A review by sharkybookshelf
Comrade Papa by Gauz

3.0

1880, to escape factory life, Dabilly sets off for a colonial adventure in Côte d’Ivoire; a century later, Anuman, a Black boy born to communist parents in Amsterdam is sent to Côte d’Ivoire to visit his grandmother…

I absolutely loved Standing Heavy (one of my Top Ten reads last year), but this was quite a different experience. Granted, picking it up within a fortnight of having a baby was an idiotic choice on my part, but even so, this one was an uphill battle.

It is a (deservedly) brutal critique of France’s colonisation of Côte d’Ivoire in the form of intellectual political literary satire. There is absolutely no hand-holding of the reader - not to be too dramatic about it, but know your shit or perish in the reading of it. You’d better be familiar with the history of communism to make any sense of Anuman’s chapters - they’re exceptionally well written in that Gauz’ perfectly captures the way children can parrot what they’ve heard without actually understanding it or indeed completely misunderstand it, but if you don’t have the reference points, they’re also pretty opaque. Dabilly’s chapters are easier to navigate, though basic knowledge of France’s colonial endeavours in Western Africa is helpful.

Regardless of my poor choice of timing, ultimately, this was just a little too intellectual for me. Although it does come together right at the end, it was such hard work to get there and a fair bit probably went over my head. And yet I didn’t hate it - it was undeniably clever and the political critiques shrewd.

It must be said that Wynne’s translation is incredible. A remarkable amount of skill would have been required to bring across the word-play, the phonetic homologues and Anuman’s made-up words.

A literary satire of France’s colonisation of Côte d’Ivoire and its legacy and a political critique of communism - very cleverly done, but ultimately a little too intellectual for me.