It’s not possible for any author’s works to appeal equally or even to be of precisely the same quality. And so I must confess my disappointment that this ranks as my least favorite of Gurnah’s novels (it’s my fifth book by him). The more so since I am astonished to discover that it is one of his most well-regarded books on both goodreads and Amazon (though, in fairness, all of his books fall within a particularly narrow range on both sites as well). The unnamed narrator, born and raised in Zanzibar, moves to England for university, marries, and stays on in England despite a marriage that shows every sign of failing and a career and life that seem equally unrewarding. About halfway through the book, he returns “home” to the family he has completely ignored for decades. I found the narrator not only unsympathetic but distinctly disagreeable, if not worse. He has not done well in life and he appears to be entirely responsible for his failure(s). Gurnah is very good at depicting the immigrant experience and at addressing post-colonial issues. Unfortunately, the narrator’s often understandable hatred of everything—including himself—is unrelenting and several hundred pages of little but loathing and disgust inevitably takes a toll. The narrator’s return to Zanzibar unsurprisingly changes nothing (though Gurnah devotes a substantial portion of the book to it) and, at the end of the book, when he finally goes back to his wife and daughter in England, what happens next can hardly be a surprise. I don’t question the accuracy of Gurnah’s portrayals or interpretations but accuracy—indeed, truth—doesn’t always make good reading. A great disappointment. ( )

I thought reading this novel would allow me to say that I'm all caught up with Gurney’s novels (the ones I have been able to obtain), one of my favorite authors of the African diaspora, but alas! he published new book last year (which, of course, I had to chase down so it now is in "the TBR pile”).

Gurnah is a fabulous writer and storyteller. He is originally from the island of Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania) but has lived in the UK for many decades. One can be absorbed into his books, transported out of ourselves for as long as we are turning pages. In this book he gives us a coming-of-age story, and another viewpoint of the European colonization of Africa....

Our unnamed narrator tells his own story beginning in the present where he is at the doctor's office in the UK being told he has a "dickey heart". The narrator left his native Zanzibar as a young man and due to conditions there has never returned to see his family, nor has he spoken to any of them over the years. He becomes a teacher and has a family in England, and he is prone to weaving colorful and fanciful stories about his native land. But now, conditions in Zanzibar have opened up and he can finally travel to see family members.

This is a story about “belonging” and the idea of “home”, but also very much a story of deep self-reflection and acknowledgment of how we are changed by our choices. ( )

The unnamed narrator of this novel flees his native Zanzibar as a young man, traveling to UK as a student. For twenty years, he lives as a sort of permanent alien in UK, finding it easier, when telling people about his origins, to invent stories about Zanzibar and his family, rather than try to explain the real complexities of his family life and origins. Living in the assumption that he will never return home, he also does not tell his family in Zanzibar about his British partner, Emma, or Amelia, their daughter. Then, the opportunity to visit "home" brings his created stories into collision. An engaging and intriguing look at the plight of the "postcolonial's" relationship to "home" and the world. ( )

The tone of this book has a cynical edge appropos of the main narrator. Characteristic of Gurnah, colonialism and the perspective of the colonized inform and propel the story. I enjoyed the story itself and how Gurnah portrays an immigrant man in his mid-life crises, seeing his present world in the UK stagnate and his personal history (from Zanzibar) further slip from him. He reckons with this personal souring by visiting, after several decades away, his family in Zanzibar. The psychological insights, as often with Gurnah, are precise, bittersweet and all-too authentic. I've read 3 of the Gurnah oeuvre and I intend to continue. His storytelling and his active, fearless use of history and socio-political contexts make his books relevant and enliven the characters. ( )

The nameless narrator is a Zanzibarian man in his 40s who emigrates to the UK as a teenager, makes a life for himself in London, and decides to travel back home to visit his mother and family, who he hasn't seen in nearly 20 years.

He is a dishonest and deceitful, yet well meaning man, and is incapable of decisive action -- his life is chosen for him. His uncle in Zanzibar chooses to send him to the UK. His uncle with whom he stays in London makes arrangements for him to enter the University of London and become a teacher. While attending university he meets Emma, a white Londoner, and she chooses him to be her mate. Emma decides to stop taking The Pill, and as a result she becomes pregnant. Emma's love for him gives him the strength and courage to become a reasonably good student, but his career as a grade school teacher in the public school system is chosen for him. He can barely tolerate the school and his students, but he does not seek a more fulfilling position. His daughter Amelia learns to despise him, as does Emma.

His only actions involve the deception of those he loves: Emma, Amelia, and his mother and family in Zanzibar. Although he does not love them, he deceives Emma's parents as well, and no one truly knows him. For that matter, he deceives himself: he does not know what he wants from life, and believes that he is a failure, but does not hate himself for this, and does not do anything about it.

He is welcomed home as a success story, and quickly re-establishes close ties to his mother and siblings. However, he does not tell his family of his secret life in London with Emma and Amelia, and circumstances cause him to disgrace his family, and for his mother to disown him.

I enjoyed Admiring Silence, but not nearly as much as his novels "By the Sea" and "Desertion", as the main supporting characters were not as well described as they could have been, in particular Emma and the narrator's mother. ( )