African writers are some of my favorites and Helon Hablia is no expectation. In Oil on Water he explores the Nigerian Oil Trade and all the positives and negatives that go along with it.
A British woman has been Kidnapped and a group is sent to see if she is still alive. Through this we get to see the destruction that the oil trade has wrought on this part of Nigeria.
Habila uses the landscape as a character so we get to see and fell the oil polluted water, the noxious fumes that the burst pipelines emits. His writing was such that I could feel all the things the character was feeling. We float along the chocked rivers and islands and learn about the history of the people. For example the villagers want some of the oil so they poke a hole in a pipeline and it cases a fire that burns down half the villages. Through scenes like this we can sense the desperation of the people. There is another scene where the oil was so thick on the water that people in that seaside village had to relocate as they couldn’t catch any fish. This is the type of stories that need to be heard and don’t often make it into western media.
While this is an “issue book” the writing is so fluid and beautiful that anyone that likes good tight writing and a good story will enjoy this book. I read it in one sitting. I was so riveted to the pages. I had to find out what happened next.
One complaint that I did have about this book it it has what I call an open finish. I wanted the story to wrap up tight and we know every detail of the characters lives but it was not to be. I know you are supposed to take the story and follow it to its logical conclusions but still that kind of ending irks me just a little.
Over all I would recommend this book to everyone. There is action and adventure and issues that the world should know about.
I actually enjoy issue books – they get me fired up – so this sounds good to me!