Tony D'SouzaCritiques

Mix two very different cultures—India and the US—and you get a spectral mix of comedy and conundrum, history and the convolutions of family. It's a lovely mix offered up by D'Souza who knows his way through a lovely mix of mazes.

This book just did not work for me, I liked the writing but the story I just lost interest in, I am sure others will enjoy it.

A long line of Konkans, the “Jews of India” came from Portugal, and abandoned their Hindu traditions and became Catholics. Being a Konkan is something to be proud of.

Living in India, Lawrence D’Sai and his wife, Denise, who is originally from America,decide to move to Chicago for a better life. Soon Denise gives birth to Francisco who is the firstborn son of a firstborn son. Being born as such is important to the family and the Konkan history. The firstborn son of a firstborn son is responsible for the family. He is expected to look after the family.

Coming to America is a decision Lawrence makes for his family, feeling that it is the best for all. At the same time he wishes to carry on his family’s heritage and traditions.

Denise has always wished to stay in India and longs to go back. America is not where she wants to call home.

Lawrence tries hard to fit into the American ways, and will do anything to move up the corporate ladder when it comes to business. It isn’t long when he recognizes that he is treated differently from the others at work. His frustration leads to drinking alone in his basement, night after night.

Sam, Lawrence’s second brother, and Les, his third brother, also comes to American. Les goes off on his own, and joins the navy. Sam stays and gets closely involved with Francisco and Francisco’s mother.

Uncle Sam and Francisco’s mom, Denise, are always telling Fransico stories about India and the family’s history.

The bond between Uncle and Mother becomes stronger. They know that this affair must stop.

The affair stops and Uncle Sam does date and even later marries a girl from India. Sam is not enjoying the life that he has made for himself. Denise pleads with Sam to be nice to his young bride.

Throughout the book, Fransico is the narrative. Every character has a different outlook on things and remembers things their own way. It’s a story of family, migration, and how one chooses to live their life.½

De hoofdpersoon is een ontwikkelingswerker die naar Afrika gaat om waterputten te slaan. Maar daar komt niet veel van terecht. In een aantal hoofdstukken vertelt hij over een aantal voor zijn leven daar relevante personen (meestal vrouwen waar hij een liefdesverhouding mee had). Niet echt heel boeiend of spannend dit boek. Ook niet echt saai daarentegen. Zet wel tot nadenken waarom mensen altijd zo tegenover elkaar (moeten) staan vanwege huidskleur, geloof e.d.½

Tony D’Souza doesn’t make the life of a drug courier attractive in any way. Anxiety is a constant backdrop in Mule. From the financial anxiety of an out-of-work writer with a wife and baby on the way, to that of a courier trying to cover his tracks and not attract notice, to a successful trafficker constantly concerned about being double-crossed or arrested.

In Mule, James is all three of these as his involvement in the business progresses. It takes a toll on all aspects of his life that the money cannot entirely salve.

D’Souza keeps the story tight as a bowstring, the tension and unease constant and unrelenting.½

I found "Mule," a novel by Tony D'Souza, to be difficult reading, but not in the usual sense. It's a terrific book and easy enough to follow. It's just that it is about the illegal drug business, a subject I prefer to not even think about, let alone read about.

When I met the author last fall in St. Petersburg, Fla., he spoke about the detailed research he did to prepare for writing this novel, and it shows. The story is practically a how-to book, as D'Souza goes into amazing detail about how marijuana is transported across the country and distributed to dealers. But it is also a why-not book, as he shows the consequences that can and often do follow.

James, the narrator, is a married freelance writer who is doing very well until economy nosedives and publications will no longer buy what he offers. Looking for a way to support his family temporarily, he agrees to become a mule, driving pot across country from California to Florida.

The money is good, and so is the pot, which Kate, his wife, indulges in, even if James avoids it. Yet soon enough, things begin to sour. James finds himself doing things, even violent things, he could not have imagined himself ever doing. As law enforcement begins closing in on his operation and both his supplier and his main buyer get nervous, James worries not just about going to prison, but also about keeping himself and his family alive.

