An Elegy for Easterly

Posted on | March 3, 2010 | 17 Comments

Doesn’t An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah have a beautiful cover? It is reminiscent in some ways of the cover art for Helen Oyeyemi’s White is for Witching; I do like trees in book cover art. The cover for An Elegy for Easterly is one of the few things that I can enthuse about. The collection of short stories won the Guardian First Book Award at the end of lost year and I am a loss as to why. I didn’t find the stories particularly original, interesting or enjoyable.

The thirteen stories are mainly set in Zimbabwe (or concern Zimbabweans living elsewhere, as Gappah herself does) under Robert Mugabe’s regime and have been lauded with praise, with An Elegy for Easterly considered an inventive, stunning, masterful debut. I must be missing something because they didn’t work for me. Some of the stories are emotive, the title story and “The Cracked, Pink Lips of Rosie’s Bridegroom” are the ones that made an impression on me, that I found disturbing and that still resonate weeks later; the remainder are forgettable. My issue with the stories is that I found no cohesive theme and no distinct narrative voices. To begin with, reading the first three or four stories, I thought that there was a symbol of nameless female narrators -named as mother to or wife of- and even though the were indistinct from one another, I was excited because I thought I recognised the pattern early on and that the women were universal representations; I then realised I was wrong and I became bored by the randomness of the stories and their dull content.

The issue with many short story volumes, even by the best short story writers, is that certain stories are better than others, just as novels in an author’s oeuvre can never be equal in accomplishment; that is certainly true of Gappah’s stories and I found some quite weak in comparison to those that I did like. I was unable to fall back on the writing when the content didn’t interest me (as I was able to do for Jhumpa Lahiri or Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) because I didn’t think that it was particularly good, technically or in its evocation, characterisation and imagination. I fail to see what is above-par about An Elegy for Easterly, let alone exceptional; for those readers who have read it, perhaps you could illuminate for me? I didn’t learn anything about life under Mugabe that I didn’t already know nor the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the country; “The Cracked, Pink Lips of Rosie’s Bridegroom” was effective because it uncompromisingly tackled the epidemic brutally but excluding it and “An Elegy for Easterly” I felt no emotion. Some of the scenes of mental illness and subsequent shame were done well in “The Annexe Shuffle” but it didn’t bring anything new and I struggled to identify with Emily and any of the other stories’ protagonists.

The unrelenting tragedy of the two stories that I single out for me worked so perhaps I looked for emotionally devastating in the collection whereas it seems that Gappah tried to find the comic in the tragic in others; “Our Man in Geneva wins a Million Dollars” for instance, about a Zimbabwean working in Switzerland who is lured in by a phishing scam, didn’t make me feel much of anything … yes, I pity the victims of fraud but I suppose I am desensitised to everyday stories of this nature. I felt disconnected to the harsh realities of the hyper-inflation and corruption and I do not think that was desensitisation but lack of connection to the short fiction. I had hoped to enjoy these stories and to alleviate my disappointment I am reaching for some more fiction set in Zimbabwe -pre-independent Rhodesia- and picking up Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga.

Comments

17 Responses to “An Elegy for Easterly”

Eva
March 3rd, 2010 @ 4:15 pm

Ohhh-I loved Nervous Conditions! I read it as a college freshman.

Too bad the short stories didn’t work for you. :/ That’s always so frustrating! I recently read an Ethiopian novel I was super excited about, and let’s just say it didn’t meet expectations.

If you’re looking for a short story collection from a different part of Africa, I loved Tropical Fish (Uganda)!
Verity
March 3rd, 2010 @ 4:36 pm

Hmm…not one for me then given that I am not a huge fan of the short story genre. I look forward to hearing what you think about Nervous Conditions.
Aarti
March 3rd, 2010 @ 5:41 pm

I totally just confused you on Twitter, I’m sure, with my really bizarre take on you loving this collection of stories, when actually, you did not. I don’t know where on my initial scan I thought you gave it the Claire seal of approval, but I am clearly off!

Anyway, I’m sorry this didn’t work out for you because I have been really interested in it since hearing about it! SAD.

I don’t really know any short stories set in Africa. My knowledge of African literature is frankly terribly limited…
Claire (The Captive Reader)
March 3rd, 2010 @ 6:27 pm

I’d seen this one around but hadn’t been grabbed by it – glad to know I’m not missing out! The cover is gorgeous though.
Jackie (Farm Lane Books)
March 3rd, 2010 @ 6:38 pm

I’m not a fan of short stories so if you didn’t enjoy this then there is no way I will. I’ll avoid it – thanks!
kiss a cloud
March 3rd, 2010 @ 7:06 pm

I do love covers with trees. I have a tree fascination. (Thus, when Mary Swan’s Boys in the Trees came out a couple of years ago I immediately snapped it up, as when I saw Anne Fadiman’s At Large and at Small last December).

