776. Matigari

Matigari
Ngugi wa Thiong'o
1986
Around 160 pages

Rivers of Blood made me want to scrub my brain clean, but this was more...well, enjoyable isn't really the right word. It feels a little weird that the author made such a point to not write in English, and then I read the English translation. Sorry Ngugi.

The story begins with Matigari burying his weapons under a fig tree after killing imperalist Howard Williams. Matigari resolves to handle conflicts peacefully going forward. However he is appalled by the current state of the country, as he thought that after his fight for freedom his people would have better lives. He then decides to dig up his weapons and fight for his country with violence.

Ngugi is a badass, and I'm unsurprised that he ended up having to flee Kenya. The pacing was good. Muriuki, the boy who lives in a wrecked Mercedes so thinks he is better than the other boys who rummage the scrapyard, is a character that is definitely going to stay with me. 

He nails the ending too. It's heavy handed, but effective.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

He subsequently renounced writing in English, and the name James Ngugi as colonialist. By 1970 he had changed his name to Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, and began to write in his native Gikuyu.

UP NEXT: Anagrams by Lorrie Moore