[kcf]

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor is her first novel aimed at audults (she has several YA novels that often get pretty high praise, though I haven't read any). Below is an excerpt from my review.

Sometimes a book can’t be easily classified, and that can be a good thing. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor, her first novel aimed squarely at an adult audience, is one such book. Is it urban fantasy? Well no, it’s set in mostly rural setting, but certainly shares some characteristics. Is it epic fantasy? There is a quest, there is a group undertaking said quest, there are sorcerers and the equivalent of a dark lord, but few who read Who Fears Death would classify it as epic fantasy. Is it World Fantasy? Well, it isn’t the usual Western fantasy with its European and/or American roots – but World Fantasy is a pretty meaningless term and equally unclassifiable. African Fantasy? The setting is decidedly African and the folklore, customs and conflicts are all rooted in Africa, but does any book deserve to be geographically limited? Is it Feminist Fantasy? Issues of the rights of women lie at the heart of this novel, but should it be so pigeon-holed? How about YA? Who Fears Death is a coming-of-age story, full of teen-angst, certainty and uncertainty, though its heavy weight and timelessness appeal equally to adults. Is it near-future science fiction? Many elements of Who Fears Death fit the near-future sci-fi model, but there is magic and sorcery, which can only mean fantasy, right? Is it post-apocalyptic fantasy? Who Fears Death has the feel of taking place after a collapse of modern society as we know it, but even this fails to capture the book and all its facets. Really, I could keep going, but I think the point is made. Who Fears Death is all and none of these classifications, and it’s all the more wonderful for it.



Thoughts? Anyone else read this yet? How about her other stuff?

[Rob B]

I've got a copy of this book on the "to read" pile and plan on getting to it at some point. I'm just not sure when.

[Astra_]

Is it a stand alone book?

[kcf]

Is it a stand alone book?

yes, though I suppose the ending is open enough for a sequel of some sort, but it would probably be something very different.

[Corporal Blues]

I started this one today, and I'll post my thoughts on it when I finish.

Last night I attended Nnedi Okorafor's author reading in Seattle, and I thought I'd share a bit:

As far as author events go, this one was quite different. Usually, these things go one of two ways: 1) The author reads a bit of his or her novel,maybe discusses the creation process of the book, fields questions from the audience, then signs books. 2) The author is interviewed by someone, often a literature critic, people from the audience ask questions, then the author signs books. However, Okorafor played things differently.

She began by reading the first chapter of Who Fears Death, then proceeded to read other sections from deeper within the novel. I'm sure this was a pleasure for those in the audience who had read the book, as Okorafor's reading covered some pivotal moments in the novel, yet for me it was somewhat torturous as I had not read the novel yet, and her reading was speckled with plot spoilers. Okorafor read for an hour, at which time it was announced the store was closing, so only a few people lined up for autographs, and it was over. No question/answer session and a handful of spoilers for those in the audience who had not had the opportunity to read the novel yet.

I'll admit, after Okorafor's reading I was somewhat frustrated, because I felt that some of the mystery of the novel had been taken away, but then it hit me that I had also been given something pretty special: Okorafor had shared parts of her novel that she felt strongly about, and read them in her voice, the way they were intended to be read, and that is a rare thing for a reader to experience. I began the book today, and I know that having heard Okorafor read the first chapter, that I had a stronger sense of the narrator's voice thanks to her reading. I'm sure this effect will carry through for the other sections I heard, and will hopefully continue to enrich the reading experience.

[Niniane]

Ordered the book from book depository, still waiting for it to get here; after reading reviews and blog posts about it, I'm quite anxious/eager to read it.

[Larry]

I finished it on Tuesday and here's most of the review that I posted (http://ofblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/nnedi-okorafor-who-fears-death.html):

For the past couple of years, Nnedi Okorafor has been one of those young novelists whom I have followed closely. Ever since I read her second novel, The Shadow Speaker, in 2008, what I have admired most about her writings, in both novel and novella length, is just how well she creates characters that have a strong "voice" and whose perceptions on what is transpiring around them make both the situations (sometimes set in a post-apocalyptic Africa) and characters (either West African or in the current case, Sudanese) all the more intense and gripping.

