Seasons of 4 Faces
by Benjamin Kwakye
Style: Literary Fiction / Historic / Africa
ISBN: 9798988974598
Print Size: 495 pages
Reviewed by Toni Woodruff
A transcendental story of a mythic man in love with a mythic girl
Tiempo is a courageous and efficient warrior, and he’ll do something to be with Sharifa, a healer. Regardless of her displaying some indicators of potential love, she tells him it’s not going to occur—that it’s not possible—that he’ll need to struggle in some inconsequential quantity of wars and survive to have her hand. Say, 18 of them. Tiempo accepts the problem.
Whereas it’s shocking to the reader, it’s not a lot for the narrator that successful isn’t tough for Tiempo. He wins struggle after struggle with out us having to spend narrative time with most of them. We don’t get 18 wars on this e-book—the story house belongs to the transcendental, possibly neverending lifetime of a mythic man in love with a mythic girl.
In fact, there’s at all times hazard lurking—private and shut. When he’s attacked, he doesn’t die. Possibly he can’t.
After Tiempo’s preliminary separation from Sharifa, the journey of this ingenious novel actually begins. Nearly like a Forrest Gump of African historical past, Seasons of 4 Faces brings Tiempo, a mythically highly effective man from Pharoah’s Egypt to Mecca with Mansa Musa to the Conflict of the Golden Stool, and, in the long run, to Ghana, preventing for independence.
Benjamin Kwakye showcases his creativity, forethought, and tactical structuring abilities in his epic, not-so-true historical past. Kwakye is a poet, and it reveals. This e-book takes nice care to interact us on the road degree as a lot because it does on the plot degree. The sentences are crafted with a watch for element, an appreciation for sound, and a tone that matches the historic world. Whereas we’re telling a narrative of African historical past in Seasons of 4 Faces, the magic of myths nonetheless applies. Possibly there are ghosts right here. Possibly therapeutic. Possibly extra.
Tiempo performs an important function in the neighborhood every time he enters a brand new one, at all times providing of himself to their leaders and conserving hope alive of seeing Sharifa once more. The romance is what retains us trying big-picture on this e-book. Sure, I need him to assimilate and assist with vital issues in these new locations, however we’re at all times pushed and hopeful that the reunion is coming.
It may be tough to fall in keeping with the idea of preventing 18 wars—and thus ending so many lives within the course of—to win a girl’s hand, however over time, the understanding of this modifications. It turns into about size, about impossibility, about inevitability, about real love, about seeing the long run and dwelling it time and again.
I wouldn’t name this a simple novel. It’s literary fiction at its coronary heart—lengthy, winding sentences that say what they are saying however imply greater than that—and it covers a whole bunch of years and options model new named characters throughout the e-book. It’s by no means precisely pretending to be simple—a novel about historical past and folks with actual names and actual tales—but it surely’s true that the paragraphs can really feel lengthy and the character record even longer. The twists and turns of an lively plot hold the lengthy e-book shifting although. A lot occurs: wars, love triangles, backstabs, infants, politics, and past.
Seasons of 4 Faces is an opportunity to time journey. Not solely so that you can head again to Pharaoh instances however so that you can transcend generations alongside a timeless, highly effective, mythic primary character. There’s lots to unpack on this e-book. So get began.
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