Items related to The Jive Talker: Or, How to get a British Passport
Synopsis
Samson Kambalu's father wore three-piece, London-made suits from the Sixties. He'd planned to be a doctor but settled for hospital administration and a peripatetic lifestyle with his ever expanding family in tow. He is 'the Jive Talker' of this extraordinary memoir - a man of thwarted ambition, boundless optimism and manic philosophising, he died of AIDS in 1995, bequeathing his son 'the Diptych' - an eclectic library of science, philosophy and English language classics a passion for words and a boundless imagination.
In this completely original, often subversive, book, Samson Kambalu writes of his childhood in Malawi, a country few are able to pinpoint on a map. As the family moves from feast to real poverty and deprivation, and back to plenty again, depending on their father's professional fortunes, we are introduced to life in a country in which no dissent is tolerated, where political opponents are 'disappeared' and a portrait of Life President Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda is always guaranteed to be watching. But this is also a country in which a little boy obsessed with books, girls, Nietzsche, fashion, football and Michael Jackson wins a free education at the Kamuzu Academy ('The Eton of Africa') and grows up to be one of England's most promising young conceptual artists. With dazzling prose, wicked humour and not a little bit of artistic licence, The Jive Talker opens the door to an Africa that is rarely written about.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review
Kambalu's nuanced characters bring Malawi to life... For, as he shows in this riveting, brilliant book, there is always more than one way of understanding the world -- Susan Williams, INDEPENDENT
Read Kambalu, cry, clap your hands -- Iain Finlayson, THE TIMES
`I loved this brilliant Malawian coming of age novel. It's funny, sad, shocking, pacey, bursting with energy and talent.' -- Barbara Trapido
`This Malawian-born, award-winning conceptual artist uses his background and brilliant mind to craft a truly original book' -- PRIDE
`This Malawian-born, award-winning conceptual artist uses his background to and brilliant mind to craft a truly original book' -- PRIDE
`a beguiling journey under the warm, sad, funny, chaotic, wacky, wise skin of one of the poorest countries in Africa'
-- Sunday Telegraph
`a book filled with wonder, humour and hope. It is a magnificent achievement.'
-- Sunday Telegraph, Rev'd by Aminatta Forna
`humorously recounted but poverty and sickness, and above all Aids add dark textures to Kambalu's philosophy'
-- METRO
`humorously recounted but poverty and sickness, and above all Aids, add dark textures to Kambalu's philosophy'
-- Siobhan Murphy, METRO
an African memoir unlike any other I have read and the reason is this - it is absolutely hilarious and I was crying with laughter... this is a book filled with wonder, humour and hope. It is a magnificent achievement -- Aminatta Forna, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
Book Description
In this utterly original, often subversive book, Samson Kambalu writes of his childhood in a country few are able to pinpoint on a map.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherJonathan Cape
- Publication date2008
- ISBN 10 0224081063
- ISBN 13 9780224081061
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages336
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The Jive Talker: Or, How to get a British Passport
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Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. The Jive Talker: Or, How to get a British Passport This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # 7719-9780224081061
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The Jive Talker: Or, How to Get a British Passport. Samson Kambalu
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The Jive Talker: Or, How to get a British Passport
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The Jive Talker: Or, How to Get a British Passport First edition by SAMSON KAMBALU (2008) Hardcover
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