Reviews

SHOULD LIBERIA HAVE BEEN AN EXAMPLE FOR THE WORLD? Literary review of Helene Cooper’s ‘The House at Sugar Beach’ (5) of (5)

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Cooper goes on to express her appreciation for the support and assistance received. Referring to six friends of her, she says “the six of them helped me figure out what I wanted to write, how I wanted to write it, and how to live with myself after I wrote it” (“my Liberian friends and cousins…

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BEING A CONGO IN THE UNITED STATES IS NOT THAT EASY. Literary review of Helene Cooper’s ‘The House at Sugar Beach’ (3 of 5)

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Going back to Helene Cooper’s life, it became considerably more complicated when the Liberian civil war broke out, a factor that forced her to move to the United States, specifically to Knoxville, Tennessee, where her status changed radically, becoming a second-class citizen and realising for the first time that she was black (an Irish boyfriend…

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LIBERIA WAS FOUNDED BY SLAVES. Literary review of Helene Cooper’s ‘The House at Sugar Beach’ (1 of 5)

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The House at Sugar Beach is an autobiographical novel (it may also be considered quite simply a novel) written by the journalist and diplomatic correspondent of the New York Times, Helene Cooper. Cooper is a woman of Liberian origin who, over time, acquired American citizenship. In the novel, Cooper recounts her childhood and adolescence whilst…

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THE MOST WELL KNOWN AFRICAN NOVEL IN THE WORLD. Literary review of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (3 of 3)

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The narrator’s voice maintains an objective and firm tone throughout, but on page 130, the narrator surprisingly expresses an opinion about the new, cruel Reverend Smith, saying that he should have known that the Kingdom of God does not depend on the masses. “He should have known that the kingdom of God did not depend…

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THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION IS REVOLUTIONARY. Literary review of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (2 of 3)

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Things Fall Apart is a classic piece of African literature, and why not, of world literature. The story portrays a typical African rural reality (Nigerian in this case), where the relationship between religion, white man and the colonisation of the African continent is explained. Certainly, back in the day in Africa (as on other continents…

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