Who Will Catch Us As We Fall
By Iman Verjee
4/5
()
About this ebook
A powerful tale of love and politics in contemporary Nairobi, Who Will Catch Us As We Fall depicts a Kenya on the cusp of change in all its complexity. Through two of the most memorable and remarkable characters in contemporary African fiction, Iman Verjee has penned a moving portrait of a family torn apart by national politics and prejudice, yet still painfully tethered together.
Iman Verjee
Iman Verjee won the 2012 Peters Fraser & Dunlop/City University Prize for Fiction for her debut novel In Between Dreams, which she wrote whilst completing an MA in Creative Writing at City University. Prior to studying in London she studied psychology at the University of Alberta in Canada, where she lived for six years. She now lives in Nairobi, Kenya.
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Reviews for Who Will Catch Us As We Fall
25 ratings11 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Who Will Catch Us As We Fall is a sprawling novel set in Nairobi centered around Leena, who is returning home after a lengthy absence abroad. I enjoyed the book and descriptions of life in Africa from different character backgrounds. At times I found myself forced to pick it up and continue, but once I did I slipped back into enjoying it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Iman Verjee's novel is set in Nairobi and spans the years 1995-2007. In it, she explores the racial conflicts and political corruption that seem to have been rampant in Kenya. The story centers on Leena and Jai Kohli, siblings in the East Indian upper class community, and their relationships with a poor African friend, Michael. There is also a parallel story - that of Jeffrey, a once idealist policeman, who is gradually taken in by the greed and corruption of the city. Verjee's prose is enjoyable. Her stark descriptions of life in Kenya and the disparity between rich and poor are vivid. The forbidden friendships between Indian and African were something I knew nothing about and left me cheering on the characters and their attempts to see beyond racial barriers.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nairobi, Kenya, is the setting. 1997 to 2007 is the time period, so it's modern day. But it doesn't feel very modern, as Kenya is still a tribal nation with tremendous poverty. Leena and Jai are sister and brother of Indian descent, living in an upper class community apart from yet still among the natives with all the racial, political, and class struggles. As children, their friends were all Indians except for one Kenyan, and their very traditional (snooty) mother did not approve. I did not know that there was such a dominant Indian presence in Kenya, so found this very interesting. There is a separate story of Jeffery, a black policeman who, like all other cops, has to take bribes in order to make a living. He is not very likable but his part in the story helps to further illustrate the differences between the haves and have nots.Poor natives being envious and angry at the wealthy foreigners -- this cannot end well. And in my opinion, the ending was not a good one -- sort of non-committal, as in, Reader, you figure it out. That was disappointing, but overall a pretty good read. An ARC from LibraryThing.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I love this type of book with well-developed characters and interconnected story lines. I always prefer true-to-life characters over a plot-heavy book, but the plot here was definitely not lacking. With the story going from present to past and back again, I was sometimes kept guessing on how exactly some of the characters lives would intersect. I liked the fact that some characters changed throughout the course of the book – and some not always for the better. It felt real and honest, and I like anything set against political corruption and unrest. It also explored racial boundaries between Indians and Africans living in Nairobi which I had previously known nothing about. It felt like a very personal account how racial prejudice can shape our lives and how a corrupt and oppressive government can drive even a good person into doing desperate and unthinkable things.As a side note: As mentioned by another reviewer, great cover art as well.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I received this ARC through Librarything's Early Reviewers Program.I this novel Verjee looks at tensions between the various communities in Kenya--specifically the East Indian and black Kenyan communities. She also shows tensions within the Kenya tribal communities as well. She also examines police v criminals v honest citizens, service employee v wealthy employer, and to a lesser extent college student v the uneducated.Through the Kohli family we meet a "typical" (though they are really not so typical) wealthy East Indian Kenyan family, and we meet a couple of their servants--Angela and her son Michael, and later Betty (all black Africans). We also meet David and Jeffery, police officers who have gone crooked (as have most) because it is so difficult to live on a policeman's salary, Marlyn (bartender and part time prostitute), David's wife Esther (Betty's cousin), and a variety of minor characters. All are intertwined though personal and work relations, and all are distrustful of the "other" in the Kenyan population. Verjee examines why, and how, and if this might change. A well-written and very readable novel.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Verjee’s narrative is straightforward, yet rich and compelling. It tells the heartbreaking tale of a beautiful city, Nairobi, fraught with rampant racial bias, poverty and unethical practices - especially by those who should be protecting it's people and communities. This is not a story about solutions, it is about hope, a hope that its people can see beyond the dirt, poverty and corruption and realize the beauty in its land and diverse blend of people. The moral is in the story itself without the need for moralizing. It hits the reader hard as one contemplates the formidable injustices. This is a powerful novel filled with multidimensional characters whose lives were developed from the experience of one who was born and raised in Nairobi. It is a commendable work of literature.Post note: The above review is based on an ARC edition. In this review I left out my opinion of the author's first and last chapters, which is not favorable. They lack the depth and character of the intervening 400 approximate pages. I do not know whether these parts were edited for the final printing. They were weak enough to warrant mentioning, yet not enough to effect the novel's overall value and rating.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Who Will Catch Us As We Fall is a masterfully written novel where the standout character is Nairobi itself. Verjee's prose is spare yet poetic, and each interwoven character is deftly portrayed, complex, flawed and sympathetic. I did think the ending was a bit weak and neat, and I would have appreciated more of a continuance of some of the plot threads. Verjee lays everything out with a fairly slow pace, but each character and storyline are given incredible depth and weight. I look forward to following Verjee and her unique and compelling perspective, and her clear and beautiful writing.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I absolutely love the cover of Who Will Catch Us As We Fall! Bright and fun! The story was quite enjoyable as well. Well developed characters.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5After a traumatic event in her childhood, Leena left Kenya for university in England, and returning to her homeland is proving difficult, until an old friend resurfaces and shows her that to feel safe, one must not avoid dangers, but rather face fears head-on. This is a surprising, uncomfortable, and absolutely heartbreaking story about Kenya and its people. It presents an image of Nairobi that will make you feel as if you've been there yourself and all the characters, both the ones you love and those you hate, are urging you to care about them, which you will, deeply.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I took me a very long time to get through this book. The writing is good, no problems there. In fact, for a random book off the library shelf based on the cover, it is remarkably good. It was hard to read because of the subject. Right away you know the book is working towards some terrible event and I did not want that event to come (turns out by the time it does come, it is so anticipated that it was not shocking not as graphic or long as I feared). There is another storyline about a corrupt cop that is so hopeless and disheartening that it is hard to read it. While the three main characters in the first storyline are all nice enough, I was not drawn to any of them, did not love anyone, was rather indifferent. Makes it easy to ignore a book in favour of other books or activities. I kept with it because I appreciate reading about a place I know very little about (Nairobi, Kenya) but I could not push this book on anyone else.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The tension that exists between Africans who have been colonized and Southeast Asians who followed Europeans to those lands is rarely discussed; Iman Verjee's novel approaches the issue with touching openness and insight. By telling the story through several perspectives and masterful use of timing, she methodically unwraps the complex relationships among native Kenyans and Indian-Kenyans. The characters, especially Jeffery and Leena, are well-developed and give the reader a sense of the fine moral/social lines that communities draw between each other in order to bolster social stratification and mistaken ideas about supremacy. It was painful reading some of the stereotypes characters believed about others, but Verjee's novel offers an opportunity for dialogue about the nastiness that lies just below our people's facades.
Book preview
Who Will Catch Us As We Fall - Iman Verjee
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