Review of The Civilized World: A Novel in Stories by Susi Wyss
The Civilized World: A Novel in Stories by Susi Wyss (Central African Republic, 1990–92) Henry Holt and Company $15.00 226 pages March, 2011 Reviewed by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith (Cameroon 1965–67) IN HER DEBUT NOVEL, The Civilized World: A Novel in Stories, Susi Wyss infuses her characters with the same affability and intimate pain that Alexander McCall Smith infused Precious Ramotswe, his #1 Private Lady Detective, but on a much wider and nuanced scale. Wyss has created contemporary African characters who are not look-alike, one-size-fits-all pieces of cardboard and too, American characters with equally distinguishable lives. The Americans live side-by-side with the Africans under circumstances both provocative and reasonable. Whether Ghanaian or U.S. military brat, Malawian or Washingtonian, each is a unique personality facing conflicts and heartbreaks and successes, sagas which will pull you into the page. Here is Ophelia, newly arrived in Malawi, wife of an American Embassy drone, making plans . . .
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