African NovellasAfrican Writers SeriesBook reviewCote d'IvoireFictionTranslated Francophone African literatureVéronique Tadjo
Book Review: Véronique Tadjo's "As The Crow Flies" (Translated by Wangũi wa Goro)
"If you want to love
Do so
To the ends of the earth
With no shortcuts
Do so
As the crow flies
Indeed I too would have loved to write one of those serene stories with a beginning and an end. As you know only too well, it is never like that, though. Lives mingle, people tame one another and part. Destinies are lost"
And so it begins. Published in French in 1986 as A vol d'osieau and translated into English by Wangũi wa Goro in 2001, As The Crow Flies includes 92 vignettes. It doesn't tell one story, but many stories and like a crow, the book swoops in at different times and places in random individual lives, only for a brief moment, to capture some aspect of their lives and particularly loves. But we don't know their names, or really who they are.
There is one common story though, which comes and goes throughout - that of a woman in love, who had an affair with a married man whose wife then found out. He is no longer in her life and she is dealing with that love loss. Other than that, there are various stories told in the first, second and third person, which I felt was also in some way about love - love for someone, love for a country, love for a city, the presence or absence of love. It took me some time to get into it, and also to get into the pattern of what was going on. And as there was the one story of the woman who had the affair, it also took me a while to figure out when a new character came in and if it was her, or someone else.
I read this a couple of weeks ago and I'm still trying to decide how I feel about it. It wasn't a bad book, far from it, but I do think with As The Crow Flies you might either get it or not, and you might either love it or not. It's also quite random, and if you're expecting structure, there isn't much of that in this. And I am torn, because while I (think) I might have got it, and actually appreciated the randomness of it, I am not sure that I loved it. Which is also why I feel I need a second reading.
So I still have very mixed feelings towards As the Crow Flies and would really love to know what others who might have read this think of it, and also if I've actually understood this book properly.
3.75 out of 5
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