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Revision as of 14:57, 20 March 2018
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{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=Africa Junction
|author=Ginny Baily
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-0099552727
|pages=288
|publisher=Vintage
|date=May 2012
|summary=A fascinating book based both in England and Senegal looking at how guilt and unfinished business can affect a life, years after the event. With its well observed insights into different cultures and life experiences, this is a gem of a debut novel that will stay with you for longer than it takes to read.
|cover=0099552728
|aznuk=0099552728
|aznus=0099552728
}}
Adele has made a mess of her life and she knows it. Working with the stresses of being a teacher as well as a single mother and having shrugged off a disastrous relationship, her life seems to be set on self-destruct. Part of the problem is that the past won't leave her alone. Adele is haunted by the memory of Ellena, a friend from her childhood in Senegal, Africa. With one unthinking, childish action, Adele inadvertently devastated Ellena's family so, in order to go forward, Adele must go back to the continent where it all began.
''Africa Junction'' is the sort of book that hasn't just been very well written, it's also brilliantly compiled. This may seem an odd use of words, but there's no other phrase for it. Each chapter is like a mini-story in itself, the author's background as a short story writer and editor shining through. Some of the mini-stories don't seem to fit in with the bigger picture at first (not that this is a problem as they're all totally absorbing). Then, about half way in the penny drops. In the novel Ginny Baily writes about time being like pleats in fabric as, even when we're in the present, it folds onto our past and this is how the book has been written. Each chapter is indeed part of the same jigsaw; the puzzle has just been started at different points simultaneously. It sounds complicated but we're provided chapter titles that pin the action down to dates and locations, fending off any 'Yawot?!' moments that may accompany some writers' work. The best way of explaining it is that it's the same technique as used in [[A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan|Jennifer Egan's A Visit From the Goon Squad]] but with a closer relationship between the segments.
Jigsaws are nothing if they don't provide a rewarding picture and Ms Baily has that one covered too. The characters are brimful of interest and authenticity. Adele is trying to come to terms with a childhood divided between England and Africa with parents who meant well but had their own problems. Indeed this author knows how to write from a child's perspective. Children lack the insight and interpretation that adults would apply which is how it should be and this is clearly visible in these childhood passages. In ''Africa Junction'' we're invited to be the mind of the adult, exploring why Adele's parents raised her almost aloof from the native culture. I know I've said it before and I'll more than likely repeat myself again, but this is a good thing: it's great to read a writer who credits us with intelligence.
The vignettes of Adele's African life as a child, aloof from local culture, reveal a lot about colonial attitudes that seemed to go on past independence. It's almost as if Adele over-compensated for this separation when she returned as an adult by submerging herself so completely that personal safety became irrelevant.
A fascinating book based in England and Senegal exploring the struggle to survive. It also looks at the effects on a life of guilt and unfinished business years after the event. With its well observed insights into different cultures and life experiences, this is a gem of a debut novel that will stay with you for longer than it takes to read.
{{amazontext|amazon=0099552728}} {{waterstonestextamazonUStext|waterstonesamazon=86873730099552728}}
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[[Category:Historical Fiction]]
