"Mengiste gracefully builds the story to a heart-pumping conclusion…Even with its share of tragedy, this is an absorbing drama…enhanced by the author's spare, spectacular prose."
"An extraordinary novel, which assembles a dauntingly broad cast of characters and, through them, tells stories that nobody can want to hear, in such a way that we cannot stop listening."
Bookforum - Claire Messud
"The real marvel of this tender novel is its coiled plotting, in which coincidence manages to evoke the colossal emotional toll of the revolution."
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“An extraordinary novel [that] tells stories that nobody can want to hear, in such a way that we cannot stop listening.” — Bookforum
It is brave of so young a novelist to attempt to tell not only Selassie's story but also that of the Derg…For all its beginner's flaws, Under the Lion's Gaze is an important novel, rich in compassion for its anguished characters.
Ethiopia's 1974 revolution tears a family in half in this striking debut. Drought, famine and mutiny in the military are stretching Emperor Haile Selassie's regime to the breaking point, and when it finally tears, Hailu, a skilled and respected doctor in Addis Ababa, must find a way to shepherd his extended family through the ensuing violence. His task is made no easier by the fact that his son Dawit's fiery youthful convictions place him at odds with his more circumspect older brother, Yonas, a university professor with a wife and child. But when soldiers request Hailu to treat a gruesomely tortured political prisoner, he makes a fateful choice that puts his family in the military junta's crosshairs. Mengiste is as adept at crafting emotionally delicate moments as she is deft at portraying the tense and grim historical material, while her judicious sprinkling of lyricism imbues this novel with a vivid atmosphere that is distinct without becoming overpowering. That the novel subjects the reader to the same feelings of hopelessness and despair that its characters grapple with is a grand testament to Mengiste's talent. (Jan.)
Mengiste's debut novel follows the lives of a family of four in the violent environment of prewar Ethiopia in 1974. A recent New York University graduate, Mengiste was voted a "new literary idol" by New York magazine and garnered a Pushcart Prize nomination. Her honors do not belie her skill, for this book is stunning. In graphic descriptions and masterly prose, Mengiste sculpts her characters to reflect different aspects of the revolution, from Dawit, who spouts Marxism, to Hailu, a doctor who must deal with the brutal realities of revolution. VERDICT Although the depictions of brutality are extensive, they are also realistic and captivating, helping place Lion's Gaze into a small cadre of Ethiopian fiction, including Abraham Verghese's Cutting the Stone and Camilla Gibb's Sweetness in the Belly. Fans of historical adult fiction will approve. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/09.]—Shalini Miskelly, Highline Community Coll., Des Moines, WA
Ethiopian-born Mengiste debuts with a tale depicting the social chaos surrounding the 1974 overthrow of Haile Selassie, revealing the rebels to be at least as brutal as the deposed emperor. Striving to preserve moral integrity in the midst of this turmoil is Hailu, a doctor trained in England who maintains his hours at the clinic in Addis Ababa, dispensing medicine and going about his business of quiet healing. While Dawit has no love for Selassie, calling him "a rich man who's lost touch with his people," he also finds himself first alienated and then endangered by the excesses of the Marxist regime that replaces the emperor. This new regime is embodied in the reptilian coldness of Major Guddu, whose henchmen kill where they please and leave the bodies rotting in the streets. Hailu's elder son Yonas wants to make the best of the political situation; he finds refuge in prayer but starts to grow apart from his wife Sara. Hailu treats patients without regard to political affiliations, but his neutrality is challenged when a torture victim is brought in by several soldiers from the military junta now in charge of Ethiopia. She has been tortured by the aptly named Girma the Butcher, but despite her numerous wounds and obvious suffering, the nervous soldiers are desperate to keep her alive. Knowing that the young woman is permanently damaged and will never survive another round of interrogations, Hailu compassionately gives her cyanide; when the powers-that-be discover his "perfidy," he is thrown in jail and becomes a torture victim himself. So does the innocent paperboy Berhane, who has witnessed a political assassination. This twisted chain of events serves to further radicalize Dawit andeven pushes Yonas out of his naive complacency. An arresting, powerful novel that works on both personal and political levels. Author tour to Washington, D.C., Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis
"What a beautiful book! After a few chapters I felt I was a member of this family, a citizen of Ethiopia. Maaza Mengiste is talented and bold and fresh. Already, I’m looking forward to her next book."
"Literature from the margins is often too poorly lit for us to see, but Mengiste takes us through this dark political hunt with the night vision of a lion. A novel both tender and brutal, fearless, it is accomplished beyond a first book."
"With words that make ‘a faint, tender bruise’ on the page, and a compassionate imagination that transforms everything it touches on, Maaza Mengiste delivers an important story from a part of Africa too long silent in the World Republic of Letters."
"With...a compassionate imagination that transforms everything it touches on, Maaza Mengiste delivers an important story." ---Chris Albani, author of Graceland, a Today Show pick
In the events following the 1974 Ethiopian coup, a doctor is taken prisoner by the new government, and a young revolutionary faces the anger of his friends and neighbors. The simple grace of Steven Crossley's voice puts the emphasis on the lives and moral elements depicted in Maaza Mengiste's novel. However, the brutality of the communist revolution—with its torture, executions, and terror becoming a part of daily Ethiopian life—will hit listeners hard. Crossley powerfully delivers Mengiste's descriptions and insights into the decisions Ethiopians had to make as they faced oppression. In particular, Crossley’s performance enhances the novel’s blend of elegance and violence, a combination that brings this tragic historic event alive in a way that headlines and history books cannot. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
SEPTEMBER 2010 - AudioFile
