Nuertey Odzeyem

Character Nuertey Odzeyem

A bildungsroman, narrated from the perspective of a boy--my former self when I wore a younger man's clothes--growing up in a village in Africa and detailing how certain experiences gradually shaped and affected my eventual character. I have tried to craft it in an intimate and immediate sense, and being an avid bibliophile, have also attempted to create something new that would amuse the senses of even minds that might be weighted with past Literature. The sentences in the manuscript have been crafted to be lyrical and in places quite poetic, to deal better with the sense of 'discovery' that pervades the book. The beginnings of the book deals with setting the stage and therefore may come across as 'emotionally heavy'. Have heart, for once the stage is set and the curious mind of the child begins to contend with 'the situation', things really take off and the portraiture becomes quite amusing and very insightful. Also, within the book, I have presented a sense of the cultural mosaic in that place (Africa) and in those times (70's, 80's, early 90's) as well. What is presented is indeed my past experience. But I balk at calling it an autobiography. That is not my intention in narrating this story--to tell about myself; and some of the participants in that happenstance still live too. I merely want to tell an amusing, insightful and hypnotizing story, and the fact that it was lived is secondary--or so I would like to think. I also want to tell the world how I survived it, and if one were in similarly challenging circumstances, how one can transcend it. But my skill is in creating not marketing so I will not belabour this point of how exactly to characterize the work. The work comes just under 120 pages, with approximately 65,000 words, and includes a 10-page glossary of my native language's cultural terms. Also, a bibliography is included.