Therefore, it was with great curiosity that I recently began reading Okorafor's third novel, Who Fears Death, not just because it is her first novel specifically marketed to adults, but more because of some of the leaked hints about the subject matter and how that might affect the enjoyment of the novel. For the most part, Who Fears Death manages to live up to the high expectations raised by my prior reading of Okorafor's prior work.

The story begins with a touching, personal scene. A young woman, Onyesonwu, whose name means "Who fears death?", witnesses the death of her beloved stepfather:

My life fell apart when I was sixteen. Papa died. He had such a strong heart, yet he died. Was it the heat and smoke from his blacksmithing shop? It's true that nothing could take him from his work, his art. He loved to make the metal bend, to obey him. But his work only seemed to strengthen him; he was so happy in his shop. So what was it that...killed him? To this day I can't be sure. I hope it had nothing to do with me or what I did back then.

Immediately after he died, my mother came running out of their bedroom sobbing and throwing herself against the wall. I knew then that I would be different. I knew in that moment that I would never again be able to fully control the fire inside me. I became a different creature that day, not so human. Everything that happened later, I now understand, started then. (p. 3)

This is a pivotal point in Onyesonwu's life and before we are introduced to her life and backstory, we are privy to her grief. I found myself wanting to read more about her and her situation after reading these first two paragraphs, which hinted at something strange and mysterious about Onyesonwu even as she grieved for her Papa's death. In Okorafor's previous novels, she too used first-person female narrators, usually in the tween or teen years, to tell stories of magic and loss, of dreams and of suffering in the wake of a vague, world-wide apocalyptic event. Here in Who Fears Death, Onyesonwu's life is traced from her life as a biracial Ewu - a child of rape at the hands of a Nuru sorceror named Daib - with her struggles to fit in with that society, so bound in ancient customs as to make it difficult for Western readers such as myself to fully relate to what Onyesonwu is experiencing, to her eventual rebellion and discovery of the magic within her.

Okorafor does an outstanding job of mixing in extrapolations of current sociological problems occurring in Eastern Africa, particularly parts of the present-day country of Sudan, with a story that is simultaneously a coming of age story and a revenge/quest novel. Onyesonwu is a very sympathetic character. We get to experience up close her fears, her frustrations, her struggles to fit in with the villagers of Jwahir, who despise her for being not just a child of rape, but for carrying the blood of the Nuru, who are much lighter-skinned than the surrounding Okeke people. We gather, through passing conversations that she and others have, that the Nuru, inflamed by those preaching a violent interpretation of their Great Book, have begun exterminating entire Okeke villages to the west of Jwahir. It is a strong analogue to the current situation occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan, as well as in remote regions in several parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Okorafor's story is all the more powerful for just how grounded it is in recent and ongoing atrocities in the region.

Some readers of this book have criticized Okorafor for putting these horrible events in a fictional book. I believe those critics have misrepresented Okorafor's goals and achievements. By having such things as a female circumcision ritual occurring and being experienced by Onyesonwu, this highlights not just the brutalities that are occurring to women in several parts of Africa, but it also illustrates just how insidious the desire to control women can be in patriarchal societies. Despite growing up in a culture far removed from that found in the Sudan and other parts of Africa, Okorafor manages to make even me able to understand the viciousness that underlies such ancient rituals that have managed to survive like cockroaches whenever they can scurry out of public eye.

Okorafor also mixes in African folk magic, called juju, into this. Although I wonder if juju is a pan-African term for this sort of folk sorcery or if it is the application of a region-specific title to a broader area, this wondering ends up being a minor quibble because of how well Okorafor utilizes it as a concept and as a part of Okeke life. From Onyesonwu's mysterious powers that begin to emerge after her eleventh birthday, through her initial struggles with the local sorcerer Aro, to the realization that her real enemy is her own biological father, Daib, the learning of juju plays a major role in Onyesonwu's story. It rarely feels forced within the narrative, as Okorafor skillfully manages to weave it into all aspects of her story, creating a narrative that is just "exotic" enough to feel different from the majority of reads that I've had recently, while still retaining connections to a deep, personal narrative that allow me to understand the character even through the more culturally unfamiliar parts of this story.

