Becoming Abigail [Paperback]

Chris Abani (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2006

"Compelling and gorgeously written, this is a coming-of-age novella like no other. Chris Abani explores the depths of loss and exploitation with what can only be described as a knowing tenderness. An extraordinary, necessary book."—Cristina Garcia, author of Dreaming in Cuban

"Abani's voice brings perspective to every moment, turning pain into a beautiful painterly meditation on loss and aloneness."—Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt

“Abani's empathy for Abigail's torn life is matched only by his honesty in portraying it. Nothing at all is held back. A harrowing piece of work.”—Peter Orner, author of The Esther Stories

Tough, spirited, and fiercely independent Abigail is brought as a teenager to London from Nigeria by relatives who attempt to force her into prostitution. She flees, struggling to find herself in the shadow of a strong but dead mother. In spare yet haunting and lyrical prose reminiscent of Marguerite Duras, Abani brings to life a young woman who lives with a strength and inner light that will enlighten and uplift the reader.

Chris Abani is a poet and novelist and the author, most recently, of GraceLand, which won the 2005 PEN/Hemingway Prize, a Silver Medal in the California Book Awards, and was a finalist for several other prizes including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His other prizes include a PEN Freedom-to-Write Award, a Prince Claus Award, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship. He lives and teaches in California.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Abani follows up GraceLand, his PEN/Faulkner Award–winning boy's coming-of-age novel, with a searing girl's coming-of-age novella in which a troubled Nigerian teen is threatened with becoming human trade. Abigail's mother died giving birth to her, leaving her, as she grows, with a crippling guilt that drives her to bizarre childhood mourning rituals and, later, with the responsibility of caring for her chronically depressed father. Repeated sexual violations by male relatives and the self-imposed expectation that she live up to her idealized image of her mother create unbearable pain and contradiction. When, at the halfway point of the book, Abigail's father sends her, at age 15 , to live with her cousin-by-marriage, Peter, in London, it's as much to free her from him as to give her more opportunities. But once she arrives, her "cousin" proves malevolent, and her dehumanization begins. Recalling Lucas Moodyson's crushing Lilya4Ever, this portrait of a brutalized girl given no control over her life or body, features Abani's lyrical prose (Abigail's father's armchair "smelled of the dreams of everyone who had sat in it") and deft moves between short chapters titled "Then" and "Now"—with the latter offering little promise. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

Spare, haunting vignettes of exquisite delicacy tell of horrifying sexual brutality suffered by a young Nigerian girl and of her heartfelt anguish, alternating between "Now" in London, where her relatives try to force her into prostitution, and "Then" back in Ibadan, where her mother dies while giving birth to her. Abigail keeps trying to live up to the brave, independent activist mother, who was a judge at 35, and to make it up to her heartbroken dad for the loss of his wife. Raped by her cousin at age 10, she burns and cuts herself; then things get much worse. She fights back, and her punishment is appalling. Never sensationalized, the continual revelations are more shocking for being quietly told, compressed into taut moments that reveal secrets of cruelty--and of love--up to the last page. A prize-winning writer for Graceland (2003), Abani tells a strong young woman's story with graphic empathy. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Akashic Books (March 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888451947
• ISBN-13: 978-1888451948
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #227,898 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > History > Africa > Nigeria

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and Devastating, May 3, 2006

By 

C. G. Jauregui "AvidReader" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Becoming Abigail (Paperback)

Becoming Abigail is devastating in its deep understanding of the complexity human nature (both the beauty and the monstrosity). I am a woman and I am amazed at Abani's ability to understand and portray a female voice. This novel is sad, terrifying, moving and every page of it rings true.
The prose style is sparse, for example (from chapter 31): "The comfort of simple things. Coffee percolating. Cinnamon buns warming oven and home. An ice cold Coca-Cola on a hot day, Licking out the mixing bowl. Chocolate. Childhood... And what would be the line for her?... A line is a lie. Who can tell what it will open unto." And in this unpredictable strong novella, who can tell indeed? Abani's style here is fearless (you can read how he has distilled his prose from Graceland to Becoming Abigail) and its rhythm ranges from a paused, minimalist riff, to a painful staccato, to the intensity of a fluid jazz solo.
This is a fast read that will singe your brain. Abani gives the reader no easy answers, as indeed no good artist should. He raises questions.
Through this beautifully told story, in the vein of films like Moodysson's Lilya4ever, calls our attention to one of the world's most overwhelming exploitative practices: the sexual slavery of women and children, not only in Nigeria/Britain but everywhere.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Abigail, I wish I could have helped you..., February 18, 2007

By 

S.A.I (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Becoming Abigail (Paperback)

I honestly haven't ever read a book quite like this. It is in one word 'wow!'
Short, painful (almost masochistic to read, nearly like self flagellating), raw and honest.

You will be glad to get to the end of the book but you won't dare skip a page in the process.

Abigail's story couldn't have been told in any other or possibly better form or manner. Chris Abani is such a mature, heavily talented writer and he manipulates and owns his language.

This is my second read of his works and I will keep on reading him. He speaks for the underdogs who have no voice, no easy feat.

Chris Abani makes me proud to be Nigerian and Ibo and reminds me of the possibilities.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely and unflinching, May 2, 2006

By 

bookgal (Washington D.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Becoming Abigail (Paperback)

This novel reminds me of Marguerite Duras' equally unflinching look at a young girl's sexuality, "The Lover." The writing is poetic and spare, with a real attention to visual detail and repetition of image. It has the fugue-like feel of a novella with regard to the thematic repetition of loss and violation -- although it *is* sad material, there is still some hope, and the beauty of the language carries the reader through.