Wrestling with the Devil: A Prison Memoir is a 2018 memoir by Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o.[1] The book was published by the New York City-based publisher The New Press.[2] It is an edited version of Thiongo'o's 1981 memoir, Detained: A Writer's Prison Diary, which was never published in the United States.[3][4]
| Author | Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Memoir |
| Publisher | The New Press |
Publication date | March 6, 2018 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 272 |
| ISBN | 1-620-97333-2 |
The book is about the drama and difficulties of creating fiction while under constant observation for twenty-four hours. In addition to capturing the unbearable anguish of being separated from his spouse and kids, he also depicts the spirit of defiance that characterizes optimism.[5]
The memoir received positive reviews from Kirkus Reviews,[6] The New York Times[7][8] and Publisher's Weekly.[3]
Plot
editThe memoir begins thirty minutes before his December 12, 1978, release from prison. He remembers, in one long flashback, the night a year prior, when he was taken from his home by armed police and imprisoned at Kenya's KamĪtĩ Maximum Security Prison, one of the biggest in Africa. He is segregated from the other inmates and resides in a prison block with eighteen other political prisoners.[7]
Reference
edit- ^ Thiong'o, Ngugi wa (2018-03-06). Wrestling with the Devil: A Prison Memoir. New York London: The New Press. ISBN 978-1-62097-333-2.
- ^ "Wrestling with the Devil". The New Press. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
- ^ a b "Wrestling with the Devil: A Prison Memoir by Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
- ^ Magras, Michael. "Review: 'Wrestling With the Devil,' by Ngugi wa Thiong'o". Star Tribune. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
- ^ "Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o: 'Resistance is the best way of keeping alive' | Ngugi wa Thiong'o | The Guardian". amp.theguardian.com. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
- ^ "WRESTLING WITH THE DEVIL". Kirkus Reviews. 2017-12-10. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
- ^ a b Dorfman, Ariel (2018-04-27). "A Kenyan Writer and Dissident on His Year in Prison". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
- ^ "8 New Books We Recommend This Week". The New York Times. 2018-05-03. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
Further reading
edit- Meenakshi, M.S.S.; Vennila, S. (2019-06-02). "Human Relationship, a Sine Quo Non of Africans to Surmount Western Influence: A Reading of Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Wrestling with the Devil : A Prison Memoir". The Journal for English Language and Literary Studies. 9 (2): 5–5. ISSN 2249-216X.
- A. M., Ong'ang'a; Indangasi, H.; Kitata, M. (2021). "Manipulation of narrative paradigm in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's Wrestling with the Devil (2018)". Hybrid Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies.
- Theodra, Justin (2021-04-03). "Wrestling with the devil: a prison memoir : by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, New York, The New Press, 2018, 180 pp., e-book, $12.25, ISBN 978-1-62097-334-9". Review of African Political Economy. 48: 314. doi:10.1080/03056244.2021.1860344. hdl:10.1080/03056244.2021.1860344. ISSN 0305-6244.