Alphabetical Africa (New Directions Books)

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An African Alphabet is an excellent alphabet book and merits both home purchase and acquisition by libraries serving its intended young audience. There are plenty of good running gags, such as one in which countries paint their land to match their color on a map; Evelyn, the Ethiopian copy-editor who knows English, censors parts of the book with "(deleted)" -- because they are salacious? The plot also is restricted by these limitations: a central storyline revolves around a kidnapping and a murder, though these incidents can't be expanded upon until the relevant letters are allowed into the narrative.

This makes it bit more difficult to take the endeavour entirely seriously (maybe it should be An Almost Alphabetical Africa ? All used books might have various degrees of writing, highliting and wear and tear and possibly be an ex-library with the usual stickers and stamps. Second, I agree that the plot is occasionally amusing, but wouldn't say it is particularly engaging or inventive, and IMO using the Swahili dictionary in the way that it is used in the story is more of a cheap trick.And most importantly, Abish achieves something unique: the sure knowledge that letters will become forbidden creates suspense unachievable in a conventional novel. As you read Nakamura Reality (and do know it will be difficult not to complete it in one sitting), keep in mind this dualism Austin first evokes here with the imagery of waves: inside versus outside, far versus near. Throughout -- even as the book grows -- there is always the awareness that Africa is shrinking, vanishing. Abish's poetic prose rings true no matter how much, or how little, of the alphabet he has at his disposal.

That correspondence is the glue that binds the books together: otherwise Perec and others could have simply taken existing novels or newspaper accounts (as Goldsmith and others do) and subjected them to predetermined rules.Even the threats the narrator receives are "veiled" and "muffled" (while actions speak a bit more clearly than words, as his enemies then blow up his car and garage). Part of the pleasure is like that of reading a rhymed poem, of knowing what must come at the end of the next line, but there is more to it here, since it is a larger constraint.