Review of Leaving Dahomey
-
Keith Mbuya
- Posts: 41
- Joined: 16 May 2021, 05:33
- Currently Reading:
- Bookshelf Size: 61
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-keith-mbuya.html
- Latest Review: Rulers of the Galaxy by Tayma Tameem
Review of Leaving Dahomey
[Following is a volunteer review of "Leaving Dahomey" by Jude Shaw.]
Adeoha, a young girl from Dahomey; an ancient West African kingdom, had a dream of making herself a big name as a trader in the great towns of Dahomey, Kumasi and even Benin. Adeoha was intelligent and gifted abundantly in the ways of the traditions of Dahomey. She could dance so well in the traditional way. Sewextu, Adeoha's best friend convinced her to join her at The language drum society. But it was obvious she was going to join the society as she knew her abilities would be of great use there. Adeoha becomes more passionate about her dream to be a trader after spending sometime in seclusion at The language drum society. The laws of Dahomey. under king Guezo's rule demanded a lot from a woman ambitious enough to take on her venture. But she was from a noble family, her father Tubutu had vast wealth. This favoured her venture.
Jude Shaw writes Leaving Dahomey in a setting in the early nineteenth century. The characters in Leaving Dahomey are depicted to have special abilities and some, special interests from each other. Adeoha is very ambitious to follow her dream to be a well known trader in the towns of Dahomey and those around Dahomey. Jude Shaw also shows Adeoha's brother, O'Gwumike to be good at art, he makes fine paintings on his calabashes and more interestingly his paintings tell their own stories. Sewextu is in the least, passionate about The language drum society and wants to teach their ways when she is done with their teachings.
Jude Shaw potrays Robert and his wife Patricia as a hardworking couple. They move in to Dahomey from their homeland, the States, and take keen interest in enlightening the Dahomeians on reading and writing. In my opinion, Jude Shaw should have done better than this. Leaving Dahomey is more about the character Adeoha dancing to some certain rhythm of drum beats. Jude Shaw puts very little effort to make the story lively. For a delicate subject like the one he writes about, I believe one must do more than just plainly write his ideas. Reading Leaving Dahomey feels like reading a boring person's biography.
When Jude Shaw introduces the couple Robert and Patricia, I anticipate that they will break the monotony of his main idea about Adeoah's dancing skills. But I get very dissappointed when the part about these characters is also written in the plain form. By this I mean the choice of words are very matter of factly. Even though Jude Shaw must have intended to make Leaving Dahomey have an original West African touch, or maybe let the reader experience the West African culture without adding other ideas for the sake of writing, I find the dialogue conversations very boring.
I really struggled reading the book, I hardly enjoyed any bit of it. I did not find much errors in Leaving Dahomey except for one spelling mistake that I came across. I recommend the book to history enthusiasts, maybe they may find Leaving Dahomey interesting. I rate it 1 out of 4 stars.
******
Leaving Dahomey
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Adeoha, a young girl from Dahomey; an ancient West African kingdom, had a dream of making herself a big name as a trader in the great towns of Dahomey, Kumasi and even Benin. Adeoha was intelligent and gifted abundantly in the ways of the traditions of Dahomey. She could dance so well in the traditional way. Sewextu, Adeoha's best friend convinced her to join her at The language drum society. But it was obvious she was going to join the society as she knew her abilities would be of great use there. Adeoha becomes more passionate about her dream to be a trader after spending sometime in seclusion at The language drum society. The laws of Dahomey. under king Guezo's rule demanded a lot from a woman ambitious enough to take on her venture. But she was from a noble family, her father Tubutu had vast wealth. This favoured her venture.
Jude Shaw writes Leaving Dahomey in a setting in the early nineteenth century. The characters in Leaving Dahomey are depicted to have special abilities and some, special interests from each other. Adeoha is very ambitious to follow her dream to be a well known trader in the towns of Dahomey and those around Dahomey. Jude Shaw also shows Adeoha's brother, O'Gwumike to be good at art, he makes fine paintings on his calabashes and more interestingly his paintings tell their own stories. Sewextu is in the least, passionate about The language drum society and wants to teach their ways when she is done with their teachings.
Jude Shaw potrays Robert and his wife Patricia as a hardworking couple. They move in to Dahomey from their homeland, the States, and take keen interest in enlightening the Dahomeians on reading and writing. In my opinion, Jude Shaw should have done better than this. Leaving Dahomey is more about the character Adeoha dancing to some certain rhythm of drum beats. Jude Shaw puts very little effort to make the story lively. For a delicate subject like the one he writes about, I believe one must do more than just plainly write his ideas. Reading Leaving Dahomey feels like reading a boring person's biography.
When Jude Shaw introduces the couple Robert and Patricia, I anticipate that they will break the monotony of his main idea about Adeoah's dancing skills. But I get very dissappointed when the part about these characters is also written in the plain form. By this I mean the choice of words are very matter of factly. Even though Jude Shaw must have intended to make Leaving Dahomey have an original West African touch, or maybe let the reader experience the West African culture without adding other ideas for the sake of writing, I find the dialogue conversations very boring.
I really struggled reading the book, I hardly enjoyed any bit of it. I did not find much errors in Leaving Dahomey except for one spelling mistake that I came across. I recommend the book to history enthusiasts, maybe they may find Leaving Dahomey interesting. I rate it 1 out of 4 stars.
******
Leaving Dahomey
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Rulers of the Galaxy by Tayma Tameem
