Forget growing up in the '90s. How much worse would it be to experience one's turbulent, isolated teenage years in 1980s Nigeria?
This is a place where an accidental brush with an army colonel can mean death, where cars flatten pedestrians and the drivers never look back (and the corpses remain in the street because of exorbitant taxes on burial), and a place where mothers mutilate their newborn children because deformed beggars elicit more pity and have a greater chance of getting handouts as they grow old.
This is the place where 16-year-old Elvis Oke is struggling to make a living as a dancer. For the teen, this is a particularly difficult task, considering his father does not approve of Elvis' \feminine, useless"" profession.
""GraceLand,"" by Chris Abani, charts Elvis' effort to understand the chaotic society around him as well as his attempts to understand his role in the family and how to become a man.
Elvis undergoes his coming-of-age journey amidst a hodgepodge of characters including his cousin Innocent, who has flashbacks to his service in the Biafran army's ""Boy Brigade,"" his friend Redemption, a drug-dealing go-to man who gets Elvis into and out of a lot of trouble and Elvis' own father, Sunday, a former Nigerian politician turned bitter and alcoholic by the death of his wife and the collapse of the government.
This book highlights the uncomfortable yet comic juxtaposition of American and Nigerian culture, especially in the minds of Elvis and his friends. They take most of their references about American culture from the movies they see (John Wayne plays the lead role in each one), often with hilarious (although sometimes pitiful) results.
Paramount throughout is Elvis' desire to resemble his namesake, the King of Rock 'n' Roll. Our protagonist even dons white makeup, blue eyeshadow. Although the teen himself believes he has done a good job looking like The King, it is painfully obvious to the reader he has not.
The imagery of the book is tremendous. As even one so young as Elvis puts it, ""How can a place so violent and ugly be beautiful at the same time?""
On one hand, Abani makes light of the shaman, who wears a snake around his neck and whose afro ""scours the underbelly of the sky."" But on the other hand, some scenes gruesomely describe that ""there were still pools of blood, clotting flies into a knobby black crust. The earth was baked so hard it couldn't absorb any more blood. It refused to soak it up.""
Politics, too, serve as a backdrop for Elvis' experience. The Nigerian government, for instance, in a misguided effort to eradicate poverty, orders the razing of the slums surrounding Lagos, in which Elvis and his family live.
Corruption and the iron hand of the army affect his daily life, as does the black market trade in everything from heroin to body organs.
""GraceLand"" is, ultimately, a mesmerizing glimpse at a polarized society with an unbelievable ability to function. Despite signs of collapse around every corner, Elvis manages to move along with the ebb and flow of the pseudo-anarchy around him.
Abani's debut is spectacular, and may be just the spark today's Nigeria needs to undergo its own revival in stability, progress and culture.
""GraceLand"" is published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
