Product Description

In exile for more than twenty years, Ngugi wa Thiong'o has become one of the most widely read African writers of our time, the power and scope of his work garnering him international attention and praise. His aim in "Wizard of the Crow" is, in his own words, nothing less than 'to sum up Africa of the twentieth century in the context of 2,000 years of world history.' Commencing in 'our times' and set in the 'Free Republic of Aburiria', the novel dramatises with corrosive humour and keenness of observation a battle for control of the souls of the Aburirian people. Fashioning the stories of the powerful and the ordinary into a dazzling mosaic, Ngugi reveals humanity in all its ceaselessly surprising complexity. Informed by richly enigmatic traditional African storytelling, "Wizard of the Crow" is a masterpiece, the crowning achievement in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's career thus far.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #179291 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 784 pages

Scotsman
'It's a book of wonderful purple phases...restless, epic, allusive.' - Tom Adair

Sunday Herald
'huge, comic novel, shimmering, shifting discourse. It is the crowning achievement of an astonishing career.' - Brian Morton

The Herald
"It's an absorbing tale: wry, inventive and often hilarious"

Customer Reviews

A Ruler Among Epics
A modern classic. Sprawling and ambitious, Wizard of the Crow brims with fable and allegory, but never missteps into magical realism. wa Thiong'o's memorable grotesques inhabit a world somewhere between horror and farce, and reflect our own all the better for that.

The intended targets of this astute political satire, from The Ruler to the Global Bank, are obvious. But it is a measure of his accomplishment that they retain the capacity to surprise and intrigue. Passages reminiscent of myth build pace and suspense and the fictional African nation of Aburiria breathes a history that could be, and *is*, that of so many others. There is hope and principle here too in the Movement for the Voice of the People, but it is complex and human, rich and multivalent in a way that elides a great many patronising cliches. Great.

A delicious satire
Aburiria is a fictional country in Africa, ruled by The Ruler, a dictator unlike any other. For his birthday, his cabinet has decided to build a huge tower, tall enough to reach the Heaven, funded by loans from the Global Bank. Of course, not every citizen loves the idea, but all dissenting voices are crushed without mercy - if the international bankers get the idea that Aburiria is unstable, they won't loan the money!

Wizard of the Crow is a delicious satire, filled with outrageous characters. The African story-telling tradition is rich and colourful and Ngugi wa Thiong'o isn't saving words. The book is long and full of magic - magical realism is an excellent label for this book. The competing ministers Machokali and Sikiokuu are hilarious in their antics, yet almost painfully real, not to mention all the corrupt, power-hungry and superstitious businessmen, police and politicians.

I believe most people haven't read any books from African authors. If you wish to educate and entertain yourself, reading Wizard of the Crow is an excellent idea. Even though the book is over 700 pages long, I wouldn't have minded if it had been even longer - it was that good. Only the ending was somewhat flat, perhaps, but making a story this epic end in a satisfying way must be really, really hard. (Review based on the Finnish translation.)

Overlong, yet still interesting. . .
I was really looking forward to reading this novel. Ngugi wa Thiong'o's aim with this sprawling satire was "to sum up Africa of the twentieth century in the context of two thousand years of world history." Though good, I felt that the execution fell a little flat throughout the book.

Set in the fictional African republic of Aburiria, in Wizard of the Crow the author "set out to explore human relationships against the backdrop of a rapidly globalizing world." Thiong'o, naturally, as an exiled Kenyan, has a long history of political activism.

Although a fictional nation, Aburiria is a satirical depiction of African despotism. A grandiose and grotesque Ruler dominates a corrupt and sycophantic cabinet of ministers, surrounded by venal officials and opportunistic businessmen, all jockeying for position. Part fable, part allegory, Wizard of the Crow is a magical realism parody of the political and social corruption rampant in many African countries. As such, the book represents Thiong'o's reflections on both Africa's numerous dysfunctions and, one can only hope, its myriad possibilities.

Weighin in at 766 pages, Wizard of the Crow is a work of titanic proportions. And its principal shortcoming is that the pace is at times atrociously slow. Which, in the end, killed this novel for me. Too many unnecessary POV characters make for an unbearably sluggish rhythm in several portions of this book. Indeed, I came very close to stop reading on more than one occasions. . . Even though some parts are quite interesting, others bored me out of my mind.

Sections of Wizard of the Crow appear to be undisguised attacks aimed at the dictatorship of Kenya's Daniel arap Moi. Which is not surprising, given the fact that the dictator's regime imprisoned the author in the 70s, banned some of his books, and then forced him into exile, first in Europe and then in the USA. I believe that, in order to fully appreciate/understand Wizard of the Crow, one needs to be familiar with world politics. Leftists will doubtless enjoy it more than their Right-wing counterparts, methinks.

Though Thiong'o is on the money more often than not, I did find some of his political "comments" to be a bit narrow on the ideological side. While I agree that international financial forces can be disruptive with their efforts to engender development (something this continent desperately needs), following decades of economic stagnation in so many African countries I found that the way he depicted market forces more than a little overdone. Given the author's past, tyranny and egomania are themes that Thiong'o explores through the Ruler and his entourage of sycophants.

Wizard of the Crow is an ambitious literary endeavor filled with great ideas. The humor, however, is more intellectual than funny. The political commentary is quite heavy-handed at times, yet that doesn't take too much away from the reading experience. It's the snail-slow pace which makes what could have been an excellent read merely a good one.

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