Thiong'o, Ngugi wa - Helen Hayward (review date 15 March 2002)
Helen Hayward (review date 15 March 2002)
SOURCE: Hayward, Helen. “A New Dispossession.” Times Literary Supplement, no. 5163 (15 March 2002): 25.
[In the following review, Hayward contends that The River Between, A Grain of Wheat, and Petals of Blood are important works for understanding postcolonial African writing, notable for their political nature as well as their emphasis on subtleties within historical events.]
In this trio of roughly chronological novels [The River Between, A Grain of Wheat, and Petals of Blood,], Ngugi wa Thiong'o portrays the disruption of Kikuyu society as a result of the invasive pressure of colonialism; he depicts the struggle against colonial rule that culminated in Kenya's acquisition of independence in 1963, and traces the betrayal, by a corrupt postcolonial state, of the hopes which had been invested in self-government.
The River Between, which...
[The entire page is 789 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
Related Topics
