July 1, 2024
Ngamije (The Eternal Audience of One), cofounder and editor in chief of Doek! Literary Magazine, offers a collection of his award-winning short stories, presented as a literary mixtape. The A-side contains the story of an aspiring writer navigating the world, while the B-side features independent stories that ultimately show the interconnectedness of both parts of the work. Prepub Alert.
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Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
October 1, 2024
A story collection employing a variety of techniques and narrators to draw a picture of Namibian life. Billed as a "literary mixtape," the collection is divided into "A-Side" and "B-Side" tales. "A-Side" follows Rambo, a young artist working (or just as often not) on the writing he hopes will make him known beyond Windhoek, Namibia. As his twenties grind on, he endures a painful breakup and the death of his mother. "B-Side" contains more traditional short stories chronicling the lives of Windhoek's homeless or, in the powerful "Important Terminology for Military-Age Males," revealing the cruelty of a secret white South African unit in the Namibian War of Independence by defining the war's key terms, A (apartheid) through Z (Zulu). Ngamije has a lot of fun, and success, with his unconventional structure. The collection's most moving passage eulogizes the narrator's mother using the form of a shopping list ("DISHWASHING LIQUID: Sunlight or Ajax--she diluted the green ooze in the bottle and made it last longer, the hallmark of an excellent drug dealer"). The B-Sides are more impressive as stories, while the A-Sides have the deftest wordplay, as witness this comment by the second-person narrator about his shopping habits post-breakup: "You shy away from the nursery where she adopted flora to fawn over." However, the overarching narrative struggles to make the toxic behavior of 20-something men compelling. A cup of Junot D�az has been used where just a pinch would have been appropriate (especially in the second-person sections), and male coarseness sometimes becomes literary tastelessness; one story has too many witticisms about domestic violence. But Ngamije's deep attention to technique mostly impresses, even if this coming-of-age story has been told before. The prose shines, but this serious talent deserves better subjects.
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November 1, 2024
Ngamije's rich collection follows characters as they navigate the untidiness of their lives, broken relationships, and elusive desires. Set in Africa, the stories alternate between the "A-side" and "B-side." The A-side consists of loosely connected narratives of a young man's search for purpose, further unmoored by the loss of his mother. In "Little Brother (Or, Three in the Morning)" a phone call unveils the past while quietly capturing a mother's haunting admission. An innocuous trip to a grocery store in the affecting "Crunchy Green Apples (Or, Omo)" opens the floodgates to grief and memory. Other tales explore the complications of love in youth and adulthood--with a rambunctious group of friends often along for the journey. The B-side stories are equally invigorating, with characters surviving or testing their circumstances. "Neighbourhood Watch" follows homeless scavengers as their self-imposed rules propel them through another day. In the nuanced "Granddaughter of the Octopus," one family's history, and survival, is recounted through their spirited matriarch's relationships. The narratives are finely alert to characters' vulnerabilities, pulling differing worlds into poignant focus.
COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
October 28, 2024
Ngamije (The Eternal Audience of One) serves up an occasionally dazzling but ultimately diffuse collection about the woes of a 20-something novelist. It’s framed as a “literary mixtape” and arranged by alternating A-side and B-side stories (the former comprise a linked narrative while the latter each stand alone). The unnamed novelist reflects in “Crunchy Green Apples” on how he grew apart from his mother as he entered into a “tribe called cool.” “The Sage of the Six Paths (Or, The Life and Times of the Five Os)” covers his teen years, as he gets into trouble with his fast-moving and mischievous friend group before finding “another way of being” through literature. In “The Hope, the Prayer, and the Anthem (Or, The Fall So Far),” he considers his elusive dreams for “a modern house,” “a wife,” and an “acclaimed novel.” B-Side tales include “Wicked,” narrated by a woman who feels a “selfish hope” that her married lover won’t leave her. Ngamije turns heads with his clever and energetic wordplay (the novelist’s promiscuous milieu is prone to “souped-up STI Golfs revving from gonorrhea to HIV in sex seconds flat”), but the structure is a bit confusing, leaving readers who remember mix tapes to wonder why the A-side and B-side tracks are alternated, and the conceit feels more gimmicky than essential. Ngamije has done better. Agent: Cecile Barendsma, CBL Agency.