Customer Reviews

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A few months ago, I stumbled upon the uncorrected (limited publication) of this book. Rarely do I read a book a second time; in this case I did when the final copy came out. I loved it. The second time was even better.

It is an exceptional, beautifully crafted Novel. Unforgettable novel.

This story is written very well the characters are so vivid and lovable all with human flaws and strengths, which make them very real. They live within us with unfulfilled dreams and hopes.

The author has done an excellent job to keep the story going keeping you in suspense and wanting to know what happen to the characters.

I found it charming, delightful, sometimes funny, and always intriguing I couldn't put it down.

A book every immigrant can relate to. It is one of the best books I read in the last few years. A must read to people that appreciate quality literature.

Dinaw Mengestu's talent as a storyteller is shown in this first novel. I look forward and hope to read more from him in the future.

The central character and narrator of this melancholy novel, Sepha, is a 30-something Ethiopian immigrant, living in Washington, DC, in a run-down neighborhood that is suddenly showing signs of gentrification. After 17 years in the States, he has long since reached the point of accepting his fate - an endless exile from the country of his birth and the mother and younger brother who survived the revolution that he himself escaped at the age of 19. A shopkeeper now, operating a little market, he lacks the drive that makes model immigrants of others and thus barely makes ends meet - less than barely.

Except for two friends, Ken and Joe, also African immigrants, he leads a lonely and listless life. By contrast, Ken an engineer from Kenya, strives steadily to adapt himself to the American pursuit of material success; Joe, a waiter in a high-class restaurant, is a closet epic poet, obsessed with the political debacle of his own country, Congo. The friendship of these three single men is poignant and often quietly amusing, and they pass the time with ironic reminders of how their lives in America have been like an escape from Dante's hell (the title is a reference to the closing lines of "The Inferno").

Enter a well-off white woman, an academic with a school-age daughter. When she buys and renovates a house in the neighborhood, she sparks a feint romantic interest in Sepha, as well as the resentment of the welfare-check neighbors being evicted as rents suddenly begin to soar. The resulting events make for a wistful account of people traumatized by brutal political upheavals, and washing up in the land of freedom and opportunity, where lives settle into a kind of permanent holding pattern. Beautifully written, with a quiet charm that finds rueful laughter in sadness and loss. Readers may also appreciate Hisham Matar's "In the Country of Men."

It is rare that I finish a book, only to begin to read it over again the next day. That's what happened when I finished Dinaw Mengestu's first novel, The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears.

Mengestu's writing allowed me to visualize nearly every scene and get to know several of the characters in the novel as if I'd been their friend for years. I could picture Judith's house and Sepha's store. My heart went out to Sepha's Uncle Berhane, who spent years writing letters about his country to congressmen and presidents, and saving copies of his correspondence.

His writing is not forced nor flowery nor full of words an average reader needs to look up in a dictionary. His writing is conversational and accessible, yet he tells a powerful story with those words.

See also my review of Mengestu's second novel, How to Read the Air.

This is a wonderful debut novel, expertly crafted and beautifully written. It is the story of Stepha Stephanos, an immigrant from Ethiopia now a small-time shopkeeper in Washington, D.C., as he comes to terms with his past and the death of his father in Africa, his life as an immigrant and what he has become, living and working in the run down Logan Circle neighborhood, and the love that might have been but never will be. Together with his two African friends, one from Kenya and one from the Congo, we look through the eyes of Africans in America and how they try to make sense of their chaotic homeland. I am not African, but I work in Washington and found many observations about this city that are dead on. Mengestu has written a book with a little something for everyone, about living the small life in a great city (though it's set in Washington, there is not one politician or lawyer in the book), about young people trying to make lives of their own and make sense of family history, about finding love in the most unexpected place and knowing that it will never work out. Oh yes, and about being an immigrant.

In his debut novel, The Beautiful Things Heaven Bears, Dinaw Mengestu tells a compelling story of immigration, loss, and gentrification set in an impoverished neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Sepha Stefanos immigrated from Ethiopia seventeen years ago, a journey that saw him fleeing Addis Ababa at age sixteen, the day after his father was taken from the family home and summarily killed. Stefanos' journey took him to Kenya and eventually to his uncle Berhane's home in Maryland, an apartment building where other Ethiopian immigrants live. After working for a few years and attending a year of college, Stefanos acquires a piece of the American dream when he opens a general store in the Logan Circle neighborhood of D.C.

It is in this store that Stephanos, along with two other African immigrants, Ken from Kenya and Joseph from the Congo, now Zaire, recall their days in the Motherland. They talk about American life, the American dream, test each other on African revolutions and wax philosophically on their place in the construct of U.S. history. Joseph, a waiter at an upscale D.C. restaurant frequented by elite government officials, came from an affluent business family and saw his family torn apart and separated by a coup and a corrupt government. Ken's family lived in poverty; yet he eventually came to the U.S., obtained a college education and became an engineer. Stephanos' father was an attorney accused of rebelling against the new government-his death weighs on Stephanos who is burdened with grief and guilt. These three men are adrift on the American landscape like fractured driftwood on the seashore. Ken is a workaholic, mimicking the successful men he works with; Joseph drinks the leftover wine of his customers, constantly in a drunken stupor while composing his historical poetry and Stephanos remains in a state of suspended existence, viewing each day as just getting through it. The three talk longingly of going home, praising their respective countries one minute and cursing it the next. Ken admonishes them. 'You can't go back, though. You would rather miss it comfortably from here instead of hating it every day from there.'