Since this is a coming of age story for a biracial female teen, there are certainly some sexual situations that are quite direct in their appearance. Onyesonwu's relationship with the failed sorcerer Mwita is told frankly, with no apologies for the mutual love and lust shared between the two. It is, in many respects, the counterpart to the earlier female circumcision scene and their first intimate moments serve simultaneously as a real and as a metaphorical challenge to the restrictions on female sexuality placed by such customs as the removal of the clitoris. Although there were a few times where their relationship seemed a bit underdeveloped, perhaps due to the need to forward the plot quickly to reach its summit with Onyesonwu's conflict with Daib, on the whole, her romantic relationship with Mwita and her friendship with their traveling companions Binta and Luyu are presented well.

Needless to say, this was the sort of novel I've been wanting to read sometime, especially since I've enjoyed all of Okorafor's writings to date.

[Corporal Blues]

Aldarion- great review, thanks for the linkage and your thoughts. Reviews like yours and Ken's have made this a highly anticipated book for me. I'm only about 20 pages in, but so far it is quite powerful.

[KatG]

I've been hearing lots of interesting things about the book and am hoping to read it soon. Thanks for the imput, guys. (It's futuristic fantasy, kc, and roughly in the sub-category of contemporary fantasy, of which urban fantasy is also a part.)

[mjolnir]

I finished Who Fears Death a couple days ago, and I pretty much agree with Aldarion's review. [And, yes, I know just saying "I agree" does not stimulate discussion. I am lazy and a bad human being.] Well, actually, I guess I could say some stuff. There's plenty more to talk about in this book -- it's the kind I'm sure I'll read again -- but I think I'll leave it at what I've hammered out below for now before this gets too insanely long or my helpful laptop takes it upon itself to scrap my post.

It's first-person, and this has a real effect: When you're reading it you know that you're being told a story by an intense character whose got intense stuff to relate and discuss. And that stuff *is* both related and discussed. As Aldarion mentions and some other reviewers have apparently flipped out about, genital mutilation, weaponized rape, the systematic subjugation of women, all come up throughout the story, and they both contribute to the plot and are dissected and criticized in intelligent ways. Know, however, that this does not slow down the plot; Who Fears Death moves deliberately but quickly. The book is also not a festival of gross for the sake of cheap shock value; every horrific act described is there for a good reason. The same applies to the tone. Given all the grim events, I think it would be easy for the book to leave the reader with the message: "life, and particularly life in the post-apocalypse sub-Sahara, is a gigantic puddle of suck". But there's lots of hope here, too: Onyasonwu's story is full of things which have a profound affect on her and about which she feels strongly, and not all of these are dark things. [If I'm remembering correctly, I've seen Okorafor be very critical of the western media's general knee-jerk "everything is crap in Africa" approach.] I guess what I'm trying to get at is that the book is honest. It will never cheat you. It may play tricks on you, or leave you with uncertainties *, for the magic here is tricksy magic. But it won't ever cheat you.

* The ending in particular is great for this.

Sometimes, just very occasionally, the writing seemed a little jerky to me, words reused very close together, that sort of thing. However, a: in some of the scenes of strong emotion and-or trauma this may well be intentional stylistic choice, and b: it really doesn't matter, as it happens rarely and is balanced out by some startlingly beautiful bits, the sort of writing that grabs your attention and makes you sit up and pay heed to the prose as prose.

Great book -- one of my very favourites of the twelve or so 2010 novels I've read so far, if we're keeping score in the new release hotness game.
________
Nexium side effects (http://www.classactionsettlements.org/lawsuit/nexium/)