GraceLand

"GraceLand teems with incident, from the seedy crime dens of Maroko to the family melodramas of the Oke clan. But throughout the novel's action, Abani—an accomplished poet who published his own first novel at Elvis's tender age of 16—keeps the reader's gaze fixed firmly on the detailed and contradictory cast of everyday Nigerian life. He shows how decades of authoritarian political rule breed indifference, and indeed weary fatalism, in the face of corruption and political terror, even while symbols of resistance such as the King of the Beggars become cultural heroes . . . Energetic and moving . . . Abani [is] a fluid, closely observant writer."—Chris Lehmann, The Washington Post

"GraceLand amply demonstrates that Abani has the energy, ambition, and compassion to create a novel that delineates and illuminates a complicated, dynamic, deeply fractured society."—Merle Rubin, Los Angeles Times

"Abani's Lagos is such an extraordinary place . . . This book works brilliantly in two ways. As a convincing and unpatronizing record of life in a poor Nigerian slum, and as a frighteningly honest insight into a world skewed by casual violence, it's wonderful . . . And for all the horrors, there are sweet scenes in GraceLand too, and they're a thousand times better for being entirely unsentimental . . . Original [and] worthwhile."—Sophie Harrison, The New York Times Book Review

 

"Abani is a skillful descriptive writer . . . GraceLand draws a searing picture of a country devouring its own children. What you learn about Nigeria will make you want to weep."—Dinaw Mengestu, The New Leader

"Powerful . . . A lyrical and terrifying glimpse of a place saturated in American icons and pop culture, but entirely unlike America."—Michelle Chihara, Mother Jones

"[A] vivid, original portrayal of life in Lagos, Nigeria . . . Compelling, troubling, and delightful. Its language, though exotic, is always credible and often enthralling . . . Abani's intensely visual style—and his sense of humor—convert the stuff of hopelessness into the stuff of hope."—Carlo Wolff, San Francisco Chronicle

"An invaluable document from a [writer] whose continued development will be a pleasure to witness."—Gregory Miller, The San Diego Union-Tribune

"A wonderfully vivid evocation of a youth coming of age in a country unmoored from its old virtues . . . As for the talented Chris Abani . . . his imaginary Elvis is easily as memorable as the original."—Dan Cryer, Newsday

"[Abani's novel is] deeply concerned with how Western colonialism transformed Africa in ways both major and minor . . . Abani masterfully gives us a young man who is simultaneously brave, heartless, bright, foolish, lustful, and sadly resigned to fate. In short, a perfectly drawn adolescent . . . Abani's ear for dialogue and eye for observation lend a lyrical air . . . In depicting how deeply external politics can affect internal thinking, GraceLand announces itself as a worthy heir to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Like that classic of Nigerian literature, it gives a multifaceted, human face to a culture struggling to find its own identity while living with somebody else's."—Mark Athitakis, The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis)

"Chris Abani's Graceland is a richly detailed, poignant, and utterly fascinating look into another culture and how it is cross-pollinated by our own. It brings to mind the work of Ha Jin in its power and revelation of the new."—T. Coraghessan Boyle, author of Drop City

"Graceland is a grotesque, painfully hilarious look at the dark underground world of Lagos, Nigeria, and it brings back vivid memories of an urban culture seemingly always on the verge of a complete societal breakdown. Abani's riveting novel is an unrelenting focus on blight, squalor, savagery, and violence. It is a superbly written, structurally fascinating work and I found myself captivated by the hilarity of some of the scenes, often as I found myself on the verge of tears. It is a stunning debut by an immensely talented writer."—Quincy Troupe, author of Transcircularities and Miles and Me

"To say that this is a Nigerian or African novel is to miss the point. This absolutely beautiful work of fiction is about complex strained political structures, the irony of the West being a measure of civilization, and the tricky business of being a son. Abani's language is beautiful and his story is important."—Percival Everett, author of Erasure

"This is a new kind of book. We will look back on its publication as a watershed moment in the history of postcolonial literature. It is, as the best of such novels are, hybrid, monstrous, exilic, an indictment of the global terrorism of capital, yet it is also something we have not seen before. In Elvis we meet an African man who suffers incandescently, who watches others suffer more, yet emerges not as another figure of tragic masculinity, but as that rarest of creatures, a hero. This is Chris Abani's gift, to transmute the harrowing into the transcendent. Believe it: Elvis is redemption."—Wendy Belcher, author of Honey from the Lion: An African Journey