Thanks for the insight. I still have to read Lahiri’s shorts, as well as Adichie’s (and Akpan’s), so will hold off on this one.
vivienne
March 3rd, 2010 @ 8:02 pm

I am really not good with short stories and tend to avoid them, so I don’t think it would work for me either. I do love the cover though and it is very similar to Oyeyemi’s ‘White is For Witching.’
stujallen
March 4th, 2010 @ 12:32 am

i ve nervous comditions on my around world challenge list to read this year
Rachel
March 4th, 2010 @ 10:23 am

I really enjoy short stories but that’s because I dip in and out and don’t tend to read them chronologically. I think if I did that I’d find them a lot less enjoyable because, as you say, there are always weaker ones in any volume that let the rest down. I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy this – it’s always a disappointment when that happens. I must say I am not a big reader of African literature and I hadn’t heard of this before. The cover is beautiful but I’m not feeling particularly inspired to give it a go!
Simon (Savidge Reads)
March 4th, 2010 @ 12:53 pm

Oh no! I am sorry you didnt enjoy this collection Claire. I loved it and read it over the course of a week in bits. Each story to me depicted the lives of those from or in Zimbabwe from varying different schools of life that came together as a tapestry of the country and situations. I want to read more short stories and your next read sounds very interesting.
Paperback Reader
March 4th, 2010 @ 1:03 pm

Eva, glad to hear it! I’m enjoying it so far.
I must look out for Tropical Fish (I remember your review) and I have Say You’re One of Them still to finish (I’m reading a story here and there because it IS emotionally devastating).

Verity, definitely not. This is the type of collection that reminds me why short stories don’t always work and makes me approach the form cautiously (and there are so many short stories that I love so that is an unfair reaction).

Aarti, no, this did not receive the Claire seal of approval!
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi is a very good collection set in Nigeria and US and Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan is supposedly very good.

Claire, you definitely aren’t missing out, in my opinion.

Jackie, I think you have made a wise decision! Short story collections aren’t eligible for the Orange Prize, are they?
Paperback Reader
March 4th, 2010 @ 1:13 pm

Claire, as do I… I had intended to write a post about books with tree covers around the time of the Booker ’09; I loved both the covers of The Quickening Maze and The Wilderness.

You would be far better off reading Lahiri and Adichie and I have loved (in an emotionally devastated way) the stories from Akpan that I have read so far; I am taking my time with his collection.

Vivienne, this definitely wouldn’t work for people who aren’t a fan of the short story, I think; for the most part I love short stories and yet this failed to captivate me. With your disappointing experience of White is for Witching, the cover may put you off anyway!

Stu, I look forward to hearing what you think. I have had my copy for close to five years.

Rachel, I love dipping in and out of short stories but that approach wouldn’t have worked here as I would not have been tempted to return to it each time! The Bloody Chamber is perfect for reading in non-chronological installments. I do hate being disappointed in books but I’m relieved that it doesn’t happen very often.

Simon, I thought of you as I was writing this as I knew how much you had enjoyed it. Thank you for your insight; I’m disappointed that I didn’t appreciate it in that same way. The joy of book blogging though is that I can read your thoughts -and those of others who have read it- and examine why it worked for you but didn’t me.
jo
March 5th, 2010 @ 12:34 am

I think forgettable is probably a good word. I would have said when I read this that I really enjoyed it, but it wasn’t very long ago, and I can remember very little about any of the stories now. Apart from the Phishing one. That stands out in my memory because it bored me!
Vanessa Gebbie
March 7th, 2010 @ 5:34 pm

I believe short story collections are indeed eligible for the Orange – the judging panel last year commended one, for the first time – The White Road and other Stories, by Tania Hershman (Salt Publishing). Sorry you didn’t enjoy Gappah’s collection, which I thought was terrific – but there you go, I write shorts as well. I suppose if we all liked the same things, life would be awfully boring – nothing to talk about!
This is a great blog -
Paperback Reader
March 9th, 2010 @ 1:18 pm

Jo, I agree that few of them have remained in my memory although, conversely, the phishing one has for me too because I just could not see the point!

Hi Vanessa, thank you for commenting on my blog. I appreciate the information about the eligibility of short stories for the Orange Prize; I thought I’d read recently that they weren’t but was misinformed.

It would indeed be boring if we all liked the same things; I enjoy debate and different perspectives.
Sarah Norman
March 24th, 2010 @ 10:39 am

Hi Claire,

I’ve actually stumbled on to your blog from a link on Petina Gappah’s! I’m Zimbabwean, and hope you’ll love Nervous Conditions, I did at 14 or so; but I also really recommend Charles Mungoshi’s ‘The Setting Sun and the Rolling World’. They are FANTASTIC short stories . .
East African Authors « Diversify Your Reading
August 9th, 2010 @ 4:29 pm

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