THE EDUCATION OF A BRITISH-PROTECTED CHILD

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THE EDUCATION OF A BRITISH-PROTECTED CHILD

Name: THE EDUCATION OF A BRITISH-PROTECTED CHILD
Author: Chinua Achebe
ISBN: 978-0-307-27255-3

ESSAYS

by Chinua Achebe ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 8, 2009

Humane and carefully argued responses to events of recent years, coupled with a long look back at the African past.

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Deftly connected autobiographical essays by renowned Nigerian author Achebe (Languages and Literature/Bard Coll.; Anthills of the Savannah, 1987, etc.).

“I have news for you,” he writes. “Africa is not fiction. Africa is people, real people.” In his first new book since Anthills, Achebe challenges the economic-development experts of today, the successors of the colonialists of yesteryear. Allowing for the good intentions of both, the author examines the effects of outside tinkering with the continent, which today can take the form of bankers’ “structural adjustments” that result only in the continued immiseration of ordinary people. One source of such actions is paternalism, alluded to in the title of the collection, and Achebe allows for a bit of it in himself when he writes of his native country, “Nigeria is a child. Gifted, enormously talented, prodigiously endowed, and incredibly wayward.” And terribly corrupt, as well, which is no impediment to Achebe’s call for well-meaning people to roll up their sleeves and get to work helping Africa in real ways. Achebe’s view of African realities is hard-won, born of years of exile and thousands of miles of travels across the continent. He refrains, as he notes with some irony, from lecturing on colonialism per se, but he articulates a clear view of the ill effects of colonial rule. He also revisits a number of themes addressed in other works, including his objection to the European literature surrounding Africa, notably Joseph Conrad’s ungenerous Heart of Darkness, and his championing of African writers such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Cheikh Hamidou Kane (“Conrad portrays a void; Hamidou Kane celebrates a human presence and a heroic if doomed struggle”). For every supposed primitive sensibility and quaint superstition to be found in Africa, Achebe observes, there’s a counterpart in America and Europe—reason enough to shed ethnocentrism and open one’s eyes.

Humane and carefully argued responses to events of recent years, coupled with a long look back at the African past.

Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-307-27255-3

Page Count: 208

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THERE WAS A COUNTRY
by Chinua Achebe

- BOOK REVIEW
HOW THE LEOPARD GOT HIS CLAWS
by Chinua Achebe John Iroaganachi & illustrated by Mary GrandPré

- BOOK REVIEW
HOME AND EXILE
by Chinua Achebe

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.