Afterlives

 

Author: Abdulrazak Gurnah

Genre: historical fiction

Number of pages: 275

First published: 2020

Setting: colonial Tanzania in the early 20^th century

Rating: 4 stars

First sentence: Khalifa was twenty-six years old when he met the merchant Amur Biashara.

One sentence comment: The book offers a rarely explored history of the relationship between Germany and its colony, Tanzania (German East Africa).

 

Afterlives, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, is, in my opinion, significant more for its historical value than its literary merit. While the prose is concise and often subdued, and the plot is neither overtly dramatic nor broadly appealing, the book is a vital addition to African literature following foundational works like Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.

 

The narrative highlights the critical role of German literacy for its African protagonists. Both Ilyas and Hamza are German speakers, a skill they acquire through favorable, if complicated, connections with German officers who showed them compassion. Similarly, the female protagonist, Afiya, benefits from her brother Ilyas's education, allowing her to read and write. This pattern continues with her son, also named Ilyas, whose German literacy enables him to travel to Germany to investigate his uncle's fate. These specific arrangements in the novel strongly suggest that, within the colonial context, only those who master the colonizer's language and literacy are ultimately positioned to narrate and preserve their own stories, ensuring their history is passed on. This appears to be a deliberate and accurate portrayal of the historical power dynamic.

 

I have wondered about the title: Why Afterlives? Perhaps it suggests that the survival skills acquired from the colonizer—such as speaking German and accessing elements of Western civilization like medical care—represent a kind of new, separate life. However, even with these adaptations, the characters remain profoundly restricted by their identity, haunted by the enduring ghosts of the colonial past.

 

This idea resonates deeply with Taiwan’s own post-colonial history. Following periods of European and Japanese rule, the island benefited from exposure to Western influences like modern construction and religious belief, which helped transform the tropical environment into a safer place (early Japanese colonizers, for instance, suffered more from disease than from indigenous resistance). After Japan’s surrender in World War II, Taiwan found itself protected by the United States. Crucially, this relationship led to many Taiwanese elites receiving US-based education. This educational exchange directly fueled the growth of the local chip industry, which has since become Taiwan's greatest asset for asserting its international identity and democratic strength among Chinese speakers. This history shows that Taiwan, while independent, remains deeply shaped by a specific kind of external, or "post-colonial," American influence—an arrangement made even more visible by its ongoing reliance on US protection against China's territorial claims.

Doctor Sleep

 

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Horror

Number of pages: 640

First published: 2013

Setting: New Hampshire

Rating: 4 stars

First sentence: On the second day of December in a year when a Georgia peanut farmer was doing business in the White House, one of Colorado’s great resort hotels burned to the ground.

One sentence comment: It’s a follow-up work that showcases the author's artistic growth.

 

Last year, after being so moved by the plight of the family in The Shining, I wanted to read the sequel, Doctor Sleep. At first, it was strange to me that the book was published 36 years later, but as I read, I realized I was encountering a different kind of King—one who remained just as compassionate toward troubled characters. He still writes about the lonely, the addicted, and those grappling with their conscience. It became clear that his decision to use an adult Danny as the protagonist wasn't strange at all; he wasn't interested in writing about a jobless father from the 70s, but rather a rootless loner in modern society. The book felt like a true King novel from the 2010s, reminiscent of Revival, published one year before this novel, in its focus on the constant battle between good and evil, a conflict where evil holds an effortless advantage.

The main character of Doctor Sleep is Danny, the son of Jack Torrance from The Shining. As a child, Danny was deeply traumatized, and as an adult, he is still haunted by the past. He tries to numb himself with alcohol and a life of wandering. However, when a young girl with the same "shining" ability, Abra, asks for his help, Danny must finally confront his greatest childhood fear.

In Doctor Sleep, the evil force is a constant, corporeal group, a stark contrast to the individual, occasional phantoms of The Shining. This shift suggests that the destructive forces we face today—such as addiction, depression, and obsession—are not isolated incidents but ever-present dangers that require sustained effort and collective support to overcome. The novel reflects this modern struggle by introducing Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), emphasizing the crucial role of community and the concept of a "found family" in recovery. Haunted by the memory of his petty theft from a mother named Deenie and his failure to help a young boy named Tommy, Dan flees North Carolina for New Hampshire. The memory is a constant reminder of his past selfishness, doing nothing to aid Tommy. In contrast, he had been rescued by an adult friend who heard his call for help. He is deeply in shame. Only by rescuing Abra can he finally atone for this past guilt. This theme highlights the idea that those who have been helped should, in turn, help others in need. Ultimately, the spirit of Doctor Sleep is more socially conscious, shifting from a personal battle with a haunting presence to a broader commentary on mutual aid and resilience in the face of widespread societal challenges.