Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2018 -

In this must-read study and interpretation of Ghalib (1797-1869), India's most prominent poet, Narang (emer., Univ. of Delhi, India) opens new avenues for looking into the novel aspects of Ghalib's work. The English version of this study benefits enormously from being translated from the Urdu by Deol, who excels in rendering the ambiguous Ghalibean poetics into lucid and fresh modern English, without missing the intricate hints embedded in the Urdu and Persian texts. Ghalib is known for his plays on words and love of mystical and symbolical parlance. Both Narang and Deol pay close attention to the characteristics and splendor of 19th-century Urdu poetry. Ghalib achieved a novelty of style thanks to his deep knowledge of Persian and Urdu Sufi poetry. His meanings are subtle and intricate, but Narang is armed with all the tools to interpret and analyze his Sufi/Sufi-surrealist language. Ghalib was the last of the classicists and the first of the modernists, and is now known generally for the density of his ideas and his innovative style.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

Ngugi's title references Ian Watt's The Rise of the Novel (1957), but Ngugi (Cornell Univ.) declares he is "not writing a literary history of the African novel in English" but instead "trying to find out why early African writing, and the literary criticism that pays attention to it, remains on the margins as opposed to being part of the African literary tradition." This he accomplishes very effectively, introducing the reader to some neglected writers--Thomas Mofolo, A. C. Jordan, Sol Plaatje, and others. In addition, Ngugi discusses writing fiction in African languages as opposed to the languages of the colonizer (an issue his father, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, was passionate about); translation; how to define African literature; how to define the canon and the role of popular literature therein; and the influence of publishers and critics in shaping the known canon. Though these are not new issues, Ngugi complicates them in intrepid and innovative fashion, demonstrating wide knowledge of relevant scholarship. He provides astute analysis of writers such as Achebe, Aidoo, Adichie, Tutuola, Dangarembga, and Bulawayo. Throughout Ngugi uncovers the role of colonialism and its philosophy of racial hierarchy in the perception of African literature. He also touches, in fascinating ways, on his own work as a writer of detective fiction. This will be a standard text and reference book on the African novel.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.