Open City by Teju Cole

I read Everyday is for the thief a few years ago and till date it is one of my best ever reads, so when I found out that Teju Cole had a new book, it was a no brainer. When I bought Open City, I was excited and full of expectations. I was ready for Teju Cole to take me on another amazing journey that I would talk about for ages. In short my expectations were through the roof.

I eagerly began to read and from the first chapter, I was thrown. It wasn’t what I was expecting. The detailed musings of Julius, the main character about the music of Otto Klemperer, Christa Ludwig and Mahler, about the paintings of deaf children by John Brewster seemed to me like a lesson in culture and art. It reminded me of a conversation with a wise and learned friend whom you sort of love and sort of dread talking to, because you know the conversation is going to end with you realising that there is much more to the world than what you see, you feel challenged and motivated to improve yourself yet at the same time it’s frustrating and you look at this person and think, “what are you on about?” That aside this booked touched on some very interesting issues: from global warming; to the Yoruba belief that people born with physical deformities are worshippers of Obatala; to 9/11; to brief mentions of some of the psychiatric patients Julius was treating. There were also snippets of Julius’ childhood in Nigeria and his subsequent disconnect from his family. It was actually an interesting read.

One of the things that I found unique about this book was the way it seemed to jump from one thought to another without any logical flow. At first it frustrated me, I wanted a plot, an interesting storyline. But after a while, I began to think that life doesn’t flow logically from one event to another and this book reads like the narrations of a person’s real life, like the pages of someone’s diary, like a reality book. Like instead of taking a camera crew and filming someone all day, Teju Cole decided to write. It made this book seem real.

The main character, Julius was an odd ball and if you read this book you will spend many a page with him walking through the streets of New York and Belgium with only his thoughts for company. He had no real connection to anyone apart from maybe his old professor. Don’t get me wrong there are some interesting characters in this book like Farouq the Moroccan with whom Julius discusses the fear of Islam, Palestinians, Armenians and his belief that people can live together yet maintain their own values. Dr Maillotte who found Nigerians to be arrogant but well trained doctors. Saidu the Liberian who lost his family in the war, travelled from Liberia to Lisbon where he worked as a barber and a butcher to afford a flight to America, only to make it to JFK airport where he was taken by customs officers to a detention facility and finally Moji, a ghost of Julius’ past with a jaw-dropping secret.

I finished this book with mixed feelings. It was by no means a light read, but it was very unique and special in its own right.

On to the next book. Night Dancer by Chika Unigwe. See you on the first of next month.
Bye.