It's confusing when an awards competition has lots of categories. Previously we learned that Busara Road by David Hallock Sanders was a finalist for the Montaigne Medal from the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. Now we hear that the novel was also a finalist in the category of General Fiction.
That's gold in the names of two great men, both of whom we respect even though they're old dead white guys. Congratulations, David!
For those too young to remember, Eric Hoffer was a sometime longshoreman and migrant worker who wrote The True Believer (1951) and other works of social/moral philosophy. Here's how Wikipedia explains a central tenet of The True Believer: "Hoffer argues that fanatical and extremist cultural movements, whether religious, social, or national, arise when large numbers of frustrated people, believing their own individual lives to be worthless or spoiled, join a movement demanding radical change. But the real attraction for this population is an escape from the self...." Um, does that sound kind of pertinent to the current era?
The powerful story of Busara Road is set in the aftermath of a bloody national conflict, the Kenyan struggle for independence. Extreme passions, left over from the war, lie hidden just beneath the society's surface, and the naive young protagonist blunders right onto them. It's a novel not for true believers, but for those with open minds.
That's gold in the names of two great men, both of whom we respect even though they're old dead white guys. Congratulations, David!
For those too young to remember, Eric Hoffer was a sometime longshoreman and migrant worker who wrote The True Believer (1951) and other works of social/moral philosophy. Here's how Wikipedia explains a central tenet of The True Believer: "Hoffer argues that fanatical and extremist cultural movements, whether religious, social, or national, arise when large numbers of frustrated people, believing their own individual lives to be worthless or spoiled, join a movement demanding radical change. But the real attraction for this population is an escape from the self...." Um, does that sound kind of pertinent to the current era?
The powerful story of Busara Road is set in the aftermath of a bloody national conflict, the Kenyan struggle for independence. Extreme passions, left over from the war, lie hidden just beneath the society's surface, and the naive young protagonist blunders right onto them. It's a novel not for true believers, but for those with open minds.
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