Review by Leke Giwa
I suppose it was too good to be true; Omoseye Bolaji's new book is not
fiction; certainly not another new instalment of the "Tebogo Mokoena
Mystery series".
Remember, recently for three years consecutively, Bolaji churnned out
three adventures of our beloved Tebogo: Tebogo and the haka (2008),
Tebogo and the epithalamion (2009), and Tebogo and the pantophagist
(2010). When will the next adventure come out?
Or, will we ever read another new Tebogo adventure? This might sound
ominous and churlish, but we know that creators/authors of such
memorable characters invariably put an end to the advenures of their
own protagonists; like Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, even James
Hadley Chase did.
No matter. We should also remember that Omoseye Bolaji has many
strings to his bow, apart from writing fiction; having published lots
of poetry, criticism, biographies, and plays. This latest offering,
Miscellaneous Writings (2011) are more in the line of short essays and articles.
Some might be tempted - perhaps rather cruelly - to state that this
new work is neither fish nor fowl. Certainly the writings here can
roughly be dubbed "essays", but differ in structure, quality, depth,
moods, thrust, and approach.
It seems to me that that is why the title of the new book is so apt,
apposite - Miscellaneous Writings. There is a strong bias towards
literature and the world of letters in general; but we also have germs
of world history, social matters, philosophy, sports etc.
These things are subjective, and I did read many of the pieces here in
the new book when they first came out intermittently in the form of the author's
column(s). Strangely enough, my personal favourites among these essays
are "bizarre" ones like "The vagaries of poverty" "NELM in
Grahamstown" Sheila Khala (the Lesotho poet), The Guitarists, and
Allure of Father Xmas"
I always ask myself: have I benefitted, gained by taking the trouble
to read a particular book? If the answer is yes, then the effort has
been worthwhile, and the book in question for me) makes a valuable
contribution to one's life, knowledge, society, country and beyond.
I'm happy to recommend Omoseye Bolaji's new book - Miscellaneous
Writings - for the world to read.
