3.75⭐️

Confrontations by Simone Atangana Bekono (translated by Suzanne Heukensfeldt Jansen) revolves around sixteen-year-old Salomé Atabong, daughter of a Cameroonian father and a Dutch mother, living in the Netherlands sentenced to six months in juvenile detention for a violent act, the details of which are gradually revealed. The narrative follows Salome as she comes to terms with the consequences of act of the violence she committed, her resistance to being “rehabilitated”, her equations with her family members, and her friction with the psychologist she perceives as racist on account of insensitive remarks made while a participant in a reality show some years. Complicating matters further for her are her father’s terminal diagnosis and the treatment meted out to her and her fellow detainees by the authorities of “the Donut” as they refer to the detention facility.

With sparse yet poetic prose, sharp writing, and complex characters, this novel is an intense read. The author does a remarkable job of depicting Salomé’s complexity and confusion. Her underlying anger toward the world around her is palpable, as is her pain. In the course of her journey of self-exploration, Salome ponders over the circumstances that led her to act the way she did, attempting to analyze her motivations, her sense of self-worth and her plans for the future. The story touches upon themes such as racism and racial identity, societal expectations and stereotyping, bullying and violence, detention and rehabilitation of minors and terminal illness, among others. The narrative is a tad disjointed and constantly switches between past and present (often abruptly), which takes a bit of time to get used to but overall, I found this to be a powerful, thought-provoking read.

Many thanks to Bloomsbury USA for the digital review copy via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

cw: imprisonment, racism, assault

thank you so much to @netgalley and @bloomsburypublishing for the ARC - recently published in it’s translated version on January 30th

this is a short novel filled with so much depth and complexity, written beautifully. it’s thought-provoking and reflective, showing us the story of a young Black girl sent to juvenile detention after she defends herself against a racist and violent attack by 2 young men. it’s an intimate examination of the emotional trauma of being imprisoned, of the ways that racism is perpetuated within the systems in our society, and the expectations placed on Black women

“It’s as if I’m exposed to something dark. It hangs over all of us and connects us, but is different for everyone. It’s as if we’re all in our own vortex: we’re moving, but aren’t going anywhere. Or maybe it’s not a vortex. Maybe it’s a pit, we all have our own pit we’ve fallen into. No one wants to accept how far down they’ve ended up.”

Unfortunately I had a really hard time getting into this one and found the writing to be a bit hard to get into and understand. I DNF'd it at 30% :( thanks to the publisher for supplying my review copy!

This one wasn't really for me, but I'm still very thankful to Bloomsbury Books, Simone Antangana Bekono, and Netgalley for granting me advanced digital access before publication day.

Getting into this book was a bit of a challenge. The pacing in the beginning was relentless, but with no context, I feel like a large majority of the main character's reflections went straight over my head. I started to get a little more invested around 35% of the way through, once I had a better grip on all the key characters and some of the action that preceded the start of the book; however, it wasn't until much later that I really connected with the emotional journey of Salome (the narrator).

With that in mind, I do think this book speaks to some of the pointlessness of incarceration and the way in which the structures put in place for rehabilitation don't serve anyone but the administrators and those on the outside. The deprivation of visitation rights felt especially cruel, given her fears about her father's illness and the general dynamic with her family. I wish that we were given a little more time with Salome toward the end of her time on the inside, as I felt like those moments were the most valuable, but I do think the point was given enough space to make an impact.

I haven't read much that I feel could compare to Bekono's writing. Some of her cadence felt reminiscent of short story collections from Ling Ma or perhaps Lauren Groff, but I'm also not sure how much of that similarity is in the translation vs the original text.

Thank you as always for the opportunity to read and review!

I unfortunately did not care for the writing in this one. it was a premise I was excited about + thought had a lot of promise but just delivered mostly weird tangential prose. I don't know if it had to do with the translation or if this one just wasn't for me but alas :(

thank you for the arc netgalley and bloomsbury!

An intriguing and thought provoking story of an unrepentant Dutch Cameroonian teen. Salome chews over her life while in the rehabilitation center for a crime the nature of which will not be revealed until fairly deep in this slim volume. This addresses race, class, gender, and life during and after incarceration (however short). The language is sometimes odd, likely due to translation but could have been (should have been) smoothed a bit with an additional edit. That said Salome is an indelible character. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction.

I like to read work in translation to experience language in a new way. Sometimes the storytelling style is different. This appealed to me: "The man was staring at us from behind the gate, as the coins lay glistening in front of his feet. I didn't want him to pick them up. I remember thinking that it was extremely important, that he didn't pick them up." The vivid image & greater thematic importance comes through.

I so wanted to like this book more than I did, and I have a strong suspicion that the reason I didn't was due to language. Had I read it in its original language, I wonder if I would have picked up on more or at least not have lost so much. Something about the translation felt devoid of feeling, and while some level of numbness would be consistent with the voice of the main character, there seemed to be something else that was holding me at a distance. There were important themes touched upon in the book, yet I feel like I wasn't quite picking up what the author was putting down.

Unfortunately this really did not work for me on any level. The sentiment it explores here is really important - notably the corruption of the prison system, rehabilitation versus punishment, and the school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately impacts black youth. There's also a lot of commentary on the exoticism with which Western media portrays Africa - rather than identifying the individual countries, cultures, religion and social issues, it is treated merely as a conglomerate in a way that no other continent is. The themes here are definitely important, but the execution was a mess.

To be frank, the writing is very weak and not cohesive in the slightest. Clauses of sentences feel disjoint and out of order, characters are constantly referred to by name without introduction, and there's narrative shifts in the middle of paragraphs. I don't know if this is a relic of the original text or the translation, but several sentences are noticeably muddled and hard to follow. For example: "It was the end of last year, the end of 2007, that I picked up that you can see who's got it, if you know how to look". I understand translating between languages is not easy (particularly English) - but any proficient English speaker would struggle to read that sentence. It definitely needs a second pass through editing because at this point the current presentation is borderline illegible in some paragraphs (particularly the dialogue-heavy scenes).

The narrator often goes on long exaggerated tangents to provide backstory to events in a way that's intended to be comedic and satirical, but in practice these passages clash so abruptly with the remainder of the text it ends up feeling very disjointed. The tone here is all over the place and it makes the intended emotional impact for the reader non-existent. While the issues this portrays are very real, the discussions that happen in this book contain so much theatrical dialogue that it takes away from the underlying messaging.

Overall, I recognize this review definitely sounds critical but I really think the presentation of the book is doing a real disservice to such important themes and messaging. Despite the short length I found this really difficult to get through and unfortunately did not enjoy my time with it.

I loved Bekano’s literary reflections, and circular spiralling prose. I think that this book interrogates race, class and incarceration. Bekono’s circular prose serve a purpose of conveying Salome being stuck within the confines of her situation. I loved the un-sentimentality of this novel and it’s rawness that feels real and purposeful.