The Brave African Huntress by Tutuola

Title: The Brave African Huntress

Author: Amos Tutuola (Nigerian, 1920-1997)
Originally published: 1958
Page count: 169

Dates read: 5/30/22-6/4/22

Read my other book reviews for my 2022 goals HERE.

Description on back of book:
This is the story of Adebisi, a brave African huntress who sets out for the Jungle of the Pigmies to rescue her four brothers. Along the way, she conquers a giant, serves as the barber to a king, and endures the horrors of the pigmies' prison. Yet she will not give up. By employing her strength and intelligence, she finds a way to release her brothers and returns home to a hero's welcome.

First sentence:
"I Adebisi, the African huntress, will first relate the adventure of my late father, one of the ancient brave hunters, in brief."

Review:

I just could not get immersed in the story. I applaud Tutuola for writing a book in his second language, but I reworded every sentence in my head as I was reading. He overused the words 'like,' 'that,' and 'etc,' which became annoying. I wish he had written in his native language and then had the book translated. The story was also written more by telling rather than showing, which kept me from being immersed as well. I decided there were other books I wanted to read and didn't finish this one.

But... why didn't you finish the book?!

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Amos Tutuola have the last words:

"The leaves on the tree on which I hid were so covered me that if I did not climb this tree on the presence of somebody there was nobody who could believe that I was there. Then everyone of us kept as quiet in his or her hiding place and stopped talking as when the heavy rain stopped the voices of birds."