Little Boys Come from the Stars
Author | : Emmanuel Dongala |
Publisher | : Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
Total Pages | : 256 |
Release | : 2007-05-15 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780374708054 |
ISBN-13 | : 0374708053 |
Rating | : 4/5 (54 Downloads) |
Download or read book Little Boys Come from the Stars written by Emmanuel Dongala and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2007-05-15 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The peculiar and moving story of a Congolese boy's coming-of-age amid the political strife of postcolonial Congo "It is even said-but I admit that it's difficult to believe, even though I got this from my uncle-that when Papa was born, you couldn't follow the World Cup or the Olympics live and that Coca-Cola had yet to spread the selling of soft drinks to our village. Michael Jackson had yet to become famous . . . If all this was really true, I wonder how men managed to fill up the twenty-four hours of the day, three hundred sixty-five days a year." His nickname is Matapari, which means "trouble." He is an African child of the '90s-brilliant, mischievous, postcolonial, postmodern-caught in the crossfire of a chaotically liberated African country. Matapari grows up in a world of talking drums, the Internet, and satellite TV, a world of dictators who remake themselves as democrats overnight. His uncle is a stooge for the dictator; his father is a scholarly recluse obsessed with proving that blacks played key roles in Western history. Matapari is a young man in the middle-but the shrewdness and wit with which he tells his often riotously funny story set him apart from his relatives and countrymen. Emmanuel Dongala uses the ingenious viewpoint of a child to show up the telltale world of adults-and to show how one preserves one's independence in a corrupt and violent society.