LITERARY CRITICISM
What a work! A literary tour de force. This book
encompasses robust intellectual eclectic criticism of major African writers
over the decades.
No writer is spared, no matter their achievements
or corpus of awesome works (only perhaps Wole Soyinka). The peerless Chinua
Achebe does not come out too well, though the critic is only too aware of his
global reputation.
Pearce inter
alia writes: "But this is hardly surprising when one considers the
paucity of his (Achebe's) understanding of the contemporary society he
portrayed...". The great T M Aluko, and many others are criticised in this
vein too.
The towering Ngugi wa Thiong'o? He "...has at
least applied with characteristic thoroughness in his more recent work, with
disastrous results"... and of course Okara's celebrated work, The Voice, is a "disaster "
too. As for Ekwensi's Jagua Nana's
Daughter, which many of us felt was vivid and thrilling, the critic assures
us it is an "unmitigated disaster".
We wince when the exalted critic continually
refers to the "inept prose/writing" or "appalling
style/prose" of Africa's best writers, then he proceeds to quote such
examples from their work. Alas, for we mere mortals such quotes often look
superb and well written!
One would have thought that our critic would laud
Ben Okri, who at barely 20 years old had already published two world class
novels, Flowers and Shadows; and The
landscapes Within. But though Pearce acknowledges the achievement of this
(now) all time great writer, he still does not believe that the works are a
"success", including Okri's The Famished Road, which won the
prestigious Booker Award!
The impression one would finally get probably is
that the critic here expects the very highest of literary standards and enjoys
evaluating the best of African writing even if they always somewhat fall short
as far as he is concerned!
- R. Mokoena
