As the turbulent sixties draw to a close, an inexplicable crime forces two young Americans who are teaching in Africa, and those around them, to confront issues of motivation, culture and belonging.
As the turbulent sixties draw to a close, an inexplicable crime forces two young Americans who are teaching in Africa, and those around them, to confront issues of motivation, culture and belonging.
Colonialism & post-colonialism, Historical, Literary
As the turbulent 1960s draw to a close, an inexplicable crime forces two young Americans who are teaching in Africa, and those around them, to confront issues of motivation, culture and belonging.
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The shocking rape of a Peace Corps volunteer shatters the precarious balance of American idealism and hypocrisy in l969 Swaziland, a newly independent country dealing with its own equally fraught post-colonial issues. Full of fascinating characters in exquisitely described exotic locations, where everyone has their own agenda, the new modernity mixes with native customs and spirits, and expats only think they know what’s really going on. Above all, Wilson’s heartbreaking novel exposes the irony of our country’s continuing desire to benevolently remake the world in one part of the globe while waging war in another and what happens to those trying to make it all work. A tale of identity and the meaning of belonging. The scars we leave behind and the scars we take with us. ~ Rita Dragonette, author of The Fourteenth of September
There is the poetry of quiet to Gary Wilson's storytelling, always there beneath the surface of narration. Quiet masking horror, pain, some manner of fury, longing, the mystery of being. Here, in The Narrow Window, that still solitude of a story's telling seems more looming shadow than mask. Quiet frames the most jarring din of a collision in this intersection. This is still the contemporary term for the realm in which the bearers of cultures meet and, if not outright clash, then attempt to take from the other, yes? Quiet before the intersection of characters arriving from disparate realities to a shared land, surrounded by still another country. Humans bearing intents and notions in purposed conflict between themselves. All mutually seeking to take some unspeakable advantage to get somewhere, something, before they indeed collide and all that is left for them is the quiet lingering afterwards. ~ Bayo Ojikutu, author of 47th Street Black and Free Burning
Wilson's writing is thoughtful, patient, and above all, illuminating. Setting and character converge in highly concentrated light, but it isn't a light by which Wilson forces us to see. Rather, Wilson invites us to consider, in brand new light, the ways in which humans deal with guilt, integrity, fear, duty. The gaps between these elements widen as we read each sentence and fill themselves in with increasing tension. The Narrow Window is a moving work. ~ Paul Luikarft, author of The Museum of Heartache
