The Second Life of Samuel Tyne by Esi Edugyan (thoughts)

Oh you guys. This book had so, so much potential. The first hundred pages, I was in love. There was an old ramshackle house in a tiny farming town in the middle of nowhere, Canada. There were creepy twin children. There was a man trying to reinvent himself while his family was stuck going along for the ride. My internal reading soundtrack sounded like this: “squee! squee! squeeeee!”. And then, it all just kind of fell apart. I think Edugyan was trying to do too much, cram too many storylines into one book: rather than have the insular town & (black) Samuel Tyne and his family’s attempts to gain a foothold serve as a backdrop to the creepy twins plotline (which is what I expected to see), the focus just moves back and forth, to the detriment of everything. A lot of points are just dropped along the way, and I became progressively less and less interested as I kept reading. By the time I got to the epilogue (which, let’s be honest, usually an epilogue brings a novel down), I was just frustrated. And then the epilogue was so bad, skipping over a couple of decades with an odd mix of general information and specific scenes, that I just cringed.

Now, all of that being said, this was a debut novel, and I fully intend to read Edugyan’s future work (her second, Half Blood Blues, comes out here next May; it already won a prestigious Canadian award). She writes wonderful, vivid characters, and her prose is lovely. It has a hint of fairy tale to it, which makes it a pleasure to read. She also has a flair for making everyday things into unsettling events, and I would love it if one day she turns her hand to psychological horror, a la Shirley Jackson or Helen Oyeyemi.

I read this as part of Kinna’s Ghana Lit Week (Samuel Tyne and his wife are both immigrants from Ghana to Canada; I believe Edugyan is Ghanian-Canadian, but her biography doesn’t specify), and as such I’m devoting the Suggested Companion Reads section to some excellent Ghana authors I’ve read in the past. :) I highly suggest you add some Ghana books to your own reading, and I’m sure my wishlist will grow as a visit all of the participants this week. I already have five Ghanian books on there!

Suggested Companion Reads

• In My Father’s House by Kwame Anthony Appiah (I haven’t blogged this one, but it’s an excellent essay collection on Africa and literature, with an emphasis on identity and postcolonial issues. Highly recommended!)
• Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Ayikwei Parkes (A wonderful little mystery)
• Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartery (Quartery is Ghana-American, and this is the first in a mystery series. It’s more Westernised than the Parkes.)
• Changes: A Love Story by Ama Ata Aidoo (Another one I haven’t blogged yet, this is a fascinating look at the lives-and loves-of middle class Ghanian women. Rebecca just posted about it.)