Graceland
(German)
Published in 2004
by C. H. Beck
 |
The sprawling, swampy,
cacophonous city of Lagos, Nigeria, provides the backdrop to the story
of Elvis, a teenage Elvis impersonator hoping to make his way out
of the ghetto. Broke, beset by floods, and beatings by his alcoholic
father, and with no job opportunities in sight, Elvis is tempted by
a life of crime. Thus begins his odyssey into the dangerous underworld
of Lagos, guided by his friend Redemption and accompanied by a restless
hybrid of voices including The King of Beggars, Sunday, Innocent and
Comfort. Young Elvis, drenched in reggae and jazz, and besotted with
American film heroes and images, must find his way to a GraceLand
of his own. Nuanced, lyrical, and pitch perfect, Abani has created
a remarkable story of a son and his father, and an examination of
postcolonial Nigeria where the trappings of American culture reign
supreme.
"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
"To say that this is a Nigerian or African novel is to miss
the point. This absolutely beautiful work of fiction is about complex
and 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
Erasure: A Novel
"Graceland is a painful look at an urban culture seemingly
always on the verge of complete societal breakdown. Chris Abani's
riveting novel 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 Transcircularity, Miles: The Autobiograpy and Miles and
Me.
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 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. |
