A memoir that is more companion than sequel to Ake (1982), by
Nigerian Nobel Laureate (1986) Soyinka. It is as much an
affectionate evocation of his father, Essay, who died while Soyinka
was in political exile, as of a way of life now past. With
acknowledgments to writer John Mortimer, from whom he borrowed the
subtitle, Soyinka has written not a chronologically accurate
account, but rather an interpretative collection of vignettes. Each
section highlights either a particular friend or significant
incident in his father's life. His father belonged to that
generation that formed a link between the traditional and
non-Christian past - though his parents were Christian - and
Soyinka's own more Westernized generation, many of whom were
educated or at least widely travelled. Each New Year, Soyinka's
father and friends - who have moved to cities where there was work
- returned to Isara, their native village, to celebrate, and to
catch up with gossip and family members. Friends like the truck
driver Wemuja, who had accompanied Essay to the Teacher's College
on his first journey away from home; the irrepressible entrepreneur
Sipe; and the punctiliously correct pharmacist Obese would get
together to reminisce - as well as sometimes to intervene in local
affairs by making their man, a more progressive candidate, king of
Isara. And giving a connecting structure - which in turn suggests
the outside world and all its apparent glamour, for which Essay
yearned - is his correspondence with an American teacher and
intrepid traveler from the evocative-sounding town of Ashtabula.
More complex and reaching in structure than Ake, and at times
confusing in its plethora of names and events, this is nonetheless
a touching portrait of a man of principle, great loyalty, and love,
who longs for greatness and wide experience but is wise enough to
recognize what blessings he does have. A loving and insightful
tribute from a famous son. (Kirkus Reviews)
Two years after writing his celebrated childhood autobiography Ake,
Wole Soyinka opened a tin box that had belonged to his father. The
simple contents of this box provide the fuel for Isara the second
instalment of Soyinka's memoirs.
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