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Uganda: A Jumbled Thought-Provoking Take On Life
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New Vision (Kampala)
BOOK REVIEW
1 May 2008
Posted to the web 2 May 2008
Kampala
Book: Journey to Maleba
Author: David Ssembajjo
Publisher: Pen Press
Available at: Aristoc Booklex on order
Reviewed by: Emmanuel Ssejjengo
WRITERS in exile will not leave you comfortably reading the book on your couch. It is the unsettled, unsatisfied lives they write about that brings about that discomfort.
In his maiden effort, Ssembajjo goes a little further than expected. His book has no developed plot, storyline or characters and story. It is like putting Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot in a short story form, but with less ornamentation of the diction.
All the book possesses is absurdism, through which you will not smile.
The only character named is Mobish and the only place named is Maleba, a place we do not get to.
That is perhaps because the book never begins, never moves ahead and so cannot come to a close. Mobish is in search of permanent peace and tranquility, and he can only find that peace in the village of Maleba.
From the start, the book promises to be built on John Buchanan Pilgrim's Progress, but after the first paragraph, it turns out that this is a zero-progress book.
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The author puts the idea before the story and how he manages to weave the idea of struggle in the pursuit of total happiness makes him quite exceptional. But the question is whether we can get to that point of utopia.
On the way to the promised heaven, his followers are faced with tribulations, especially brought on by an unnamed government. There are thefts, murders, hunger, thirst and betrayal. And that is besides the restrictions from the government officials.
Instead of questioning the absurdity of living, Ssembajjo confirms it. Take an hour to read this book; it will make you think about life's options.
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