A review by dukegregory
Murambi, The Book of Bones by Boubacar Boris Diop

3.0

This is a super informative novel about the Rwandan Genocide, and it's filled with images of unimaginable brutality. The first thirty pages had me feeling a bit unwell. It sickens you. But then the actual narrative begins with Cornelius, and let's just say that I found those sections a tad bland. I began to skim the last fifty pages, because it's all so didactic and discusses genocide in a pretty standard way. Echoes of the dead live on, genocide is not just a crime of the moment but a revelation of cultural dysfunction, the statistics are questioned even though the specifics do not really matter in the larger scope of things, etc. I think Diop expands this a bit by incorporating the postcolonial Rwandan reality, how France and non-African world powers would not come to the aid at the pleading of those in danger. Bleak. Regardless of its not particularly engaging style (which may be an issue of translation), it's worth a read.