I Like The U.s. And Feel Gratitude

I Like The U.s. And Feel Gratitude Towards It.

I Recently Spoke At A University Where A Student Told Me It Was Such A Shame That Nigerian Men Were Physical Abusers Like The Father Character In My Novel. I Told Him That I Had Recently Read A Novel Called American Psycho,and That It Was A Shame That Young Americans Were Serial Murderers.

Our Histories Cling To Us. We Are Shaped By Where We Come From.

If I Were Not African, I Wonder Whether It Would Be Clear To Me That Africa Is A Place Where The People Do Not Need Limp Gifts Of Fish But Sturdy Fishing Rods And Fair Access To The Pond. I Wonder Whether I Would Realize That While African Nations Have A Failure Of Leadership, They Also Have Dynamic People With Agency And Voices.

I Am Drawn, As A Reader, To Detail-drenched Stories About Human Lives Affected As Much By The Internal As By The External, The Kind Of Fiction That Jane Smiley Nicely Describes As 'first And Foremost About How Individuals Fit, Or Don't Fit, Into Their Social Worlds.'