In the long-anticipated novel from the author of the critically acclaimed Beasts of No Nation, a revelation shared between two privileged teenagers from very different backgrounds sets off a chain of events with devastating consequences. On the surface, Niru leads a charmed life. Raised by two attentive parents in Washington, DC, he's a top student and a track star at his prestigious private high school. Bound for Harvard, his prospects are bright. But Niru has a painful secret: he is queer - an abominable sin to his ...
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In the long-anticipated novel from the author of the critically acclaimed Beasts of No Nation, a revelation shared between two privileged teenagers from very different backgrounds sets off a chain of events with devastating consequences. On the surface, Niru leads a charmed life. Raised by two attentive parents in Washington, DC, he's a top student and a track star at his prestigious private high school. Bound for Harvard, his prospects are bright. But Niru has a painful secret: he is queer - an abominable sin to his conservative Nigerian parents. No one knows except his best friend, Meredith - the one person who seems not to judge him. When his father accidentally finds out, the fallout is brutal and swift. Coping with troubles of her own, however, Meredith finds that she has little left emotionally to offer him. As the two friends struggle to reconcile their desires against the expectations and institutions that seek to define them, they find themselves speeding towards a future more violent and senseless than they can imagine. Neither will escape unscathed. Speak No Evil is a novel about the power of words and self-identification, about who gets to speak and who has the power to speak for other people. (P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
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Uzodinma Iweala, the author of this novel, is a highly gifted individual, a Nigerian who grew up in Washington, D.C., and graduated from Harvard and from Columbia Medical School. Iweala enjoys successful careers as both a physician and a writer. His novel "Speak No Evil" (2018) is set primarily in Washington, D.C. with an important scene in Nigeria. The novel is a "Tale of Two Houses" in that there are two primary characters, and their families, and crucial scenes take place in the homes of each. The homes are within blocks of each other in the fashionable, expensive sections of N.W. Washington, D.C. near Georgetown. The families in both cases are educated, and upper-middle-class to well to do. Niru, 18, is the son of successful Nigerigian immigrants, who attends a prestigious private school, has received early admission to Harvard, and is a track star. His friend, Meredith, 18, is white, attends private school, and is gifted academically. She is the only child of parents who are highly placed in the political and business worlds of Washington, D.C. The novel is recounted in two voices. The first part is in the voice of Niru while the second part is in the voice of Meredith.
The novel is set in the 1980s beginning early in the Reagan presidency. On a cold, snowy day, Meredith comes on sexually to Niru in her home only to have Niru come out to her as gay. Soon Niru's parents find out as well about their son's sexual orientation in a stormy scene. They have conservative Nigerian and Christian sexual mores and take Niru for spiritual counselling to their local pastor and then to a Bishop in Nigeria. Most of the story takes place during the last few months of Niru's and Meredith's senior year as their relationship deteriorates and each tries to move on, prepare for college, and deal with their difficult home situations.
Iweala knows Washington, D.C. well and the book includes many excellent descriptive passages of places in the city, including Georgetown, the 16th and 14th Street corridors, and much more. The book includes the following description of Dupont Circle, a place I know well.
"Dupont Circle is a pulsing beacon of streetlamps orbited by red car lights. Water flows across the lip of its gigantic limestone chalice fountain set in the middle of a large stone bowl. The after-work crowd sits at its edges talking personal lives and politics as they always have, and always will. The rest bow their heads towards smart-phones and tap furiously as they grumble and navigate towards the intersections and Metro entrances."
Unfortunately, most of the book is not on the same level as this beautiful depiction. The novel starts out well but quickly deteriorates. The scenes with the pastors in Washington, D.C. and Nigeria are effective. But the book becomes cluttered in its short scope and polemical. The discussion of a gifted, young gay man moves into a broad social critique of homophobia, misogyny, shortcomings in parenting by power couples, racism, and police brutality. From its small setting of privileged people in upper Washington, D.C. the book gets carried away to global themes. I wasn't convinced. The book loses sight of complexity. There are many possible perspectives on the broad issues discussed in this novel besides those pushed on the reader by the author.
It is always valuable to explore books with cross-cultural perspectives, as this book does in the interplay between the United States and Nigeria. That part of the story in "Speak no Evil" unfortunately quickly gets swallowed up as the author tries to explore more ambitious themes. Although it has some impressive passages, particularly involving descriptions of place, "Speak no Evil" left me disappointed.