Logan Circle is changing as the faces become paler and new homes are constructed; this is where Judith, a former professor and her bi-racial daughter, Naomi, enter into Stephanos' life when they move next door to him. He is enchanted with Naomi's precocious ways and the mysterious air of Judith. For a man who is a loner, occasionally picking up a neighborhood prostitute, he finds himself dreaming of the three of them as a family. But grandiose dreams are an illusion along with the hope that his store will prosper from the newcomers who have affluence written all over them. Will he be able to hold onto his slice of American pie?

Mengestu gives readers an inside look at the hardships as well as the mental and emotional storms that immigrants suffer. They are black, yet different from African Americans in the U.S. in so many ways, trying to navigate the terrain of American life. While the story moved slowly and at times with little conflict, the details of Stephanos' life were revealed, layer by layer, as if peeling a grape to get to the pulp of the story. The title, taken from Dante's Inferno, is fitting as the language and imagery paint a picture of Heaven, Hell and Paradise. Mengestu read from his novel at Marcus Book Store in Oakland (there is a sizable Ethiopian population in the Oakland/Berkeley area) this past March to a mesmerized audience. Recommended for those who enjoy reading of immigrants' experiences in a literary format.

Reviewed by Dera Williams

APOOO BookClub

Mengestu's debut novel brings to life the American immigrant experience in a touching way. The novel is about an Ethiopian immigrant, Sepha, and his experiences in the Washington DC area over a seven month period in the 1970s. Mengestu captures the hopes and dreams, as well as the struggles and disappointment, of those coming to this country for a better life than in their native land.

Sepha owns a small neighborhood grocey story around Logan Circle, a community underground gentrification. We see his hopes for a more prosperous and successful business grow as work crews start renovating local buildings. Most notably, Sepha decides to start selling sandwiches and buys fresh deli meats and promotes this to what he hopes will be his new clientele.

The two dimensions of this book I found so rewarding are the interplay and relationships of the various characters with Sepha as well as the ups and downs of Sepha's experience representing the broader ebb and flow of immigrant experience.

Judith, a single white academic restores a four story brick neighborhood in the building and moves in with her wiser-than-her years 11 year old Naomi. The depth of Naomi's character was wonderful -- a somewhat sassy, precocious but sweet girl. We see Naomi take to Sepha and a deep bond created between the two of them -- Sepha becomes a father/older brother figure to her. Especially poignant was the joy and fun they had reading of the Brothers Karamazov together in the store.

At the same time Sepha begins to fall for Judith and we see the impact that race and language has on their relationship. Once again, the hope of a bright future gives way to the dim reality of the struggle most first generation immigrants face.

Mengestu ultimately crafts a very satisfying and enjoyable read. It brings smiles and laughter to the reader as well sadness and disappointment -- working both at the character level but at the broader level of immigrant experience. Mengestu is a young author that you'll want to keep your eye out for in the future.

I am glad to have found an Ethiopian-American " Jhumpa Lahiri". Who can convey and bring to light our African immigrant experience through his words. I hope Dinaw will continue to write, help us explore and make sense of our two world existence.

As an Ethiopian immigrant, my incredible journey, has taken me between the main character Sepha's & Kenneth's experiences. In addition, I and many other immigrants struggling through a sense of freedom, duty, and lack of connection.

More importantly though, I constantly wonder and worry how my first generation American born children will be impacted by my experience, their own view of these two worlds, and the reality of every day life around them.

I believe writers like Dinaw will build the bridge for the new generation. This book will be treasured in my family for many years to come.

What a great first novel! I could relate to his characters myself. Having being born in Addis Ababa, and immigrated to the United States, it was great to hear a common voice whom I can share with the alienation, the hopes, the desire to belonging. What a fantastic story to described all these deep feelings in a novel. Can't wait to read his next book!!!!!

What a wonderful first novel for this young writer! I was hooked from the first page of this tender yet funny novel. All the characters are believable. I found the relationship between Sepha and Naomi to be especially touching. Sometimes our dreams do not come true, but if they do, they can look harsh in the cold light of day.

I admit right off to having problems staying engaged in this story. This novel is written in a beautiful style, but I just had a hard time relating to the narrator. I felt I really never got to know him. I recently read Cutting for Stone, and I loved that story, and immediately was happy about the Ethiopian connection in this book. But the relationships and the story just fell short for me.

Sepha is an Ethiopian immigrant who is given the gift of escaping a bloody regime that murdered his father in Addis Ababa. He now resides in a small apartment in a run down part of Washington DC. His dream of becoming a successful shop keeper (and by default, part of a community) is thwarted by his own indifference and homesickness. He dwells on the past and lives a quiet life, until he meets his new neighbor Judith, and her daughter, Naomi.

Sepha has friends and acquaintances who care for him. But his true connection comes with the intellectual and mysterious Judith and her precocious 11 year old daughter, Naomi. He is temporarily brought to life by these women. His connections to his African past, his friends Kenneth and Joseph seem to depress him and unwittingly taunt him.

This novel is not a happy one, in my opinion,. It is filled with disappointment and grief. Much has been lost by so many in this book, especially the main character of course. Perhaps the connection to Dante is that he and his neighbors on Logan Circle (as in circle of hell, of course) are trapped in their own kind of hell, like Dante's, and the book seems to end appropriately. this isn't a long novel, and the writing is superb, but it was a painful, sad read.