The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa

Reviews

Animated by a lively voice and a spiritual vision, Buoro’s novel . . . unfolds a touching critique of the false promise of Western transcendence. Buoro is a writer of imagination and flair . . . His sentences are mad, boisterous, incantatory—and, in a continent where rhythm is as common as praying, quite singular. The prose on any page could only be his. And Andy Africa is an unforgettable character: an old soul, goofy and generous, who dreams his evanescent dreams while battling his friends’ joshing and his own longings. The challenges facing young people—among them poverty, corruption and the vision of life in Europe and America that social media peddles— are one reason contemporary African literature is rich in coming-of-age stories. For its sheer energy, The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa is among the best. A literary blockbuster . . . A voice that is upbeat, familiar, catchy and breezy as a pop song . . . Storylines are set within Buoro’s vibrant, nuanced representation of Nigeria. He does not exoticise or sanitise Africa for the western gaze. Instead, he presents west Africa’s complexity and contradictions … Buoro commits to representing diversity within Blackness, the way Toni Morrison does. Funny and poignant. Enthrals . . . Punchy . . . The vivid immediacy of Buoro’s prose is transporting . . . There is swagger and humility in Buoro’s writing, which blends the bluster of a teenage boy who knows he’s a “loud smartass” with the diffidence of someone who knows his country is broken . . . When, near the end of the book, Zahrah tells Andy, “You’ve got a huge interesting life ahead of you,” she could be talking about Buoro, whose writing deserves to inspire a generation of superheroes. A heart wrenching coming-of-age story … This debut novel grapples with identity and contemporary African life all through its beautiful prose. A debut from a sharp new voice . . . Stephen Buoro’s first novel is funny, vulgar, and wrenching. A compelling but never boring portrait . . . Written in an obscene, colloquial style reminiscent of Junot Diaz and Sherman Alexie, the novel is funny, raucous, and most devastating. Craft and verve abound in this tragicomic coming-of-age debut fueled by the lapel-grabbing voice of its 15-year-old narrator, Andy . . . Both sweet and sour, it offers a family story, a thwarted romance and a story of friendship . . . A multi-level success, attuned to political and cultural complexity, but bright and breezy reading with it. Hilarious and heartbreaking and full of surprises. A barnstorming, heartbreaking debut . . . Tackling the perils of carving out a unique identity in a world of carnage and confusion, in the shadow of colonialism, this assured, engaging book, will make you fall in love with teenager Andy Aziza, and will undoubtedly make a star of Stephen Buoro. Andy Africa is not your usual coming-of-age story . . . Buoro is a writer who can blend humor and big ideas. Buoro's first novel is bold, honest, and fizzing with energy in its depiction of what it's like to live inside the mind of a 15-year-old boy . . . Buoro, recipient of the Booker Prize Foundation Scholarship, is an exciting new literary voice emphatically carving space for himself. Andy's narration is witty and sharp and ingrained with deep philosophies innocently presented. Buoro captures the essence of ‘trauma laughter,’ interlacing humor with the sorrows of Andy's life and taking both his main character and the reader on an intense journey of self-discovery. This tale demands that readers keep up or get left behind. An irreverent coming-of-age story . . . Buoro deftly blends low-brow humor with sophisticated religious and literary references, elevating this highly anticipated novel to a poignant lament for a country and its children. Andy is a winning narrator, by turns self-deprecating and sardonic and lyrical as well, thanks to [his] poetry, interspersed throughout . . . The title’s crucifixion reference frames Andy as both a Christ figure and a comically self-martyring figure, and Buoro has an assured grasp of religious and coming-of-age themes. A promising debut that upends the typical bildungsroman. A bildungsroman of impressive ambition and depth . . . Unforgettable . . . A novel of ideas and a literary page-turner; an invigorating, tragicomic tale of teenage yearning, love and identity that grips you with its twisting plot and spirited prose. The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa announces the arrival of an exciting new verbal craftsman with a fresh voice . . . [Stephen Buoro's] satirical writing is hilarious and reflection-inducing . . . [writing] texts within the text . . . that leave the reader in awe of the writer’s versatility and prowess. Beautiful, intelligent, and heart-wrenching. A blazing debut — smart, subversive, funny, heartbreaking. I’m already impatient for Buoro’s next book. I fell in love with this novel immediately. It has hilarious energy, a satirical but also wildly ambitious philosophical framework . . . It’s eccentric, profound, timely, specific but it also has global concerns and a really, really brilliant central character. Stephen Buoro’s wonderful The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa is filled with lovable, memorable characters. You’ll meet a young man pining over a fantasy; his fierce mother who tries to shield him as best she can; a friend who confides; and others who just want happiness. This novel is at once funny and heartbreaking. Most importantly, it’s honest. Fascinating; unashamedly, brilliantly intelligent. It grapples with ideas around maths, Afrofuturism, biblical myth . . . profound philosophical stuff, but fundamentally it’s a really playful, pleasurable book about young boy who’s falling madly in love, and has a difficult, intense, loving relationship with his mother. This novel exudes a wonderfully vivid sense of place and leads the reader inside the head of its teenage hero . . . It’s a narrative of depth that also manages to be instantly engaging. Bouncing between humor and tension, Buoro sprinkles the text with gleaming poetry, intercutting the thrilling and at times difficult narrative with ease. His words describe modern Nigeria uncomfortably yet honestly … Remarkable. This charming coming-of-age story . . . oozes conviction from the very first page . . . quite exceptional. Tragically ebullient . . . The ending is one of the most staggering since Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful of Dust. This novel shimmers with the wit and desires of a 15-year-old who doesn’t fully grasp how complex his family and country are and who isn’t yet mature enough to make good decisions. Andy will make you laugh, and then he will break your heart. [The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa] is as much a coming-of-age story for its protagonist as it is a portrait of Nigeria’s grim reality of postcolonial reckoning. The characters . . . glitter off the page fully formed and irresistible. I’m always hoping, when reading fiction, for something audacious and formally interesting and this novel was a refreshing example of that. Expand reviews