Born in Dar el Salaam, Tanzania, from an Ghanian father and an Armenian-American mother, Nadia Owusu followed a journey of displacement all over the world. For those who read/are told about such a round the world experience, with international school - his father was an UN diplomat - it sounds fantastic. For those experiencing it - Nadia and her sister - it was more than a superficial world trip, when one may gather names of countries and cities. Dislocation, running with no roots, it is not a feeling easy to cope with. ´I never know how to answer the question of my origin´, she confessed.
A fantastic life, indeed, but what about the shocks?
I loved Aftershocks. It is a memoir that it´s addictive and deserves all the hype it recently received. The audiobook read by the author is a magnified experience of the writing, because one can feel in the writer/reader voice the dramatism of some moments and the lightness of others.
What really impressed me in this memoir that should be considered a study case of writing of this genre is the deep of the analysis. From personal stories to international configurations, Owusu is able to discern, dissect and re-evaluate. Each chapter goes deep and deep into the episodes of trauma and everyday racism she experienced. There is no hate or outrage in her stories - even when talking about her mother who abandoned her and her sister, or the cruelty of her step-mother. She is mentioning the weight of the traumatic experience of the Armenian genocide her mother was carrying in her blood. This candid historical explanation - which makes sense, after all - is for me one of the most moving part of Owusu´s personal story.
Managing so many memories may create sometimes confusing when it comes to the exact time-related account of those memories. In several occasions, I had the feeling that a better precision of who exactly is the source of those memories may have avoid pretending to re-enact the voice of a couple of months old child or even 2 or 3 years old. The voices of her sister is mostly absent and echoing through her memories only. A bigger diversity of the tones and register of memories would have created a multiphonics experience.
Last but not least, her writing about jazz is so beautiful and encapsulates enthusiastically not only the creative vibe of this music but also its roots and enlightened philosophy.
Aftershocks is one of the best memoirs I´ve read in a while for its strength and power of coming at terms with the past, any kind of past, through the force of understanding and empathy. As for the writer, I can´t wait to read more from her. Sooner than later.
Rating: 4 stars
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