Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Mar 2008
192 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
A president has been overthrown by a military coup in a nameless country in an unspecified era. The president's barber, chef, and portraitist are imprisoned, with many others, in a remote palace in the hills high above the city center. Before the coup, these three men worked with unquestioning loyalty, serving the president in seemingly benign jobs. Now, forced to serve the country's new leader, they begin to reconsider their role in the old regime.
In simple, elegant prose Blood Kin alternates between the voices of the barber, the chef, and the portraitist. Later in the book their wives, lovers, and daughters tell their own tales. As the old order falls, so does the veil that hides the truth about these men and women's secret passions. No one, it seems, is entirely immune to the many temptations of power.
Ceridwen Dovey's debut is a welcome addition to the important tradition of allegorical writing about political upheaval and personal guilt. Her clever, magnetic story will resonate with fans of J. M. Coetzee, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Gabriel García Márquez.
BookBrowse Says
Don't believe the hype. Blood Kin is being touted as
a remarkable debut by a literary prodigy, but one suspects that its success owes
more to the author's comely, blond youth than the novel's own merits. The book
falls short on almost all levels. What are supposed to be closely observed,
sensual details seem oddly incorrect: "Around her mouth, wine is smudged like
blood." What are supposed to be characters' internal thoughts seem like the
precious language of a self-consciously literary narrator, as when a woman
catches a glimpse of her reflection in a window and remarks, "it is pleasing to
see my narrowness: my body promises ascetic pleasure, not full-bodied." Each
chapter is narrated by one of six characters, but they are unnamed and their
voices are indistinguishable from one another, so much confusion results. Most
disturbingly, the novel's exploration of power's corrupting influence reveals
nothing new, serving only as a vehicle for a series of lurid, sensationalist
scenes." - Amy Reading.
Others Say
"A fable of the arrogance of power, beneath whose dreamlike surface swirl currents of complex sensuality." - JM Coetzee.
"This is an unflinching and poignant work that exposes man's limitations and vulnerabilities in the face of absolute power. It has about it something of the splendor and inevitability of a myth. Like all wonderful books, it has always been there, waiting for its author to arrive. And, thankfully for us, she has come." - Hisham Matar, author of In the Country of Men.
"A lovely, haunting novel, written with great care and precision. Working on the level of allegory, with a careful consideration of history and myth, Ceridwen Dovey has fashioned a really fine debut." - Colum McCann.
"This cautionary tale, a character study of power and caprice, is highly recommended for libraries with strong fiction collections." - Library Journal.
"A dense, dark, impressively controlled first work. Not for optimists." - Kirkus Reviews.
This information about Blood Kin was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ceridwen Dovey grew up in South Africa and Australia. A graduate of Harvard University, she is now a doctoral student in anthropology at New York University. Her stories "Vasbyt" and "Coma Karma" were selected for the anthology African Road: New Writing from Southern Africa, judged by J. M. Coetzee.
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