A Book(s) Review - Discovering Home Book by Binyavanga Wainaina and Weight of Whispers Book by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor

... flicked a match to light the paraffin lamp. "They say we won't have any more paraffin next month..." he said. The farmer paused. The room smelt of many things. Paraffin. Urine. Smoke. Tendai gently pushed the farmer to the single bed in the room. "Sit!" Like a parent to a child. Someone who knew what was next. The farmer sank down on the bed. The sheets were clean. The walls were roughly painted yellow, catching the flickering of the lamp as Tendai moved around the small room towards a tin drum.... Binyavanga Wainaina's book is an oxymoron. Thinking he would know his homeland, he comes back to reknow it. publisher: 2006 by Kwani The collection of teeth on the man’s face is a splendid brown. I have never seen such teeth before. Refusing all instruction, my eyes focus on dental contours and craters. Denuded of any superficial pretence; no braces, no fillings, no toothbrush, it is a place where small scavengers thrive. “Evidence!” The man giggles. A flash of green and my US $50 disappears into his pocket. His fingers prod: shirt, coat, trousers. He finds the worked snake skin wallet. No money in it, just a picture or Agnethe-mama, Lune and Chi-Chi, elegant and unsmiling, diamonds in their ears, on their necks and wrists. The man tilts the picture this way and that, returns the picture into the wallet. The wallet disappears into another of his pockets. The man’s teeth gleam. “Souvenir.” Afterwards, a hiccupping “Greeeheeereeehee” not unlike a National Geographic hyena, complete with a chorus from the pack. Weight of Whispers Book by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor shows the plight of the rich becoming poor in a foreign land.