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A review by archytas
How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This is both beautifully written and thoughtful, intricately designed and emotionally resonant. It is a polished novel with both rage and nuance in its heart. I have found it hard to put down - partly because the design makes you eager to both find out what happens next and better understand what has already happened.
The story of a village, told between 1978 and 2020, give or take a flashback or two, follows a family and their neighbours as they fight, negotiate, sabotage, compromise, give up and persist in a fight to stop the poisoning of their land and their people.
Mbue's characters breathe fire and life, often raging against the situation they find themselves in specific ways, each trying to navigate a path in an impossible situation. "I wish I didn’t detest my husband for dooming me to a life of being solely responsible for a broken girl and a lost boy and an old woman, all of them laying upon my back their anger and grief, with no one to bear mine but me, because it had to be so." … "We tried not to think about our future. We wanted to hold on to that night for as long as we could, savour this optimism that had descended upon us, the faint promise of triumph. We wanted to be overcome with madness like Konga and relish the fleeting ecstasy wrought of fearlessness, anticipating our new lives as conquerors."
This is not a grim read. The characters enjoy life - they suck up knowledge, laugh together on verandas in the early evening, love each other, lust for each other. The power of the book comes as much from the joy that makes the loss meaningful.
And most of all, this is not just the story of a village. Mbue weaves into this one story the story of our world. This one village in Central Africa matters just as little to the giant forces at play as the Amazonians do, or the Yindjibarndi or the Fengduese or the people of Srekor and thousands of other villages displaced by dams, industrial farming, oil, gas, mining and yes, 'eco'tourism. This story of how the village is lost is the story of who we are becoming, and this book is a lament we should not ignore.
The story of a village, told between 1978 and 2020, give or take a flashback or two, follows a family and their neighbours as they fight, negotiate, sabotage, compromise, give up and persist in a fight to stop the poisoning of their land and their people.
Mbue's characters breathe fire and life, often raging against the situation they find themselves in specific ways, each trying to navigate a path in an impossible situation. "I wish I didn’t detest my husband for dooming me to a life of being solely responsible for a broken girl and a lost boy and an old woman, all of them laying upon my back their anger and grief, with no one to bear mine but me, because it had to be so." … "We tried not to think about our future. We wanted to hold on to that night for as long as we could, savour this optimism that had descended upon us, the faint promise of triumph. We wanted to be overcome with madness like Konga and relish the fleeting ecstasy wrought of fearlessness, anticipating our new lives as conquerors."
This is not a grim read. The characters enjoy life - they suck up knowledge, laugh together on verandas in the early evening, love each other, lust for each other. The power of the book comes as much from the joy that makes the loss meaningful.
And most of all, this is not just the story of a village. Mbue weaves into this one story the story of our world. This one village in Central Africa matters just as little to the giant forces at play as the Amazonians do, or the Yindjibarndi or the Fengduese or the people of Srekor and thousands of other villages displaced by dams, industrial farming, oil, gas, mining and yes, 'eco'tourism. This story of how the village is lost is the story of who we are becoming, and this book is a lament we should not ignore.