So Long a Letter

I really enjoyed this book, very well written and I will really recommend it. My friends all enjoyed it equally ☺.

Sensitive, provocative, emotive and so very well crafted. A joy to read. Context is everything - in the author and the reader. A retrospective novel means so much more to the mature reader. To the lighthouse would be a different read for me now. I am glad I am reading this novel in my 50's as I feel I connect so much more with the many sensitivities of the protagonist.The only other Senegalese novel I have read is Xala, which to a certain extent gives the male version of a polygamist culture. However, both deal with ageing, status within society and stature as well as familial nuances.Both novels are so very well crafted and if you only read two Sengalese novels - read these. That said, I cannot wait to read more novels from this country. I just have to get through the 18 African novels I got for my birthday.Bottom line, it does not matter where you start, read a novel by an African author and you will soon find yourself on an African literary adventure.

Wonderful book.

In her novel, So Long A Letter, Mariama Ba has provided the reader with a beautifully written epistolary novel told from the perspective of a recently widowed Senegalese schoolteacher Ramatoulaye Fall. Ramatoulaye recounts the events of her life with insight both spiritual and emotional, winning her way easily into the heart of the reader from the very first pages. She pens her letters honestly and reflectively, writing from her heart to her lifelong friend, Aissatou. The novel spans from fond memories of early girlhood to her late husband’s recent and bitter betrayal of their marriage through his taking of a second wife. The reader may expect to find themselves unsatisfied by the decision Ramatoulaye makes to remain with her husband even after his betrayal- after all, Ba sets up Aissatou as a clear foil, a woman who decides to leave her husband after he too takes a second wife. However, Ba notably charges both women with the self-possession and freedom to react to their respective experiences with betrayal in the way their own heart guides them. What the reader receives in this tender and deeply cherishable work is the story of two women reacting against their broken marriages with faith, courage, and wisdom. In the end, So Long A Letter is a love story, though not between man and wife. The real love story that emerges is the love story of female friendship: friendship that is a strength through the years, that remains constant even as other relationships flourish and fade. The reader will find Ba’s work a quick, yet rewarding, read.

This used copy arrived in good condition. Only one underline (not even in the prose) and a scratched-off price sticker on the bottom left of the cover). But it's exactly what I needed, as books that are read and read well tend to have a little bit of wear. It lends an endearing character to the book itself.This beautifully written short novella, is a rare treasure trove of prose packed full of powerful and memorable lines. Its pages vibrate and hum with ancient wisdom and timeless insights into African, and truly universal womanhood, but in a postcolonial context.The story is told in the form of letters from the protagonist Ramatoulaye to her dear friend Aissatou. It opens with a funeral, and we meet our narrator and her estranged co-wife as widows. But blazing underneath the mourning drapery of a sullen widow, we meet the intelligent, witty and persevering woman that is Ramatoulaye."Clothed in my dignity, the only worthy garment, I go my way"It is the relationship between her and her friend Aissatou that will tune the ears and gears of your heart: both women are educated professionals and mothers who are betrayed in their marriages by their respective husbands taking second wives-- both in different but equally devastating ways that will shock the reader-- but reveal, in waves and torrents, spot-on insights into ego, duty, nature and culture, and how these things shape the world we live in."Man is one: greatness and animal fused together. None of his acts is pure charity. None is pure bestiality""Slough off this surfeit of dreamy sentimentality. Accept reality in its crude ugliness"Around the troubling marital events that disturb the lives of the women and by extension those around them, the protagonist gives us a glimpse of life in 1960s Senegal. We get a taste of the seaside air, the beautiful fabrics, the smell of incense smoke in houses and the carefree joy of children playing in the sand at beaches. We taste the coconuts and spices-- but we also taste the beginnings of a new era for Senegal, for Africa, for the world; Women's freedom to receive education, run for office, make her own money, choose her spouse, participate in society beyond the domestic sphere. We will explore and ruminate, with Ramatoulaye, upon the sometimes rough collision between the old and the new, the past and the future."The ripe fruit must drop away from the tree""My heart rejoices each time a woman emerges from the shadows. I know that the field of our gains is unstable, the retention of conquests difficult; social constraints are ever-present, the male egoism resists.Instruments for some, baits for others, respected or despised, often muzzled, women have almost the same fate, which religions or unjust legislation have sealed"An essential read for anyone, no matter their background, but especially for every woman everywhere."Aunty Nabou acknowledged man's vulnerability in the face of the eternity of nature. By its very duration, nature defies time and takes its revenge on man"