Smells Like Stars by D. Nandi Odhiambo

Abstract

of history and the insignificance of the individual. In “Where I Am,” Andra Neiburga characterizes Latvians as “a people bound up and numbed by northern darkness .” Despite the inherent power of focal caricature, the people from whom we hear most often seem to feel or project that their lives are of little importance. They go about their daily tasks and are most often portrayed as provincial and old-fashioned, content with whatever small lives they live and small perspectives they gain. This is contrasted with the constant invasion of dramatic twists and instances of magical realism—a man escapes death via a flying sleigh, a woman fills a room with countless birds, a grandson speaks nonchalantly of his murderous plots. Being underwhelmed by the most overwhelming possible events, each character would no doubt say, “A short story is more than enough for you to hear about me! It wouldn’t be worth your time to hear any more than fifteen pages of my life, nor mine to tell it.” Yet despite this disillusionment with the significance of their stories, what all the authors seem to find equally significant is place. The Book of Riga contains stories linked not only to the city in its general, current existence but to specific buildings from the past and future of the city. Though the translations (handled by many hands) vary in quality, content, and style, they can all agree on one thing: “Riga was just Riga, nothing out of the ordinary.” And that is the highest compliment they can give. Linda Stack-Nelson University of Oklahoma D. Nandi Odhiambo Smells Like Stars Toronto. Book*hug. 2018. 240 pages. Part domestic drama, part investigative thriller, and all intersectionality, D. Nandi Odhiambo’s fourth novel foregrounds the tension of interracial and queer relationships against the backdrop of colonial legacy. The four characters in Smells Like Stars struggle to realize their dreams of love and success in Ogweyo’s Cove, a Pacific tourist haven. Told through the eyes of an omniscient narrator,theKenyan-bornnovelist’sstoryfollows a two-week countdown to the wedding Zoltán Böszörményi The Conscience of Trees: Selected Poems Trans. Paul Sohar Ragged Sky Press Veteran Hungarian poet and novelist Zoltán Böszörményi has graced the pages of WLT before—and for good reason. This volume perfectly encapsulates his sophisticated and lofty style of diction as well as his fluid ability to blend ideas, images, and feelings into a flowing river of artistry. The poems provide all the comfort and complexity of a nature walk, gently encouraging the reader to contemplation. James Bridle New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future Verso Technologist James Bridle takes aim at the twenty-first century’s obsession with computation as the solution to all problems, his central argument being that the data we collect has already outstripped our ability to draw meaningful conclusions from it. Touching on a wide variety of topics, including search algorithms , surveillance, climate change, and many more, Bridle makes a compelling case for pumping the brakes on technology to allow ethics to catch up. Nota Bene WORLDLIT.ORG 71 of Kerstin Ostheim, a journalist who investigates gruesome horse killings, and P. J. Banner, a photographer with a cocaine habit. After meeting on a dating app and seeing each other for six months, the middle -aged couple decide to get married. P. J. must learn to take responsibility and confront his denial and addiction in order to support Kerstin and Schuld, her transgender daughter from her first marriage, while Kerstin herself must navigate her family’s Nazi past and privileged position as a settler. Sprinkled with Swahili and German, and awash in poetic description of place, Odhiambo creates a sensual world where witch doctors offer proverbs with matterof -fact humor and mechanics find wisdom in Aristotle, only to be interrupted by tweets and text messages that join the flow of the narrative to bring the historical and the contemporary side by side. These juxtapositions form the warp and weft of the novel. Consider the relationship between Kerstin and P. J., which parallels that between Schuld and her boyfriend, Woloff, an Olympic medalist struggling with a knee...