The Narrow Path: An African Childhood is a 1966 autobiographical novel by Ghanaian novelist Francis Selormey. The novel was part of Heineman's African Writers Series. The novel heavily focuses on recounting the unhappy and painful experiences of a child, Kofi, attending a Catholic mission school in Ghana, and the contrasting traditional education he receives. The novel, that has many of the developmental features of a bildungsroman, but utilizes an adult narrator to observe the development of the child focal character, Kofi. The novel is also unique because of its focus on the child's' primary education, only retelling the elementary years.
.png) Title page for The Narrow Path: An African Childhood (1966) | |
| Author | Francis Selormey |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher | Heinemann |
| Publication date | 1966 |
| Publication place | Ghana |
| Pages | 192 |
| ISBN | 978-0435905804 |
Critic Chris Kwame Awuyah compared the novels themes and structure to Joseph Abruquah's The Torrent (1968) and Amu Djoleto's The Strange Man (1967) and notes similarities to other novels like James T. Farrell's Father and Son and Ngugi Wa Thiag'o's Weep not, Child. Awuyah said that the "major artistic strengths of are its direct and concrete language presented with an unreflective and confessional narrative voice".
References
- ^ Awuyah, Chris Kwame (2004-11-30). "Selormey, Francis (1927-88)". In Eugene Benson; L. W. Conolly (eds.). Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English. Routledge. p. 1419. ISBN 9781134468485.
- ^ Gerard, Albert S. (1986). European-language Writing in Sub-Saharan Africa. John Benjamins Publishing. pp. 831–832. ISBN 9630538342.
- "The Narrow Path (African Writers)". Goodreads. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
Further reading
- Praeger, Frederick A. (July 1967). "Book reviews : Francis Selormey, The Narrow Path : An African Childhood". Journal of Asian and African Studies. 2 (3–4): 303–304. doi:10.1177/002190966700200333. S2CID 143672892.
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