One Day I Will Write About This Place cover art

One Day I Will Write About This Place

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About this listen

Binyavanga Wainaina tumbled through his middle-class Kenyan childhood out of kilter with the world around him. Here he takes us through his chaotic school days, his attempt to study in South Africa, a moving family reunion in Uganda, and his travels around Kenya. The landscape in front of him always claims his main attention, but he also evokes the shifting political scene that unsettles his views on family, tribe, and nationhood.

©2011 Binyavanga Wainaina (P)2012 W F Howes Ltd Art & Literature Authors Africa
All stars
Most relevant
- Great prose from start to finish
- A story of life as a modern day Kenyan
- Gives glimpses of how Kenyans engage with other countries across Africa and the west
- Satire told in a self critical tone
- Fast paced and Witty
- Narrator does mispronounce some native Swahili and Slang words but overall a good performance
- Would recommend this to anyone looking to have a whistle stop tour of Kenyan life, it’s politics and it’s tribal relations in modern times.

An insightful story of life as a Kenyan

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I enjoyed this so much. What an absorbing story, told with such vivid language and wit! Varied, reflective, punchy.

I suppose it can be characterized as a Bildungsroman of the author, from childhood to middle age, always wrapped in the politics and culture of Kenya (and South Africa, and Togo…). You learn a lot along the way.

The narration was brilliant, so transparent and faithful to the book. It almost sounds like an author narrating their own work- enjoying and savouring it as they go.

(I don’t know what the reviewer who gave the book and narration 2 stars was expecting- maybe they are used to nursery tales and literal prose with straight sides and American voices. This book is curved, inviting, memorable, and different.)

Just brilliant

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The language in this book is highly unusual and innovative and at times it works. At times, unfortunately, it sounds like a random mutterings of someone in a trance. The narrative falls apart so badly it completely failed to capture my interest. Finally the narrator sounds like he has a bad sore throat. One to miss.

A worthy but unsuccessful experiment

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