Watson does her best to get this information into the mouth and mind of 12 year old Blessing, but still, when illiterate Grandma starts quoting statistics on FGM,it's a little much. When a writer chooses a twelve yr. old girl to be the narrator I often find problems with the characterization. The setting in Nigeria, in the Deltas area, is one I was not familiar with and now feel I know so much about. A riveting read. Though the main character is young, Tiny Sunbirds Far Away is not written for young readers. Published It really wasn't helped by the introduction from the publishers - "There have been only a few instances in my bookselling career when a novel grabbed hold of my heart from the get-go and held me tight until the last page". But don't let me concentrate on the negative - the book takes you right into the heart of troubled Nigeria, tackles a wide range of big issues without overdoing it (the research is plainly awesome when the author was neither born nor lives there), and there are a number of emotional hits that will draw a tear to the most cynical eye.
The father’s departure starts off a chain of events; first the mother is fired from her job for being unmarried, and now unable to afford living in Lagos, moves to her parent’s rural village in the troubled Niger Delta. Mama, Blessing, and Ezekiel all went to live with Mama's parents near a little village where electricity was rare, the outhouses were swarming with flies, and drinking water had to be bought from the man who controlled the tap in the nearest village.12-year old Blessing is used to living in a nice, modern Nigerian apartment in the Better Life Executive Homes with her mother, father, and brother, Ezikiel. It really wasn't helped by the introduction from the publishers - "There have been only a few instances in my bookselling career when a novel grabbed hold of my heart from the get-go and held me tight until the last page". But the quirky language and intriguing world view of Blessing, the pre-teen narrator, grabbed me from the very beginning. Okay, it's entertaining and the setting is fairly vivid, but otherwise it's just You know when you start reading a book, and you really have nothing good to say about it but for some reason you want to keep going?
It was recommended to me based on past purchases, and really, it does blend in with the types of books I like to read.It is hard to review this book. Suddently there is no running water or electricity and her mother is gone all day to work in a nearby bar. Finally, too much of the book reads like a political tract -- for good causes, of course, anti-female genital mutilation and anti-oil/Nigerian government corruption, violence and exploitation, but still it was disconcerting to read entire passages from the Wikipedia entry on FGM repeated nearly verbatim in the book. Repulsed, horrified, but unable to look away, I kept reading, waiting to see her eventual escape from the misThis is a unique coming-of-age story set in rural Nigeria, a culture completely outside my understanding or even interest. Watson has found a way to put corruption, poverty, youth militia and even genital mutilation into a great story, told wonderfully by twelve year-old Blessing.Toward the end of her stunning debut novel, Christie Watson writes, “Burned-out engines line up, with flowers growing inside of them. Todos los departamentos. When her mother catches her father with another woman, Blessing and her older brother move with their mother from their affluent neighborhood to her mother's childhood village in the Niger Delta. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Oftentimes the dialogue sounds stilted, the actions and thought not believable, but that was not the case here.