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One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir Hardcover – July 19, 2011

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Binyavanga Wainaina (Author)
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Binyavanga Wainaina (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars 34 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Graywolf Press; First Edition edition (July 19, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1555975917
  • ISBN-13: 978-1555975913
  • Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1 x 9.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #875,918 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsAnother stunning book on Africa
By Georgia on July 20, 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I have been reading African Literature since the 60's. No book has impressed me as much as this one for its insight into issues that are really happening in East and South Africa. And the use of language by Binj excites me. He is a breath of fresh air when it comes to his description of things personal and in general as well. Read this book, relish the view of Africa that is not at all affected by the Colonial Powers, that is instead a reading from the ground. It is original and it is just fun to read. The descriptions of his growing up in Nakuru, Kenya are priceless. His time getting an "real" education, not university driven. in South Africa shows the power of street smarts. This man is demonstrating the range of his very creative intellect through his experiences. He is a writer to watch in this ignored field of African Literature, just like his friend Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. You want insight into Africa, read both of these authors and see where the new generation of African writers is taking us. Those of you who love the memoirs of Wole Soyinka will be thrilled by Binj and Chimamanda.

Africa is such a deep place if you want to learn more about this incredible landscape you must read Soyinka, Ngugi, Senghor, Achebe, Gordimer, Coetzee, Mphahlele, Ngozi and Wainaina. Now you will have scratched the surface of this place that so many of us would like to spend our days learning more. Good luck discovering a view of Africa unaffected by Europe or America.
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5.0 out of 5 starsThoughtful, beautiful memoir of a bookish Kenyan boy growing up
By Naijaman on September 2, 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I've looked forward to this book for a long time. Having read Binyavanga's writing and having heard him speak,I eagerly waited to see what a "full" book from him would look like. I haven't been disappointed.

Binyavanga writes a heartfelt account of a middle class, book-loving Kenyan boy's growing up, from the 70s through to the 90s, a riotous period. In beautiful poignant language that evoked for me memories of my own childhood in West Africa,he explores issues of class, religion, politics, family and community, subtly and in an engaging manner.

His travels take him to South Africa and Uganda, broadening our view; his chronicles enriched by his perceptive eye;

I had worried that I would find this book too highbrow, but it is written in a deceptively simple language whose beauty had me catching my breath more than once, such as when he writes of "Congo music with wayward voices, thick as hot honey..."

6 years ago, Wainaina published the sharp satirical Granta piece, "How to Write About Africa" In his book, he presents a picture of an African boy growing up in its rich and varied complexity.

Any criticisms? Sometimes he goes off on an almost other-worldly riff but even then, his writing is so evocative that I couldn't hold it against him

Wainaina has kept his promise
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5.0 out of 5 starsYou Have To Read the Review - Then Read the Book
By Josephine K on September 19, 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Stung by the raw violence that clears wide swathes of the population every election season, Kenyans are waiting with bated breath for the next Kenyan General Election in 2012. Writers came together in the past to become the institutional memory of our tattered electoral process, and one of these Kenyan writer/editors, Binyavanga Wainaina has stepped in front of the drawn lines to tell his side of the story.

In his book currently flying off the shelves and e-readers we meet, a Kenyan writer understanding Kenyanness. Selling swiftly as one of Oprah's 2011 Summer Reads and ranked 9th most popular memoir on Amazon at this posting, this book is billed as a telling of the stories of `tribal unrest and Western influences on his homeland'. More than that, however, the story he tells, sometimes in rapid-fire fits and starts, becomes a loud voice portraying what many do know about him - writer, traveler and thinker; and what we do not really know very much about - son, student and comrade in culinary exploits and more.

Opening this book, I found out many of the things that I know to be Kenyan were tattooed on its pages. The searing hatred by tribal lines that erupts every other year, the delicate fabric of polite society in Kenya that he translates as the society that says "Who runs things. Who can. Who Can't, and Why not". Many times I could feel the tension running through, indicated in the consistent question Wainaina receives about what is his tribe, really, and why he has such a seemingly strange first name. And before that is answered, it also names the things that we value the most, land, and success - sadly two of the most elusive things for any Kenyan especially today.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsUtterly Delicious
By David S. Rush on July 15, 2014
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
When I think about describing this book the phrase, “utterly delicious”, comes to mind. Initially I had a hard time getting into the book. Wainaina has a unique way with language. While the story is linear, the prose is borderline stream of consciousness. Once I gathered in the rhythm of the language, the harmony emerged. Certain passages were pure umami tantalizing the brain much like a morel does the tongue.

The Kenya described therein is an olio of languages.

“There are many understood ways to address someone: sometime you shift quickly into English; often you speak in a mock Kiswahili, in an ironical tone, simply to indicate that you are not dogmatic about language, that you are quite happy to shift around and find the bandwidth of the person to whom you are speaking.”

The book is like this too. It weaves in little snippets of African languages that give you a feel of time and place. Many words seem to be a mash-up of English and a tribal language.

This is a memoir. It is a coming-of-age story. It is a story of a troubled young man finding his way as writer, initially against his family’s wishes. It is a story of Kenya after the British left and turmoil that ensued. It is a story of a land trying to overcome its tribal traditions, and failing in many ways. It is a tale of a nation attempting to come into the 20th century Western world and not really succeeding with that either. Perhaps my picture of Africa comes for old movies, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and news clips from South Africa. Wainaina paints a much more nuanced picture that comes across as a kaleidoscope of images.

I found myself underling passages as I read.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsNot as good as new

It wasn't really as good as new as it had scriblings and lines all over. But! It was a good read

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Loved the twists and seeing Africa.

Published 4 months ago by James G Landis
4.0 out of 5 starsIt stops feeling like a giant cringe after the first two chapters but...

This book sorta started out as an embarrassing account of youth. I really didn't think I could read 300 pages of very honest awkward coming.of age. Read more

Published 8 months ago by Carson
1.0 out of 5 starspsychobabble

As evidence by so few reviews I doubt many people will even pick this book up to read and of those who did probably many did not finish. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Liz Cooper
5.0 out of 5 starsAmazed by the ability of the writer to move with ...

Moving testimony. Amazed by the ability of the writer to move with ease in global and tribal worlds. Read more

Published 13 months ago by Jaime
5.0 out of 5 starsDeep, rich, Kenyan Memior

A magnificent memoir set in contemporary, chaotic Kenya. A virtual journey to this part of Africa. Stunningly written.

Published 13 months ago by Ellen Brakespear
5.0 out of 5 starsAnother great African writer

Another great African writer with a wonderful story to tell.

Published 13 months ago by Hjordis Fammestad
5.0 out of 5 starsAn Idiosyncratically Honest Perspective

Binyavanga was a professor of mine, teaching one of the most perplexing and rewarding classes I'd ever taken. That certainly influences my experience of the book. Read more

Published 16 months ago by S. Kimelman
4.0 out of 5 starsA really good read by all standards - very informative and relevant...

A really good read by all standards - very informative and relevant to the subject of Christian parenting. Just wondering now, how come I am only chancing on it now. Good stuff. Read more

Published 17 months ago by Marricke Gane
5.0 out of 5 starsI read a great deal of African literature as I travel there

Very interesting and excellently written. I read a great deal of African literature as I travel there, and this book was beautifully written.

Published 19 months ago by Alicia K. Wicks

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