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1.0 out of 5 stars
Warning! This is an abridged edition!, April 1, 2011
This review is from: Weep Not, Child (Macmillan Readers) (Paperback)
This is not the book you think it is! It is a highly abridged and simplified version of Ngugi Wa Thiongo's original novel entitled Weep not, Child. The original novel is an easy-to-read 136 pages, so why anyone would want to abridge and simplify it is beyond me. What is more, neither the cover of the book nor the standard review warns potential buyers that this book is an abridged version that is only about half the length of the original novel.
Ngugi's first novel is a good introductory text for those studying the history of colonialism in Africa. It mainly focuses on the hardships imposed by settler colonialism in the highlands of Kenya, where the British took much of the best land from the Kenyans and turned them into laborers on European plantations. I have used this book for teaching university students for the past 15 years, and most students benefit from it because it allows them to see the human consequences of colonialism.
Ngugi's later novels are more sophisticated, but the simplicity of this book is part of its value-- unfortunately this abridged version greatly oversimplifies the original.
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