morebedsidebooks's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5
The Belly of the Atlantic, a story of siblings separated by distance and the dreams vs. realities of emigration, is the first novel by Senegalese author Fatou Diome.
With some parallels to the author, Salie, born out of wedlock and brought up by her grandmother stubbornly got an education and left for France years ago. Rejected however by the family of the French man she married, she’s divorced and a moderate feminist eking out an existence in Paris. Like the best tellers as she puts it “memory is a needle that weaves time into lace”, relating not just her story but those of family and the many members of the village on the island of Niodior full of passion, heartbreak, success, and failures. The title of the novel too drawing on the location of the island and a sad legend further shared.
Salie’s younger brother Madické still back in the village like other boys has a passion for football. He dreams he might leave and make a French team eventually meeting his idol Italian player Paolo Cesare Maldini. It’s a common dream, emigration as well from stories romanticizing France that can’t be eclipsed by the warnings of his sister or the Marxist schoolteacher exiled to the island who know better.
Foremost this is a novel that a reader does need to have an appreciation of football, as this is portrayed in near relentless detail. Especially early 2000s AC Milan and in 2002 when Senegal made the quarterfinals of the World Cup. Some knowledge of folk traditions, another persistent aspect despite Islam’s presence, also wouldn’t hurt. To aide less familiar readers there is a glossary, though not exhaustive, provided at the back of the book since the text is sprinkled with more local terms or references, the English edition translated by Ros Schwartz and Lulu Norman.
Still worth attention The Belly of the Atlantic is a rather eloquent bestseller softly drawing the legacy of the past, tensions between Africa and Europe and those caught in between.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Racial slurs
Moderate: Child death, Murder, Suicide, and Pregnancy
Minor: Abandonment, Colonisation, Child abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Homophobia, Confinement, and Transphobia
Polygamy is a strong subject. Also at one point a minor experiences sexual coercion and disassociates.
More...