Alphabetical Africa (New Directions Books)

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The screening was the first ever simultaneous multi-lingual live stream of any film to all 54 African countries. Abish's style, even when unhampered by artificial constraints, is rather chastened and elliptic, so his fettered progress is steadier than you might imagine. In fact, much of the story takes place in Zanzibar, though that island can only be named in chapters 26 and 27. The first chapter has only words starting with "A," the second chapter has only words starting with "A" or "B," and so on until you reach the 26th chapter, where the author is allowed to use all possible words. Maybe I'm strange, but I think it's hysterical that the first person narrator of Alphabetical Africa can't appear in his novel until chapter "I" and then must disappear after the apex of chapter "Z" has been reached and the novel, having lost access to the complete English alphabet pertaining to the first letters of words, backtracks from chapter "I" to chapter "H", where it's goodbye to the "I" first person narrator, and welcome back, "author".

Released on the AfriDocs platform in conjunction with UNESCO, the film, which takes an intimate look into the African classroom and the consequences of not teaching children in their mother tongue, was made available in 27 indigenous African languages in addition to French, Portuguese and English. Most of the characters in the book is not that necessary, except Alva, ok, Alex and Allen "survivied" till the end, they also can count.It is fascinating to watch a wildly all-over-the-place author struggle with his own self-imposed (and rather stringent) restrictions. You feel the anxiety of the author’s constraints in each chapter, with that anxiety lessening more with each subsequent chapter as letters are added on. But midway through the book, as he gets access to more and more letters, you stop paying attention to the constraints and just ride the odd, jagged, somewhat comical prose.

The first chapter "C" is an excellent example: it's really funny, and doesn't suffer, but also doesn't gain, by being constrained to words beginning with "a," "b," or "c. And most importantly, are the two appearances of the forbidden word "or" in the first H chapter a blunder or a deeper clue, and just part of the game? The end result isn't really successful as a novel -- certainly few readers have ever finished the book caring about or even able to remember the distinction between Alex and Allen; but it can scarcely be chalked up as a failure. First story up for study is "Prima Belladonna" from 1956, a story originally collected in Vermillion Sands .This is all that sweet, succulent Syrah black fruit with a slinky thread of meaty tannins and a perky peppery tang. Bit by bit I have assembled Africa" the narrator admits when he can finally intrude on the scene (in the first I-chapter).