I loved "Becoming Abigail" by Chris Abani, so I went out and got "Graceland" only to be disappointed. While the poetic prose that made Abigail so good are still sprinkled in, the story is just "blah". You never get make a connection with the main character, Elvis. The attempts made at going back and forth between his youth and adulthood are extremely difficult to follow, and the story just lacks a solid purpose with which to hold the reader's interest.
I so wanted this book to be awesome, but I found myself bored with it. Usually when I have free time, reading is my go to activity, but while this was the book I was reading, I avoided it like a teenager does homework.
I so wanted this book to be awesome, but I found myself bored with it. Usually when I have free time, reading is my go to activity, but while this was the book I was reading, I avoided it like a teenager does homework.
I read this quite awhile ago so cannot really remember the details of the story line. In essence, it is about a young boy growing up in Africa and what it is like to live (and struggle to live) there. He ends up helping a drug dealer at some point to make some fast money and the story line is riveting. Chris Abani is an AMAZING author and if you love fine literature, you should definitely consider giving him a chance. He is currently in exile due to death threats from his home country if that gives you any idea of his genious.
