An Orchestra of Minorities

Chigozie Obioma's second novel, An Orchestra of Minorities, starts off really well. That's not to say it's an easy or fun read; even in the opening chapters, where the story is at its best, there's a complexity to the narrative and the plot that can be tiring for a reader to scale. Despite the dense nature of the text, An Orchestra of Minorities runs at full power for more than a couple hundred pages. Personally, I felt the story ran out of steam at some point after this... before we go there, let's talk about the narrative.

The voice of this novel may cause some division opinions. I didn't particularly care for it, though I appreciated Obioma's effort to break with some traditions of the western novel. The story would've moved at a brisker pace without Chinonso's chi, but it also would've been a different story. I think the biggest problem I had with the narrator was the inconsistency in knowing so much yet knowing nothing. This ancient entity seems to struggle with technologies a hundred years old, yet understands a relatively new bureaucratic entity without explanation. It's difficult to get a non-human narrator right, and I think Obioma did a stellar job compared to many who use such a unique narrator, but it can be terribly distracting at any point when the effort shows flaws.

Back to the novel at large. The later events of the novel, where the build-up and climax are intended, fell flat for me. The story goes in a direction I was not expecting, but also didn't really care for. It features an arc that was all too familiar. As the stakes of the story rose, my interest waned. I found that I grew increasingly eager for the story to reach its conclusion. It certainly did not help that a character who's easy to sympathize with in early chapters grows increasingly vile in his treatment of others.

Between the narrative and the latter half of the novel, I can understand why some were less than impressed with this huge undertaking. Certainly, I was hoping for a different novel overall. But I really did enjoy the story and the characters in the first half, so I still must give this novel some love. Obioma is a gifted writer who clearly understands how to spin an intelligent and captivating tale. I may have not cared for the final destination, but I enjoyed parts of the journey, and I'll be interested to see where the author takes us next time.