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Öl Auf Wasser (2012)

by Helon Habila(Favorite Author)

3.6 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Wunderhorn Verlag

review 1: Last week in a seminar presenting environmental issues in Africa, my lecturer strongly recommended this book. Out of the whole class, I think I was the only one to actually follow his advice, and I must say, I'm not disappointed, and I'm going to make my classmates read it too.The story takes place in the Niger Delta, where a huge conflict arose between the oil companies destroying the environment and the militants trying to do anything they can to make them stop and leave. The oil companies have the money, and so they have the governments lawyers and soldiers too. The militants only way of getting by is by ransoming hostages, making them the bad guys in everyone's eyes.We follow Rufus, a young journalist who tries to track down the militants as a British woman has been ta... moreken hostage and he wants his "first great scoop" of the bad guys.Throughout the short novel we find out how hopeless the locals position is against the oil companies. Even if they struggle against them, the oil companies find a way to break them through their power and money, build their machines and destroy the environment around the Nigerians, forcing the locals to move away from the place that they love.Here in Europe I feel like I am not shown these types of conflicts through the media, and it took me until university to finally have a teacher willing to expose some of these problems. I felt ashamed to know so little about the terrible things happening in this everlasting worldwide fossil fuel hunt down, and I'm glad to have read this book. Throughout our main characters travels, we see the different point of views of the militants, locals, government soldiers, and even have a chance to talk to a big cheese from the oil company. The characters are very interesting, the plot fast paced and never boring, but it is far from being a happy story. However even in this war without end, beauty and hope can be found, even if it's only through a little thing, like rebuilding a statue.With easy language (apart from the pidgin English) and nice big writing, you can read this great novel in a day or two and it is definitely worth it.
review 2: This was a wonderful glimpse into the confusion, violence, desperation and hope of the Niger Delta region and its people. It was up close and personal in the way I like when reading about conflicted parts of the world. Too often, writers bring the camera too far back so that readers can see the big picture; however, in the process they lose the humanity of what's going on and the humans involved become more like tiny pawns being moved about. I hate that. This book did the opposite. I love that.Nevertheless, this wasn't as tantalizing and engulfing as my favorite Habila book Waiting for an Angel. I also listened to the audio version and the reader's poor accent drove me crazy. I have had to read my own work and do accents that I'm not all that good at. So I understand it's now easy. Clearly this reader was not Nigeria. BUT there are basics that a professional reader should get when doing accents different from his or her own. In this case, he mispronounced "Igbo" and pronounced "Lagos" like a non-Nigerian. No no no. I had to stop listening a few times because his accent was so annoying and off. I listened to the audio-book because of time constraints (the only time I have to read are when I am cooking or working out). If you have the the time, do not get the audio-book!Anyway, a good Habila book but not my personal favorite. I will read more of his work, certainly. He's great. less

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