GraceLand: A Novel [Hardcover]

Chris Abani (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 2004

In this dazzling debut by a singular new talent, the sprawling, swampy, cacophonous city of Lagos, Nigeria, provides the backdrop to the story of Elvis, a teenage Elvis impersonator hoping to make his way out of the ghetto. Broke, beset by floods, and beatings by his alcoholic father, and with no job opportunities in sight, Elvis is tempted by a life of crime. Thus begins his odyssey into the dangerous underworld of Lagos, guided by his friend Redemption and accompanied by a restless hybrid of voices including The King of Beggars, Sunday, Innocent and Comfort. Ultimately, young Elvis, drenched in reggae and jazz, and besotted with American film heroes and images, must find his way to a GraceLand of his own. Nuanced, lyrical, and pitch perfect, Abani has created a remarkable story of a son and his father, and an examination of postcolonial Nigeria where the trappings of American culture reign supreme.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Abani's debut novel offers a searing chronicle of a young man's coming of age in Nigeria during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The vulnerable, wide-eyed protagonist is Elvis Oke, a young Nigerian with a penchant for dancing and impersonating the American rock-and-roll singer he is named after. The story alternates between Elvis's early years in the 1970s, when his mother dies of cancer and leaves him with a disapproving father, and his life as a teenager in the Lago ghetto, a place one character calls "a pus-ridden eyesore on de face of de nation's capital." Relating how an innocent child grows into a hardened young man, the novel also gives a glimpse into a world foreign to most readers-a brutal Third World country permeated by the excesses and wonders of American popular culture. Sprinkled throughout the book are recipes and entries from Elvis's mother's journal, as well as descriptions of the kola nut ceremony through which an Igbo boy becomes a man. These sections at first seem showy and tacked on, but by the end of the book their significance becomes clearer. The book is most powerful when it refrains from polemic and didacticism and simply follows its protagonist on his daily journey through the violent, harsh Nigerian landscape. Elvis must also negotiate troubles closer to home, including a drunk and ruined father and friends who cannot always be trusted. In this book, names are destiny, "selected with care by your family and given to you as a talisman." One of Elvis's friends is named Redemption, but in the end it is Elvis who claims this moniker, both literally and symbolically.
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From Booklist

Elvis Oke, a teenage Elvis impersonator in Lagos, Nigeria, attempts to come of age in spite of an alcoholic father who beats him and a soul-crushing ghetto environment that threatens to engulf him. Beset by floods, vermin, and the ubiquitous Colonel, chief of military security in Lagos, Elvis lives from day to day, saturated by a bizarrely out of date, misunderstood version of American pop culture and remembering his life in the country before his mother died and his father lost his career. Immigration to the U.S. is Elvis' dream, shared by his underworld friend, Redemption, although their notion of America comes mainly from untranslated, decades-old movies, all of which are interpreted only in terms of the conflict between John Wayne (all good guys) and Actor (everyone else). The novel offers a vibrant picture of an alien yet somehow parallel culture, and while the plot runs off the rails from time to time, the mix of surrealistic horror and cross-cultural humor is irresistible. Abani is a first novelist with a very bright future. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1 edition (February 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374165890
• ISBN-13: 978-0374165895
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,175,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful book that needs an audience, April 21, 2004

By 

BookLover "Cinephile" - See all my reviews

This review is from: GraceLand: A Novel (Hardcover)

This book was quite a moving, magical experience for me. I was first drawn by just the cover (which is funny considering we're not supposed to judge books by covers yet I almost always am drawn to striking covers and then the contents). When I read the jacket, I thought of the recent Brazilian film CITY OF GODS. Well, I thought Chris Abani's book had far more humanity, and far more hope. The ending is sublime, and very emotional. The book is rather sprawling, detailing the life of young Elvis Okwe. His struggles to do the right thing are incredibly intense and heartbreaking. He really wants to be a good person, a good man, and its often things that are out of his hands that prevent him from doing that. All of the characters are well-drawn and unconventional, without ever being stereotypical, especially Elvis's father, who you think is just abusive and distant, but is really a tragic, complicated man, torn apart by the love of his country. GRACELAND encompasses many themes, but most importantly, it is about "redemption," not just for Elvis but for the country that Mr. Abani clearly loves. I loved this book and I hope it finds its audience.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So good!, April 26, 2006

By 

Lila Ahronowitz "lilabaila2" (Davis, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: GraceLand: A Novel (Hardcover)

Let me start by saying that this book was so good, so interesting and provoking both intellectually and emotionally. It follows a sixteen year-old boy named Elvis in Lagos, Nigeria, as he pursues various paths, from an idealistic dancer to a criminal to a prisoner of war, to his ultimate choice, where we see him as a more mature and independent young man.

What makes this novel so important is its function as a virtual tour of the actual hardships plaguing Nigeria, as seen through the innocent eyes of the main character. I think Elvis's naivete, offset by a tragic personal history, reflects the simplistic view of highly developed and morally righteous countries - especially America. As the reader (and Elvis) encounters poverty, classism, beggars being burned alive, civil war, torture, cannibalism, and government cruelty, our innocence is stripped away.
The struggles are counterposed, though, throughout the book with moments of hope, of kindness, of people working together to overcome unfairness and stand up for their rights. The book definitely evokes respect and optimism for the strength of the characters, and ends in a positive light, although it seems almost counterintuitive...

From the globally symbolic names to the glimpses of native Igbo culture, Graceland had me reflecting on the relationships between countries, particularly between America and the rest of the world, and universal mechanisms of hope in places of extreme hardship.

The writing style was reminiscent of a combination between Russell Banks's Rule of the Bone and Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things [thank you, Oakwood!]. The meaningful names, as well as the combination of clashing cultures and classes and the narrative of the adolescent trying to navigate them, put me right in mind of Rule of the Bone. And in the back-and-forth of time settings, the familial anguish, and the disastrous results of government dictatorship on lower-class society, the book echoed some themes of The God of Small Things.

All in all, this book was an excellent, meaningful read, a great fictional piece addressing factual problems, solutions, and attitudes.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing story, May 25, 2005

By 

Sancho (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: GraceLand: A Novel (Paperback)

I was given Graceland as a present, and when I looked it over, I thought it would be a book in which the political statements would dominate in the entire the story. But I was wrong. In Graceland, the writer successfully avoided that with his rich characters, fascinating details, fast pace and the emotional expressions of the characters, especially the protagonist. The characters in the story stand very well for themselves. Like Triple Agent, Double Cross, Graceland is one of the most remarkable novels I have read and surprising enough, it showed that Nigeria has adopted so many things usually thought of as essentially American.