"Poet Abani sets his vivid coming-of-age novel in crumbling, postcolonial Nigeria . . . Abani chronicles this rapid decline of Nigerian culture in general and the Oke family in particular, jumping back and forth from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. Each chapter is prefaced with an excerpt from a tattered notebook that once belonged to Elvis's mother, filled with traditional Nigerian recipes and herbal preparations. A former political prisoner in Nigeria, Abani contrasts the contemplative world of the notebook with chaotic street scenes showing the triumph of Western music, film, and fashion over traditional culture . . . A fresh take on postcolonialism."—Library Journal

"A Nigerian-born poet and first-novelist limns a teenage boy struggling for direction in Lagos under the heel of a brutal military dictatorship. Elvis Oke is 16, saddled with an alcoholic father, a hostile stepmother, and fading memories of his dead mother, who named him for her favorite American singer and whose tattered journal is his only connection to happier days in the Nigerian countryside. Abani weaves the journal's recipes and tribal lore together with Elvis's memories of his early years to provide background for the main action during 1983. The Okes are Igbo, 'one of nearly 300 indigenous people in this populous country,' the narration informs us . . . Elvis's father, Sunday, ran for elected office in a hopeful period between juntas, but he didn't have enough money to compete in Nigeria's hopelessly corrupt system, the army seized power again, and now Sunday is drunk and jobless in Lagos, while his son wonders what kind of life he can fashion for himself in this desperate land. Sensitive and bookish, Elvis tries to make a living as a Presley impersonator, dancing and singing for handouts from tourists, but he's tempted by his friend Redemption to make quick cash ferrying drugs and other contraband for the sinister Colonel, nastiest of the corrupt, vicious soldiers whose arbitrary whims rule the lives of ordinary people in Nigeria. A horrific lynching scene shows the mob to be as savage as the military—'How long can we use the excuse of poverty?' Elvis asks—and Abani paints a compelling portrait of a society in frightening chaos . . . Worth reading for its searing depiction of modern Africa."—Kirkus Reviews

 

"Abani's debut novel offers a searing chronicle of a young man's coming of age in Nigeria during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The vulnerable, wide-eyed protagonist is Elvis Oke, a young Nigerian with a penchant for dancing and impersonating the American rock-and-roll singer he is named after. The story alternates between Elvis's early years in the 1970s, when his mother dies of cancer and leaves him with a disapproving father, and his life as a teenager in the Lago ghetto, a place one character calls 'a pus-ridden eyesore on de face of de nation's capital.' Relating how an innocent child grows into a hardened young man, the novel also gives a glimpse into a world foreign to most readers—a brutal Third World country permeated by the excesses and wonders of American popular culture. Sprinkled throughout the book are recipes and entries from Elvis's mother's journal, as well as descriptions of the kola nut ceremony through which an Igbo boy becomes a man . . . In this book, names are destiny, 'selected with care by your family and given to you as a talisman.' One of Elvis's friends is named Redemption, but in the end it is Elvis who claims this moniker, both literally and symbolically."—Publishers Weekly

 

"Elvis Oke, a teenage Elvis impersonator in Lagos, Nigeria, attempts to come of age in spite of an alcoholic father who beats him and a soul-crushing ghetto environment that threatens to engulf him. Beset by floods, vermin, and the ubiquitous Colonel, chief of military security in Lagos, Elvis lives from day to day, saturated by a bizarrely out-of-date, misunderstood version of American pop culture and remembering his life in the country before his mother died and his father lost his career. Immigration to the U.S. is Elvis' dream, shared by his underworld friend, Redemption, although their notion of America comes mainly from untranslated, decades-old movies, all of which are interpreted only in terms of the conflict of John Wayne (all good guys) and Actor (everyone else). The novel offers a vibrant picture of an alien yet somehow parallel culture . . . The mix of surrealistic horror and cross-cultural humor is irresistible. Abani is a first novelist with a very bright future."—Bill Ott, Booklist