D'Souza insisted at his Florida appearance that he has never smoked or dealt pot, but his novel demonstrates that he may know as much about the trade as many of those who do.

Well, at first, I could not read this book fast enough - the story and its telling was so engaging (James and Kate both high flying successful couple makes it big and then the crash, and they are unemployed) that I was really taken in by this novel.

I found the almost "how to be a drug mule" research to be very readable, but then the last 10 pages came as the book ended, and it just totally lost me. I felt like James was on a downward spiral, but I never expected such a disconnected resolution. That really ruined it for me.½

Mule by Tony D'Souza has only one main charactor - greed. The plot, so thin that the story is a whisker from being an allegory, just sets the stage for greed. And greed kicks everything to the curb. The book is moderately interesting in broadly addressing the interdependance of law breakers and law enforcers, human nature, drug culture, entitlement and values. It seems difficult to find any commonality with the charactors. Author's style is a plus, and it will get most readers through the book with some satisfation.

For me to enjoy a book, I need to like or connect with at least one of the main characters. I need to care what happens to him/her. That didn't happen with this book. Both James, the narrator, and Kate are lazy, greedy, selfish and childish. I didn't care what happened to them and found the book difficult to read because I couldn't find anything to like about either of them.

I thought the beginning of the book was rushed. James and Kate are a young couple, with money and great jobs. A few pages later, she is pregnant and they have both lost their jobs. I would have liked to get to know more about the people they were before their lives changed and they began making ridiculous choices. Soon after losing their jobs, they decide to move way out in the wilderness where they know there is no chance of finding work. They lie around a lot and seem to have no ambition at all, which I found completely at odds with the high-powered working couple they'd been at the start of the book.

Without giving more of the plot away, I'll just say that other choices made early on didn't make sense to me. This didn't feel like a couple struggling to survive and doing what was necessary, which is what the blurb leads readers to believe. This felt like a couple of spoiled, lazy kids who wanted easy money. As much as I tried, I could find nothing in this one to like.

D'Souza's Whiteman is a thoughtful look at the difficulties and joys of bridging cultures. Whiteman, as Adama or Jack is called, narrates his own struggle to become a man by the standards of culture almost completely unknown to him. Though he makes numerous mistakes, Adama is ultimately welcomed and respected by the Africans with whom he lives. However, the novel is a bleak picture of any hope for stability or truly meaningful, non-exploitative ties between the West and Africa. Still, Africa is treasured in this account and the readers are left with both a sense of its harshness and its magic. A compelling read full of many interesting characters, all as clearly drawn as Western eyes will allow. This episodic approach mimics well a life so foreign the narrator can only begin to piece it together. Africa is the thread that holds these episodes together and anything more would have made it ring false, for Africa is the most important and interesting character in the book.

I didn't hate this book as much as I thought I would, though I'm not sure what kind of endorsement that is. It's written by a former peace corps volunteer from my writing workshop this summer, who is very up-and-coming in the writing world. Very smart guy, very charismatic, etc.
The book is more of a series of episodes than a novel--a collection of characters from Africa. The transitions from one chapter to the next aren't terribly smooth. That said, the images, the scenes, held my attention and kept me turning pages.½

Just finished this book. It has lush descriptions of Africa, along with a glimpse of how life for Peace Corps style volunteers might be in a precarious war-torn zone. Adama Diomande (Jack diaz is his real name, Adama Diomande is the name bestowed on him by his village) is the first person narrator of the book is in Worodougou, a small Muslim village in the north of the Ivory Coast, to educate villagers about AIDS. He finds himself coming to terms with life in a different culture, sans basic necessities, sans even sex. The loneliness and the desperation leads Adama to make some questionable choices - he takes up with a prostitute and his neighbor's wife, and in the biggest irony of all, doesn't use condoms with them. And manages to stay HIV free. If the ostensible message of the book was safe sex, then by those standards this book is a failure. But interesting read overall.