“Binyavanga Wainaina tumbled through his
middle-class Kenyan childhood out of kilter with the world around him. This
world came to him as a chaos of loud and colorful sounds: the hair dryers at
his mother’s beauty parlor, black mamba bicycle bells, mechanics in Nairobi, the music of
Michael Jackson—all punctuated by the infectious laughter of his brother and
sister, Jimmy and Ciru. He could fall in with their patterns, but it would take
him a while to carve out his own. In this vivid and compelling debut memoir,
Wainaina takes us through his school days, his mother’s religious period, his
failed attempt to study in South Africa as a computer programmer, a moving family
reunion in Uganda, and his travels around Kenya. The landscape in front of him
always claims his main attention, but he also evokes the shifting political
scene that unsettles his views on family, tribe, and nationhood. Throughout,
reading is his refuge and his solace. And when, in 2002, a writing prize comes
through, the door is opened for him to pursue the career that perhaps had been
beckoning all along. A series of fascinating international reporting
assignments follow. Finally he circles back to a Kenya in the throes of postelection
violence and finds he is not the only one questioning the old certainties. Resolutely
avoiding stereotype and cliché, Wainaina paints every scene in One Day I Will
Write About This Place with a highly distinctive and hugely memorable brush.”
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