Becoming Abigail [Hardcover]

Chris Abani (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Akashic Books; Book Club edition (2006)
• ISBN-10: 0739474111
• ISBN-13: 978-0739474112
• ASIN: B000X7QMZC
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,474,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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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.