Harry Sylvester Bird

I was impressed by one of Chinelo Okparanta's previous novels, Under The Udala Trees, so enthusiastically requested a review copy of her newest work, Harry Sylvester Bird, when I saw the book offered on NetGalley. The two novels are very different which isn't a bad thing per se, but unfortunately, whereas I strongly sympathised with and cared for Ijeoma in Under The Udala Trees, I found myself becoming increasingly irritated with Harry Sylvester Bird. An older boy who becomes a young man as his novel progresses, Harry is not a particularly endearing character and, other than his physical aging, he doesn't seem to actually grow as a person which I wanted to see happening.

The book starts off promisingly with the young idealistic Harry striving to make the world a better place and himself a better person by actively rejecting the example his parents set for him. Wayne and Chevrolet are so ghastly as to be practically caricatures although how much of this is real and how much is just what Harry chooses to tell us readers is hard to say. He doesn't come across as the most reliable of narrators because of his tendency to farm out responsibility for his actions wherever possible.

This novel has a lot to say about racism and the way in which ingrained white behaviours can perpetuate systematic oppression even in people who are striving to be Black allies. I loved the concept of fires burning unseen under towns as this felt like a physical representation of the underlying anger experienced within POC communities in white-run society. Wayne and Chevy's outspoken beliefs are cringeworthy most of the time although sadly not unrealistic and Harry's narration gives us permission to laugh at them. However Harry's own thoughts and statements feel more sinister, especially in the novel's later stages where I began to wonder if he wasn't just reverting to being another Wayne.

I think Okparanta has written an insightful novel in Harry Sylvester Bird which will probably delight as many readers as it angers. I felt it was a shame that I found Harry to be so irritating personally because, otherwise, I really appreciated Okparanta's sharply observed satire.