  I was reluctant to make this one count, but I suppose it's no different than choosing a book for Belize where it's mostly set in California.

I want so badly to like short stories, but I just don't.  I feel there just isn't enough time to get to know any of the characters or to develop plot lines deeply enough.  It's kind of like small talk at a party.  Not very satisfying, at least not to me.  I do appreciate the art form, and I recognize that short stories are probably extremely difficult to write well because of the condensed space in which the writer has to do his or her work.  But I'd rather not read them most of the time. 

These stories though are richly compelling.  Uwem wrote them specifically to call attention to what is happening to children every day across the continent of Africa.  They are the stories of children who are suffering, children who have to grow up too fast, to earn income for their families, to make decision no one should ever have to make, to sell their bodies or be sold, to witness death and abuse and cruelty.  There is a lot of pain in these pages.  These stories take readers to a reality that is rather unbelievable if only we could be so naïve as to pretend we didn't know the truth of what exists out there in the world beyond our comfortable homes and privileged lives.  We are forced, through reading this collection, to look, hold our eyes wide open, and resist the urge to deny their truth.  And that makes them good in a difficult sort of way.

Belize: Wildwood

Wildwood

by Drusilla Campbell

I’m writing this from an airplane, hurtling across the sky towards the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, where I will escape from the daily grind, the sameness of my days, the gray and rainy weather, and a recently acquired routine of spending too many hours at my desk.  With my husband and daughter, I’m planning a few days of something different and expect to return somewhat rejuvenated and refreshed. 

Similarly, the novel Wildwood, by Drusilla Campbell, was something of an escape and a delightful departure from the heavy-themed fiction to which I normally gravitate.  It falls into a category that I fondly think of as “junk food for the brain.”  A little bit of candy or potato chip, just to jazz things up briefly, not intended to sustain or satisfy over the long term, but rather a little departure from the norm.  Campbell’s writing reminds me quite a bit of Jodi Picoult, Diane Chamberlain, maybe Anita Shreve.  Pleasant, interesting, and compelling enough to read straight through, but without the umph to make you think about it for too long after you close the book on the final pages.  I choose this kind of book when my mind is overloaded, or when I’m distracted with too much on my calendar, because reading only a few pages at a time is okay and doesn't cause me to lose the thread of the story.  And this book in particular, I chose because of its partial setting in Belize.

 I’m finding that the kinds of books set in small, vacation destination countries, like Belize, are often books that I really can’t bring myself to spend time on.  Bodice-ripper romance novels, or stories involving frivolous young Americans making fools of themselves in foreign countries, or perhaps crusty old alcoholic men estranged from their families and finding themselves embroiled in some sort of crime or mystery.  Um, no thanks … not my cup of tea.

Wildwood, which is mostly set in California, is the story of three adult women whose friendship has endured over time, distance, and the strain of a shared childhood tragedy that bound them together and tightened its hold over the years.  Two of the women, Hannah and Jeanne, have stayed close to home, cobbling together lives that have some happiness but which fester over unresolved past hurts and anxieties.  The other, Liz, escapes (there’s that word again) to France, and then to Belize where she tries to settle her spirit but finds the past continuing to haunt her.  She returns to California to visit, and realizing that her friends’ lives have been as disrupted as her own, she tries to persuade them to confront the past and release its hold on them.   

Belize is held forth as a place of beauty, serenity, peace, and comfort.  When things become difficult and painful, Liz goes there in her imagination, longing to return to her adopted home, where she feels safe and loved.  This novel won’t satisfy you if you’re seeking to understand Belize.  But if you want to examine friendship and the concept of “home,” or if you just want to get comfy and lose yourself in someone else’s story for a bit, you might enjoy this one.