BOOK REVIEW By Christopher Elkington
Once more, it is my great pleasure to review a book by a local author,
published by a local publisher, in the English language.
The author is also a working colleague, but I promise my readers that, as
always, objectivity is my aim.
Looking round the Guardian newsroom while at work on this review, I was
struck by how many writers of published books, both in English and Swahili,
are gathered under this one roof. I will list them.
Wilson Kaigarula, whose first full length, picaresque, English language
novel I reviewed a couple of months go; the doyen of our editors, Pascal
Shija; Jackson Kalindimya, extracts of whose books are sometimes published
in Nipashe; Daniel Mkate, and Lawi Joel, whose most famous(fictional)
relative, Uncle Sibuor, entertains the readers of the Sunday Observer on a
weekly basis. Sometime ago, we could have added Bernard Mapalala to this
list, but he jumped ship, and is no longer on the Guardian staff. My own
name has appeared in several locally published books as editor or
translator, and I am at the moment working on my own book, and very
much hope that sometime in the not too distant future, I will be able to
add my name to this distinguished list.
Let’s now get to the book in hand. I am sometimes struck by the
contrast between a writer’s personality, and his published work. Anthony
Muchoki is a quiet, hardworking, disciplined person. He is also an
extremely monogamous person, who, as far as I know, lives a very dedicated
family life.
However, the very first page of this book of short stories takes you
immediately into a world of extremes. In the very first story, which
provides the book’s title, Professor Four K, you unexpectedly find yourself
in the company of a once distinguished academic, who has ruined his own
life through an obsession with a vampire like woman, who eventually turned
him into a destitute drunk.
His story reminds me of the homily read over some unfortunate people’s
graves: “Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust. If the liquor don’t get you, the
women must.” This, opening story, ends tantalizingly with the derelict
meeting his long lost son. However, we never learn whether the
self-destroyed, alcoholic academic lives long enough to benefit from this
godsend of a relationship.
The very next story, the longest in the book, bearing the deceptively
simple title “The Other Life,” is also one of extreme extremes. In this
case it is extremes of beauty, romantic love, jealousy, obsession, and
eventually death.
The author’s descriptive powers are convincing. In the following passage,
can’t you see the girl in front of your eyes? “She was clad in a silk
blouse, showcasing her choc-a-bloc breasts. They were tender and oval
shaped, piercing the blouse as if ready to erupt like a volcanic mountain.
Her chest radiated power and awe. When walking, her feet seemed as if they
were commanding the earth to her steps. She moved with confident and quick
strides. Looking at her walk, people just gave her way, and she had
penetrating and hypnotic eyes.”
So, this book is a catalogue of extremes, of the brutal, unexpected,
punishing extremes to which some human beings are pushed during their short
lives.
The happy girl, with a place secured at a South African university, whose
house is invaded by violent rapist robbers.
The night watchman who foolishly marries out of his class, and who is
eventually murdered by his unforgiving father in law, who is a cabinet
minister.
Women, who are so in love with money, that they will undertake any
humiliation under the sun, provided there’s a pot of gold on the horizon.
All these high octane stories are written against a cultural background
where the undiscarded belief in witchcraft, that many of our educated
class still include amongst their personal luggage, is always with us, and
where the criminal, and political mafias always seem to be waiting in the
wings.
Is this world of extremes, about which Anthony Muchoki writes, somehow too
much? Do his fantasies of violence, obsession, and tragedy bore us because
they are unbelievable? I would answer this question with a resounding “No.”
We, whether we like it or not, live in a world that is stranger than
fiction. Where a man, accused of stealing a few hundred thousand dollars,
is believed to have traveled round almost the entire country followed by
the security services, some of who wanted to catch him, while others,
members of the same state organs, just wanted to eat some of his money( a
couple of years go).
Where a young man decapitates his own mother because she refuses to give
him part of his father’s inheritance.(a couple of months ago).
Where the house of a well known politician is first surrounded, and then
invaded by a thirty strong gang of thieves and murderers (several years
ago).
Muchoki’s extremes are part of the fabric of our own lives, and you will
enjoy reading about them. This is an exciting, well written, and in some
ways thought provoking book, though I am not sure whether I would recommend
it for bedtime reading.
I am forced to make what is becoming a common book reviewer’s complaint.
There are far too many irritating errors of spelling etc, which could have
been removed by an experienced proof reader. For this, I, maybe
magnanimously, chiefly blame the publisher, but also feel that the author
is partly responsible.
Let me complete this review with a word of advice to the author. Muchoki,
if your writing is good enough to see the light of day in published form,
its also good enough to deserve that last polishing which makes such a
difference.
We look forward to your next book! Don’t forget the proof reader!
TITLE: Professor Four K
PUBLISHER: Mulich Publications
Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Kampala.
PRICE: 3000/-
AVAILABLE AT: Tanzania Publishing House, Samora Avenue, Dar es Salaam.
*the late Christopher Elkington wrote this review in 2005. May God rest his soul in peace.