-
Seasonal Offer:
This title is part of our Seasonal Offers promotion.
One Day I Will Write About This Place
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.65
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in One Day I Will Write About This Place for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.65, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
`A beguiling account and vibrant celebration of coming of age in post-colonial Africa' --Sunday Times
'An autobiographical portrait of the artist as a young man with brilliant commentary and critique' --Guardian
'Head directly to the bookstore for Binyavanga Wainaina's stand-up-and-cheer coming-of-age memoir' --New York Times
'Wainaina's personal odyssey is compelling and provides insights into the making of this talented writer'
--Wasafiri
'A sharply observed picaresque tale that delivers on the promise of his earlier writing'
--Observer
'Witty, novelistic and dreamy, Wainaina's story is effectively the story of Kenya itself'
--Metro
'An autobiographical portrait of the artist as a young man with brilliant commentary and critique' --Guardian
'Head directly to the bookstore for Binyavanga Wainaina's stand-up-and-cheer coming-of-age memoir' --New York Times
'Wainaina's personal odyssey is compelling and provides insights into the making of this talented writer'
--Wasafiri
'A sharply observed picaresque tale that delivers on the promise of his earlier writing'
--Observer
'Witty, novelistic and dreamy, Wainaina's story is effectively the story of Kenya itself'
--Metro
Product Description
Binyavanga Wainaina tumbled through his middle-class Kenyan childhod out of kilter with the world around him. This world came to him as a chaos of loud and colourful sounds: the hair dryers at his mother's beauty parlour, black mamba bicycle bells, mechanics in Nairobi, the music of Michael Jackson - all punctuated by the infectious laughter of his brother and sister, Jimmy and Ciru. He could fall in with their patterns, but it would take him a while to carve out his own. In this vivid and compelling debut, Wainaina takes us through his school days, his failed attempt to study in South Africa, a moving family reunion in Uganda, and his travels around Kenya. The landscape in front of him always claims his main attention, but he also evokes the shifting political scene that unsettles his views on family, tribe, and nationhood. Throughout, reading is his refuge and his solace. And when, in 2002, a writing prize comes through, the door is opened for him to pursue the career that perhaps had been beckoning all along. A series of fascinating reporting assignments follows in other African countries. Finally he circles back to a Kenya in the throes of postelection violence and finds he is not the only one questioning the old certainties. Resolutely avoiding stereotype and cliche, Wainaina paints every scene in One Day I Will Write About This Place with a highly distinctive and hugely memorable brush.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
One Day I'll Write About This Place is a wonderful depiction of the author's childhood and life.
Binyavang Wainaina's prose borders on magical, even genius in places, and with his marvellous eye for detail, he captures African life in all its animate and inanimate forms sensitively and beautifully. I was mesmerised by his vivid imagination, and the way he analyses and interprets his world through letter sounds and word meanings.
Wainaina describes an Africa seeped in western cultural influences, which surprised this reader, but which was ultimately an honest and welcome alternative to the more familiar descriptions of African life and experience.
Wainaina has a rich talent, skilfully manipulating language to produce an enjoyable story which illustrates the beauty of the written word; definitely worth a read!
Binyavang Wainaina's prose borders on magical, even genius in places, and with his marvellous eye for detail, he captures African life in all its animate and inanimate forms sensitively and beautifully. I was mesmerised by his vivid imagination, and the way he analyses and interprets his world through letter sounds and word meanings.
Wainaina describes an Africa seeped in western cultural influences, which surprised this reader, but which was ultimately an honest and welcome alternative to the more familiar descriptions of African life and experience.
Wainaina has a rich talent, skilfully manipulating language to produce an enjoyable story which illustrates the beauty of the written word; definitely worth a read!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I really enjoyed this book. Wainaina's dream-like stream of consciousness was so original and fresh. Using beautiful and relatively sparse prose, he manages to convey deep and complex images about Kenya and Africa that don't involve animals and Maasai dancers for once! Funny, elegant, tragic and informative; I highly recommended it. Africa needs more of this sort of writing.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having heard Binyavanga read an extract from the then unfinished book a couple of years ago I must admit that I was looking forward to the finished memoir and I can certainly say that it was well worth the wait. In this memoir you learn about Africa but mainly Kenya from independence to the present.
I particularly enjoyed the early years as it reminded me so much of my childhood growing up in Uganda. I could so identify with his obsession with books, Michael Jackson, Boney M and the jheri curl. He is very open and honest about his struggle to find himself and he recounts vividly the political and social struggle taking place in Africa. My only criticism and it is only a small one is that he does not attempt to explore deeper the reasons for his retreat. I found his use of words (kimay, accordion) absolutely fascinating. The extract below where he is describing a choir singing illustrates his brilliance;
"When the mouth is released, the choirs bare their teeth, polite hotel slices of breakfast pawpaw, to look extremely happy. Proud. Pretty. Promising. Eyebrows subside.
My lips close down firmly on each other. Imp. Imprison. Implode. Implant. Impede. After each mp, there is a little explosion of air outward because your lips purse as if prepared to rein in words after each p. Improve. Impress."
The book is littered with such gems, Binyavanga is a master wordsmith.
All in all this is a great read, you definitely get a sense of Africa that you don't normally see on TV or even read in other books coming out of the continent. I would recommend to everyone.
JJ
I particularly enjoyed the early years as it reminded me so much of my childhood growing up in Uganda. I could so identify with his obsession with books, Michael Jackson, Boney M and the jheri curl. He is very open and honest about his struggle to find himself and he recounts vividly the political and social struggle taking place in Africa. My only criticism and it is only a small one is that he does not attempt to explore deeper the reasons for his retreat. I found his use of words (kimay, accordion) absolutely fascinating. The extract below where he is describing a choir singing illustrates his brilliance;
"When the mouth is released, the choirs bare their teeth, polite hotel slices of breakfast pawpaw, to look extremely happy. Proud. Pretty. Promising. Eyebrows subside.
My lips close down firmly on each other. Imp. Imprison. Implode. Implant. Impede. After each mp, there is a little explosion of air outward because your lips purse as if prepared to rein in words after each p. Improve. Impress."
The book is littered with such gems, Binyavanga is a master wordsmith.
All in all this is a great read, you definitely get a sense of Africa that you don't normally see on TV or even read in other books coming out of the continent. I would recommend to everyone.
JJ
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Review of One Day I will write about this Place
If you are interested in words, memoirs and the country Kenya then this book is for you. Binyavanga, the author takes you on a journey from his youth onwards and gives you an... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Marcie
One day I will write about this place
I did enjoy reading it and would recommend it, but I don't think it would appeal to everyone. I thought it was written well and from a different angle than many other writers, but... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Toby
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > Historical > 1901 Onwards
- Books > Biography > Historical > Countries & Regions > Africa
- Books > History > Countries & Regions > Africa > Eastern > Kenya
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
