Moses Isegawa
Author of Abyssinian Chronicles
About the Author
Works by Moses Isegawa
Abessinische Chronik : Roman 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Isegawa, Moses
- Other names
- Sey Wava
- Birthdate
- 1963-08-10
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Uganda
Netherlands (naturalized) - Birthplace
- Kampala, Uganda
- Places of residence
- Uganda
Amsterdam, Netherlands - Education
- University of Makerere
- Occupations
- history teacher
author - Short biography
- When I was 15, I decided to become a writer. I had fallen in love with books at six and I believed it was enough to catapult me into a dream world inhabited by the gods of the letters. I marveled at what these people could do with words, the ease with which they thrust me into a rollercoaster of emotion. I wanted to be near them, or have their shadow fall on me as they passed. It helped that I had never met any writer in the flesh, content with their pictures on the blurb page. I ran on the fuel of faith, dismissing any misgivings about my prospects with yet more faith.
In 1990, I left my native Uganda and went to Holland to pursue my dream. I still had no idea what writers ate or how they carried themselves. All I knew was that I wanted to create a world out of words and since I had run short of books to read because of the economic situation obtaining at the time, I had decided to go where I believed were countless books to devour and publishers to send manuscripts. Books I found in plenty, publishers proved rather scarce. I kept plugging away at my manuscript and after four years of labor, I got a publisher. Abyssinian Chronicles introduced me to readers and I could no longer come undone by confrontation with reality. The fact that no big book was expected to come out of Uganda; and that few first novels ever got the kind of publicity mine got. The fact that most writers can’t live off their pen; all those facts came after I had published my book to rave reviews. I had escaped and I was glad I had not become a casualty of reason.
Copyright © 2006 Moses Isegawa. All rights reserved.
Members
Reviews
Abyssinian Chronicles: A Novel (Vintage International) by Moses Isegawa
Good report about the political situation in Uganda. People are pretty realistic. Not black and white but many grey zones. Some of the writing was excellent and then there were some trivial parts.
First published in dutch in 1998 under the title Abessijnse Kronieken, this book soon achieved notority, and a number of translations into several european languages, including this portuguese one, have been printed. Several critics have claimed this novel a landmark in african literature and a book of universal import. Whatever the veredict of time concerning its standing as part of the canon, this is certainly a powerful novel, telling the saga of a Ugandan man (the narrator) and of his family through the last half of the twentieth century. A grand canvas of live in Uganda, but also a mirror of a large part of sub-saharian Africa: a blunt tale of misery, despair, hope and achievement amid a turbulent childhood, a castrating Catholic education, brutal dictatorships, mercyless wars, and the wretch brought about by the AIDS epidemic. Written in a lively style evoking powerful images, one reads quickly and effortlessly through the five hundred plus pages of this absorbing book just to feel sad when it finally ends...… (more)
This is a wonderful book set in Uganda in the 1970's. Fortunately, it doesn't read at all like a historical fiction--thankfully all the routine events covered by the news media are put aside until the end for the most part. This novel features an only partially like-able character, Bat Katanga, who finds himself in a land of opportunity for highly educated managers as the corrupt, ex-guerrillas who have taken over the country need bureaucrats and managers to run the operations of the country. The book follows the protagonist through his journey to become rich or die trying, where he surprisingly finds more love and pain than money. The book does not spend a lot of time on day to day peasant culture, but rather deals with the culture of government in a post-colonial corrupt regime.
