"In the Belly of the Congo", by Blaise Ndala

Blaise Ndala navigates with a poetic pen the troubled waters of the time of the Belgian Congo. This multigenerational novel explores the history and human cost of colonialism in the country. Through a series of events, the story takes place in Brussels and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1958 and in 2003.

Reading is not always easy and is enjoyable only at times. The author regularly uses the past tense which is not bad in itself. However annoying throughout this book is the writing style. The prose is a bit stilted and the tone very oral, I think I would have preferred to listen to it rather than reading it. So many narrative parentheses are opened by the author, that the strong moments are drowned in a rain of endless sentences and paraphrases, chronicles and anecdotes, fables and gossip. It is hard to connect to the story and the characters. Even with all the unnecessary detours we still learn a little about the history of the Belgian Congo but we get lost more than we find ourselves there.

I found this book hard to read and even more to review.

Thank you, Simon & Schuster for making this ARC available for me to read.