How Beautiful We Were: A Novel by Imbolo Mbue

How Beautiful We Were: A Novel Reviews

• 
  switterbug/Betsey Van Horn

  It reads like a fable, in a (fictional) village in Africa, Kosawa, where traditional animists in a tight knit community have lived for many generations. The corporate interests of a (fictional) oil corporation, Pexton, has exploited their land and killed its children with surplus toxic waste. Oil spills, gas pipe leaks, and other deadly hazards and chemicals have eradicated half the child population, by slowly poisoning their water. The adults don’t get sick, and they bury their babies and the babies of their friends and family. The population feels helpless in the face of these oil tyrants, and one member is even in cahoots with them. This is the epic story of a people who choose to fight back, in small and, later, activist measures by an unforgettable character named Thula.
  
  Mbue’s writing is lyrical and intimate, and is deeply satisfying to read.
  
  “We had no Sakani for guidance, no one to help us comprehend what we were living through, so we crawled from one day to the next, too weakened to rise. How could we have been so reckless as to dream?Because we carry the blood of men who stood on a land between two rivers and received it from the Spirit?If our forefathers had known of the oil beneath their feet, would they have so gladly bequeathed it to us? They thought we’d never know such degradation, because we carry the blood of the leopard, but if they had seen the extent of our enemies’ powers, their beliefs would have turned to ashes.”
  
  I said it reads like a fable, but the thrust of the story is true, for many in poor or unfortunate African villages, for people who lacked the sophisticated urbanization of first world countries that came to exploit them. But this story isn’t just about being victimized the character of Thula, a bright and courageous woman, will disabuse you of that notion. The story has many layers—about endurance, righteousness, colonialism, revolution, spirit, ancestry, and the love of family. You won’t be dry eyed at the ending!
• 
  Kindle Customer

  A sweeping tale of one village's battle with an American oil company. This book has big ideas and tried to cover a lot of ground. At times it feels like it is trying to cover every aspect of this kind of exploitation and at other times is just glossing over the main story to make room for another tangent. But the main story is good and the writing is sharp enough to mostly cover up these flaws. A big ambitious swing that mostly works.
• 
  ceecee

  Imbolue’s writing is achingly beautiful. She takes her time to really paint the picture of the simple life of the people of Kosawa. The life that they yearned for and wanted to be restored.
  
  I also loved the different points of view as told by Thula, her uncle Bongo, her mother Sahel, her friends, her grandmother Yaya, her brother Juba. Each one of them tried in their own way to find peace; whether it was peace for the community or peace for themselves. Yaya’s chapter resonates the most with me. She was a woman who as a child, heard the stories of slavery; grew up during colonialism and was a mother and grandmother during neocolonialism. She had seen it all. Also, Austin’s point of view resonated with me when he tried to convince Thula to let her mission go, he made some valid points. It was heartbreaking to read how lovers agreed to disagree. Even though Yaya and Austin predicted the ending, Thula could not be stopped because that was her calling.
  
  This book makes me ponder so many things about life. David vs Goliath, life’s futility, the repercussions of consumerism. We all know that at the end we will all die but it’s in how we each choose to live that matters.
• 
  C. D. Elder

  This story describes 40 years of tragedy upon tragedy upon tragedy. Money corrupts at every level, but not all succumb and most of those holdouts get ground into the earth in misery. Yet somehow this bitter parable never descends into mere pathos. The prose is spare and lovely, the voice earthy yet hopeful and uplifting. Each chapter inhabits a person or set of persons, told in a knowing first person, giving the reader insight into characters from different perspectives, a favorite means of storytelling for me. Though the setting is fictional, the novel resonates perfectly with the modern world in which the tale is set. Highly recommended.
• 
  Robert B. Lamm

  I enjoyed Ms. Mbue's first book, 'Behold the Dreamers,' though I thought it was a bit superficial. However, the skill was definitely there, and I was hoping that this, her second book, would be the fulfillment of the talent she clearly has. For two thirds of the book, her talent was on great display, and it was brilliant. One of the brilliant strokes was using different narrators, so that you got to see the setting, the plot, and the characters, particularly the heroine, through different lenses. The narrators included the heroine's family members and an anonymous group referred to as 'The Children,' a kind of Greek chorus that is involved with the story but at a bit of a remove.
  
  However, it is this last group that renders the last third or possibly last quarter of the book flaccid. The Children narrate the last segment dispassionately almost 'then this happened, then that happened.” Since the passion behind the rest of the book is so tangible and so gripping up to this point, the absence of passion deprives the book of the emotional impact it deserves.
  
  Some might say that this is a minor quibble, but for me it just let the air out of the balloon (with apologies for the mixed metaphor) in a way I found very disappointing. It's hard to tell if Ms. Mbue just didn't know how to end the book with the passion that infuses it up to this point, or if there is some other reason, but for me it just seemed flat. Perhaps phrasing it another way is that I wanted to finish this book begging for , but when it ended it just, well, ended.
• 
  Steve

  Certain stories of our time need telling and retelling. This is one of them: a powerful corporation exploits the natural resources of a foreign nation, riding roughshod over a small traditional community ‘in the way’. A bribable, well rewarded, local administration ensures that the project proceeds unhindered. Imbolo weaves her tale around this theme, bringing out the different voices of a village literally dying from pollution and desperately seeking redress. She does well in unpicking the passions and realpolitik of greed and oppression.
  
  Set against this, her lengthy excursions into the biographies of different characters can often be hard going and distracting. Also, the timescale and scope of the book is over ambitious overcrowded with issues, at times stretching plausibility.
• 
  Pelladine

  Initially I enjoyed this book but i nearly gave up on finishing it 3 times. Had it not been a book club book I would have not have finished it. It became repetitive and I felt the story could have been told in a concise manner. Very depressing read and very frustrating ending.
• 
  Hazel MacLennan

  Slow start but once I got into it I couldn't put it down. Narrated from many different aspects so occasionally I had to remind myself who was telling the story.
• 
  Kindle Customer

  What a wonderful book. Each characters voice is beautifully captured. The story is very poignant to what is happening in the world today but yet still is set over 40 years ago. What a brilliant read.
• 
  goodreads Customer

  The story of many African countries. A bittersweet narrative of capitalism versus the people. A good read would recommend.