The book carries on at a nice pace with a mostly well-thought out cast of characters, and the changes in perspective read well. At times, the writing is a bit disjointed vis a vis the facts, as if there were one or two sentences missing with key events, or the author expected the reader would assume something that's not clear. Finally, the author wraps up the book in the last 30 pages at a much faster pace, almost as if the publisher said, 'hurry up, let's get this done.' It was a shame to suddenly go to the narrator's voice and hear about the fates of many of the characters in an almost epilogue-style when the book was still going on.… (more)
The book carries on at a nice pace with a mostly well-thought out cast of characters, and the changes in perspective read well. At times, the writing is a bit disjointed vis a vis the facts, as if there were one or two sentences missing with key events, or the author expected the reader would assume something that's not clear. Finally, the author wraps up the book in the last 30 pages at a much faster pace, almost as if the publisher said, 'hurry up, let's get this done.' It was a shame to suddenly go to the narrator's voice and hear about the fates of many of the characters in an almost epilogue-style when the book was still going on.… (more)
As much as I loved the first half of this book, the fact that I almost quit reading it several times through the second half after it lost nearly all its steam made me dislike it far more than I should.
After reading The Last King of Scotland not long ago, I thought I'd try a different take on the 70s situation in Uganda. This one focused more on the citizens than it did on the government, specifically a narrator who grew up through the dictatorship and government overthrows.
The book starts off explaining the background information on the narrator's family, including his father and grandfather, in their small village. The first half of the book is almost strictly on the narrator's life and his family. The accounts of his daily life both in the village and in Kampala and the Seminary are both interesting and funny, since the narrator tends to enjoy outsmarting people who he disagrees with.
The government situation doesn't enter into the first part much at all save for when it directly affects the family's life, such as the house his mother and father get in Kampala or his father's position at work.
Once the character leaves the seminary, the second half of the book focuses heavily on the fighting between guerrilla and government soldiers and the effects on the country at large. This part was much less interesting since the narrator was playing very little part in what was going on.
The second half of the book is actually quite difficult to get through because of this. It also doesn't help that the time period for all the events is fairly unclear through the entire novel, as is the age of the narrator. Occasionally the year is brought up, and occasionally Mugezi's age is also mentioned, but it's really hard to tell how much time is passing once he leaves the seminary.
The final "book" was fairly interesting and entertaining once again, when the narrator leaves Uganda and winds up in Amsterdam. It seemed like the storytelling worked best when only dealing with a narrow thread of events and people.
The writing style also got on my nerves sometimes. There are copious, flowery descriptions of everything. At one point, the description of a plane ride and Mugezi's mindset takes up three or four pages.
Even as interested as I was in the history in the book, and as much as I liked the main character and his family, I just could not bring myself to like this book in the end.… (more)
After reading The Last King of Scotland not long ago, I thought I'd try a different take on the 70s situation in Uganda. This one focused more on the citizens than it did on the government, specifically a narrator who grew up through the dictatorship and government overthrows.
The book starts off explaining the background information on the narrator's family, including his father and grandfather, in their small village. The first half of the book is almost strictly on the narrator's life and his family. The accounts of his daily life both in the village and in Kampala and the Seminary are both interesting and funny, since the narrator tends to enjoy outsmarting people who he disagrees with.
The government situation doesn't enter into the first part much at all save for when it directly affects the family's life, such as the house his mother and father get in Kampala or his father's position at work.
Once the character leaves the seminary, the second half of the book focuses heavily on the fighting between guerrilla and government soldiers and the effects on the country at large. This part was much less interesting since the narrator was playing very little part in what was going on.
The second half of the book is actually quite difficult to get through because of this. It also doesn't help that the time period for all the events is fairly unclear through the entire novel, as is the age of the narrator. Occasionally the year is brought up, and occasionally Mugezi's age is also mentioned, but it's really hard to tell how much time is passing once he leaves the seminary.
The final "book" was fairly interesting and entertaining once again, when the narrator leaves Uganda and winds up in Amsterdam. It seemed like the storytelling worked best when only dealing with a narrow thread of events and people.
The writing style also got on my nerves sometimes. There are copious, flowery descriptions of everything. At one point, the description of a plane ride and Mugezi's mindset takes up three or four pages.
Even as interested as I was in the history in the book, and as much as I liked the main character and his family, I just could not bring myself to like this book in the end.… (more)
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- Works
- 7
- Also by
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- Members
- 719
- Popularity
- #35,295
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 14
- ISBNs
- 45
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- Favorited
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