A Study Guide for Chris Abani's "Graceland"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Chris Abani's "Graceland," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Jun 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535824118

Book preview

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GraceLand

Chris Abani

2004

Introduction

GraceLand is a novel by Chris Abani, a Nigerian writer who has lived in the United States since 1999. It was published in 2004 and won many awards, including the 2005 PEN Hemingway Book Prize. GraceLand is set in Nigeria, a nation in west Africa, at various times and locations between 1972 and 1983. Most of the novel takes place in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, in 1983. Sixteen-year-old Elvis Oke is trying, with little success, to make a living as a dancer and Elvis Presley impersonator. Chapters of the novel set in Lagos alternate with chapters that show significant events in Elvis's childhood, beginning at the age of five, when he lived in a small town eight hundred miles from Lagos. Coming from a dysfunctional family, Elvis has to struggle to find his way in Lagos, a city where violence and poverty abound. He gets caught up in illegal activities and runs afoul of the oppressive military government. Finally, he gets the chance to make a new start by immigrating to the United States.

A vivid coming-of-age novel, GraceLand presents a harrowing picture of life in the slums of Lagos and one young man's efforts to overcome the difficult circumstances in which he finds himself. Readers should be warned that some scenes in the novel graphically depict violence and sexual abuse.

Author Biography

Novelist, poet, and playwright Abani was born in Afikpo, Nigeria, on December 27, 1966. His father, a member of the Igbo (also spelled Ibo) ethnic group, had been educated at Oxford University in England, and his mother was white. Abani knew from a young age that he wanted to become a writer. He published his first short story when he was ten, and he wrote his first novel, Masters of the Board, when he was sixteen. This political thriller was published in 1985, with disastrous personal results for Abani. The Nigerian government noted that the plot had slight similarities to a recent coup attempt, and Abani was imprisoned for six months as a coconspirator. After his release, he attended Imo State University and was twice imprisoned for producing plays critical of the government. In 1987, he ran a theater group and was again imprisoned, this time for a year. In 1990, he was imprisoned yet again and