- Paperback: 512 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books; Reissue edition (Mar 12 1988)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0345353064
- ISBN-13: 978-0345353061
- Product Dimensions: 14 x 2.5 x 21.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 653 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,357,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
This family saga is set in the warlike kingdom of Segu (roughly present-day Mali) in the late 19th century. Conde is a born storyteller, commented PW, but the novel's "cumulative effect is marred . . . by such a bewildering array of characters and such a density of cultural detail that the storyline becomes both sluggish and hard to follow."
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
It is late 18th-century Africa, and change, in the form of slave traders from the west and Islam from the east, is coming to the tribal societies. In Segu, a kingdom near present-day Mali, the family of nobleman Dousika Traore is torn apart by the actions of his four sons: One fights for the old pagan ways, one becomes a Moslem, one is taken to Brazil on a slaver, and one is a mercenary. The customs and beliefs of Segu's Bambara tribe are skillfully woven into the story, and the descriptions of slavery and the slave trade are both compelling and horrifying. As in many sagas with as broad a canvas, the characters are somewhat flat, but fascination with the background will carry the reader. For large fiction collections. Janet Boyarin Blundell, M.L.S. , Brookdale Coll., Lincroft, N.J.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magnificent,
This review is from: Segu (Paperback)
Amazing in it's historical scope and accuracy, this book pulls one into the life of early West Africa. One of the best books I've ever read.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great book,
By "thersites3" (Sammamish, WA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Segu (Paperback)
I read this book as a sophomore in high school, and I loved it. I was not, however, forced to read it for a class, which I know can severely distort a student's perspective. I loved the generational quality of the story and I loved reading about this period in African history from an African perspective. I've always been interested in history, and I think that historical fiction is a wonderful supplement to reading "about" history. It puts the reader in that time and place and allows them to truly understand what it must have been like to live there. Other historical fiction I recommend: Anything by Mary Renault (The Last of the Wine, Fire from Heaven, etc.) The Great Train Robbery, by Michael Crichton Other books about this period in Africa I recommend: Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe (which I WAS forced to read for school, and still liked)
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting historical fiction . . . and fact,
This review is from: Segu (Paperback)
"Segu" is a very good historical novel, one of the few that are set in Africa's historical past (circa 1800-1860). The novel's protagonists are an aristocratic family in the empire of Segu (now part of Mali) swept up in the historical currents of the time: Islam, Christianity, European imperialism, and the Atlantic Slave trade. As with "Roots", the story is told from the African perspective, which is refreshing and much needed. The novel is well written and filled with abundant historical detail. There are many deatils here that a student might research in a library, for example: the different lifestyles of the Fulani and Bambara and relations between them; the "Brazilians" in Africa, former slaves from South America that managed to return to Africa; the socio-economic status of Africans of mixed-(European and African) ancestry.It seems a pity that many young people are forced to read this book in school; hopefully they will return to it when they have the maturity to understand and appreciate it.
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