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A review by trin
Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala
3.0
Heartbreaking, beautifully and deliberately composed...and yet this book didn't quite work for me. The chapters are generally short, heavy with incident but coming together in a style of plotting that feels a bit scattered and diffuse. The writing is spare and quite lovely, but as a first person narrative, the effect is rather cold, and when the POV abruptly shifts, I don't feel like there's a lot to distinguish one voice from the other. This is a slim book in which it's possible Iweala is simply trying to tackle too many things.
Or it's possible that I just didn't like this book's hopelessness, its bleakness. What in fiction may feel like cliche is often, horribly, still reality: homophobia, innocent black boys being shot by police, senseless violence and injustice. Writers make choices, and sometimes that choice is to portray the stories that they see happening in the world around them, even if it's the same story, again and again. And maybe that should do nothing beyond make any thinking, feeling person uncomfortable and depressed.
Or it's possible that I just didn't like this book's hopelessness, its bleakness. What in fiction may feel like cliche is often, horribly, still reality: homophobia, innocent black boys being shot by police, senseless violence and injustice. Writers make choices, and sometimes that choice is to portray the stories that they see happening in the world around them, even if it's the same story, again and again. And maybe that should do nothing beyond make any thinking, feeling person uncomfortable and depressed.