Eddie Signwriter by Adam Schwartzman

Abstract

nothing butidealism. O planalto e a esiepe illustrates thedisillusionment ofseveralyoungmindsthatquestionan ideologicalregimewhich represents itself as perfect, unaware that itdisplays thesamevicesas the foreign regimes itcriticizes. Julio leavesMoscowandbegins a military career fighting for the Soviets , settles inArgel, flies toMongolia to look forhis daughter and girlfriend , and laterjoinstheAngolan MPLA - first against thePortuguese andlater tofight, as a leader, inthe Angolan civil war.Hispersonal path isnowthepathofAngola'shistory. Thenarrator emphasizes theemptiness of ideological discourses that lead to thefallof hollowpolitical regimes, whileEurope, Cuba,Asia, the SovietUnion,and Africaare linked byan intricate webofpolitical interests. Juliorevisits his life, and thisretrospective gaze allows himtoevaluate thespecialrelationshipsofcommunist regimes suchas Cuba and theUSSR withAngola, whilemenfight for anideology they don'trespect. Thenarrator alsocriticizescorruption inAngola, a country atpeacethat doesnotempower itsown people,wheretheformer colonizers stillprofit themostand a privileged minority "getspornographically rich." Pepetela's novel depicts an intricateweb of (post)colonial and personalinterests and paths through theAngolanplateausand theMongolian steppes, geographical metaphors thatsymbolize Julio andSarangerel's questfor love.The reencounter of thecouplein communist Cubaandthereunion ofthe wholefamily in a war-free Angola neutralize thenegative intertextual dialoguesofthenovelwithShakespeare 's Romeo andJuliet throughout thethirdchapter and preparethe , -muÊÊÊÊÊmmÈ happyendingfora lusophone love story anda generation tired ofwar. Rogério MiguelPuga Universidade Nova/FCT, Portugal Adam Schwartzman.Eddie Signwriter. New York.Pantheon. 2010. 293 pages. $25.95. ISBN 978-0-307-37873-6 AdamSchwartzman's debutnovel, Eddie Signwriter, is a powerful work ofprose.Inchronicling thecomingof -ageof eponymousprotagonist Kwasi Edward Michael Dankwa, knownas Eddie Signwriter to the people for whom hepaints, Schwartzmanpresents uswith oneofthemost engrossing new bildungsromans to emerge from within theanglophone novelistic tradition. Wefollow Kwasi from forbidden passionandtragedy in a smallGhanaiancommunity to anapprenticeship ina craft through which helearns tobegin again - and then,when the demonsfromhis pastbegintoreappear, toan illegal flight to Paris,wherehe livessans papiers, carving outan existence for himself ina smallcommunity filled with others likehim. The novel is concerned from thebeginning withtheproblematic intricacies of prejudiceand social injustice, considering as itdoes the illeffects ofhierarchy and mistrust oftheforeign inrural Ghana.When a scandalerupts and "half-foreigner " Kwasiis banishedforheedless displays ofintimacy with a girl from a powerful family, a complex interplayofgrief , tradition, andpreconceptionsemergesas a destructive socialforce thatunjustly endangers the happinessof more thanone young life. These concernsbroaden and intensify with Kwasi's initiation intoa community ofillegalAfrican immigrants livingin Paris,where WSmw IB^^h^^^^^^^^^^BBBBÍÍ ElfflM "^^^^^^^^^^^^m^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H^^M^^fl^TffWirffiiB "the accidentof being born in one place, not another. . . could turn your fellow human beings against you,and you intoa huntedanimal." Schwartzman'sreader findsherself confronted witha portrait ofFrench racerelationsand immigration policythat , whilesomehowoptimistic in itsemphasison theresilienceofthe marginalized,also makes painfully real the crueltyof a lifeconstantly threatened bytheprospectofpenalization and separation fromthose one loves. Coming on the heels of three poetry collections by Schwartzman , EddieSignzvriter showcases its author's capable command of the language,whichhe wields to cultivatean aesthetic alternating between stark,directnarration and baroque, detail-richimagery.Indeed, this is a dynamicnarrative, and its movementbetweensuchfrugalsimplicity and fullnessof descriptionis also matched by other shifts - changes intenseand pointofview thatseem crafted tomeaningfully enhancethe thematic and emotionaldepthofthe text. Theplaywithsyntaxand structuremakes thenovel an engrossing and fulfilling read as much forits form as foritscontent. SuzanneMarieHopcroft YaleUniversity Abdellah Taïa. Le jour du Roi. Paris. Seuil.2010. 210 pages. €16.50. isbn 9782 -02-100253-9 LejourduRoi(King'sday) chronicles the effects on two local schoolboys of theplanned 1987 visitto Salé, a coastal citynear the capital Rabat, by King Hassan II ofMorocco. Salé is wherethenovelistAbdellah Taïa grewup. Bornin 1973,Taïa tookthe riskystep of publicly announcing (in 2006) thathe is gay, in a coun681WorldLiterature Today trywherehomosexualityis a crime punishableby law. Taïa, who writes in French,has been living in Paris since 1999.Lejourdu Roiis his fifth novel. Duringhislongreign(1961-99), Hassan II managed to cultivatethe image of a relativelyenlightened monarchabroad while maintaining strictdictatorialcontrolat home. In Taïa's novel, the king is a haunting ,menacingpresence,who shows up most vividly in the dreams or nightmaresof Omar, the schoolboy ...