Novel
No Easy Task
Aubrey Kachingwe · 1965
Synopsis
In an imaginary British colony in Africa, a young journalist, Jo Jozeni, finds himself caught up in a growing nationalist movement and in the political events that lead his country towards independence. According to readers, the great events take place outside the narrative, which shows their consequences through characters none of whom is wholly good or wholly bad.
Context
Published in London by Heinemann in 1965 and presented in January at the British Council in Zomba, the novel came out again in 1966 as number 24 of the African Writers Series, in which its author was the first Malawian. It is held to be partly autobiographical. Academic critics praise its reportorial restraint and its nuanced characters, but find the dialogue stiff; Claude Wauthier, who interviewed the author in 1967, singles out his depiction of the ambiguities of power.
Who it is for
For reading one of the first novels from Malawi, on the press and politics in the time of decolonisation.
Prizes and reception
Paul Theroux, in 1966, judged it fallacious, finding in it none of the political violence he had seen in Malawi.
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