Dinaw Mengestu and Akhil Sharma discussed their recent novels at Hay Festival as part of the Africa 39 Project. The project celebrates 39 of the best African writers south of the Sahara under the age of 40. “If I knew then what I know now, I certainly wouldn’t have started,” said Sharma of his novel, ‘Family Life’. It took him twelve-and-a-half years to write, and he spoke of feeling anger and fear towards the book that dominated his life for so long. But for Sharma, success in a novel comes from capturing the complexity and difficulties of his characters. He discerns a narrative becoming fully baked by the juxtaposition of beauty and repulsion in his prose. “The book is full of life and full of joy,” he said. The increasing self-realisation that his characters achieve is more important to Sharma than a happy conclusion. Mengestu similarly discussed the suspended ending in ‘All Our Names’, valuing self-knowledge above resolution: “I’d rather give grace to my characters than happiness”. The two books “couldn’t be more different”, as interviewer Gaby Wood, Head of Books at the Telegraph, told the audience, but they are united by their perspectives of life in America for an immigrant. Asked whether they thought that such a thing as “The Great American Novel” existed, both authors deemed it impossible. For Mengestu, there are too many voices in America for any single narrative to contain them. For Sharma, it’s a case of momentum: “One might be written this year - there isn’t a ‘Golden Age’. Great books are constantly being written. Remove ‘The’ and the emphasis changes, the category broadens.”
Posted on: Sat, 31 May 2014 20:21:30 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015