Chinelo Okparanta

From a childhood of war, a young Nigerian girl grows up at odds to the religious ideals of her country and family. Leading to a life fraught with sadness and difficulties.
A word of warning that the synopsis on the back of this book of being a 'coming of age' story and about 'young love' is misleading. The young love plotline is treated as a matter-of-fact stepping stone summed up in 25 pages of a 300+ page book and as a flashback. There is more focus and time spent in the book quoting biblical stories and sayings and rhetoric that pushes anti-queer love.
All that being said, I understand the strong sense of religiosity portrayed as Nigeria is a highly religious country and the story itself was well written with a good pacing structure to keep the reader moving despite the heavy content.
It is a beautifully written book, but also incredibly disheartening and ends with a sense of hopelessness. A strong impact to remind others that queer love is something still illegal, highly victimized, and punishable by death in some places.… (meer)

Harry Sylvester Bird is a satire about a young white man who thinks he is transracial (Black). He finds his parents' overt racism to be embarrassing, and when he leaves them for college and starts dating Maryam, a Black woman, he tries to "find himself" as the person he thinks he is.

The book itself is a cringe-fest - if you're not up for that kind of satire, this might not be the one for you. It's very clear early on that Harry is a caricature, and that the reader is not supposed to like him or root for him. Because of this, I can see readers either being quickly fed up with him or, as I did, become unable to look away from the trainwreck happening before them.

Still, Okparanta treads the line of satire well without falling into the trap of making the entire book eyeroll-inducing. Neither the plot nor the characters quite veer into farce territory, and the setting itself is eerily reminiscent of where the United States as a society is now without being over-the-top for comedic effect. I find it can be a delicate balance to make satire feel like a real critique versus satire for satire's sake, and Okparanta's ability to craft character and environment make for a read that is a great example of the genre.

Overall, I think if you know what to expect going in, you'll get more out of the book. The summary blurb might be a little misleading, as it's not as clear that you're getting a cringe-inducing satire here, and a good one at that. However, because of this, I don't think the re-readability is high; it's definitely worth a read, but not enough to make space on an already-full bookshelf (not speaking from experience here at all...).

Thank you to Mariner and NetGalley for providing a copy for review.… (meer)