Day 15 – Novel Set Abroad:
Easy choice for me today novel set abroad, I immediately thought of Kinky Gazpacho: Life, Love & Spain by Lori L. Tharps. It’s an autobiography/memoir of Tharps discovery of Spain when she goes to live and study in Salamanca. Eye-opener. Funny. Frustrating. Confusing. Those are a few of the emotions Tharps goes through. It’s written light-heartedly while at the same time being pertinent on issues of race, relationships, culture differences among others. Learning about Spanish culture was very interesting through the eyes of a young African-American girl, who can’t wait to get to a European country where race doesn’t matter. So, she thinks.
“It had been a month and I still felt like I had those first two weeks in Casablanca. Alone, isolated, and uninspired to do anything about it. I hadn’t anticipated feeling culture shock in a Western European country, so it hit me much harder. Most of the other Americans in my program didn’t seem to share my problem….I wanted to change immediately. I wanted to be Spanish for the entire year but didn’t know where to begin. The Spaniards in my classes, who I thought would become my tour guides into la vida española, didn’t even seem to notice me, much less attempt to be my friend.” (Kinky Gazpacho: Life, Love, & Spain, p. 80)
I went with The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives by Lola Shoneyin or as renamed for the US publication, The Secret Lives of the Four Wives. Although I read the original hardcover version, I posted the paperback cover’s image because I think it’s gorgeous. This book is set in Nigeria so it meets today’s theme, but I chose it because it also touches on a topic most Western/American readers don’t experience in our daily lives – Polygamy. This book delivered a witty, suspenseful tale inside the Segi household held together by a tenuous bond among the wives amid Nigerian customs and and examines the struggles inside a (fictitious) polygamous household: http://www.amazon.com/The-Secret-Lives-Four-Wives/dp/0061946389/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1CM9QM8A1J2KDM2FV807
Excellent chose! I thoroughly enjoyed it! Hope she will attempt to write another book. Hardly anybody spoke of this title on Booktube. Good book about an out of the ordinary topic as you pointed out. Lovely edition!