i have figured out all the low ratings on this book. it is "sad." that seems to be the major complaint about this book. its sadness.well. shrug. i mean, yeah, this is a sad book. a very very sad book. and for those of you who like books in which an ambitious character gets everything they want and ends up happy as can be with their family and their reputation intact, this would definitely be a two-star book for you. because the reality of the immigrant experience and the demands of family upon a man who is struggling with his guilt over having abandoned his country in order to pursue his dreams, and the racial tensions that rise up when an african man moves into a small tight-white-knit community when he ALSO has evil-twin daughters?there isn't going to be a happy ending, here.and FOR THE RECORD, this is not just my personal prejudice rearing up - these twins are bad bad baaaad.and our saumel is a gloomy gus to begin with, even apart from the bad things that happen to him.his take on marriage:He admonished himself for not taking advantage of her good mood when he'd had the chance. But that was the nature of marriage, he thought solemnly, an argument that only ends with death.on the emptiness of life:...all of life's ambitions were mere diversions. Politicians sought refuge in conflicts, the immoral sought it in sex, and many men just worked until they dropped. You did everything to keep yourself from seeing the futility of it. But Samuel had joined that class of men who, having attained a major goal, suddenly see the vanity in wanting it.on the freaking sunrise:...he meditated on how pointless it was that sunrise was so beautiful when so few men saw it anyway.this is the character we are dealing with - no matter what happens in his life, if these are his various outlooks, he isn't ever going to be happy, even if everything were to work out for him. spoiler alert: it will not!another complaint i am seeing when reading the review of others are the characters - that they are shallowly written. and while i can understand where a criticism like this comes from, in this book, i would have to respectfully disagree. in samuel's case, i think it is a matter less of his being underwritten and more of his having been beaten down so much by his life there is nothing left. he is definitely someone to whom life happens,rather than a heroic man of action, but while he is few of words, his guilt and frustration jumps right off the page at you. this is a story of a man harassed at every turn, who ultimately retreats into a kind of stasis and emotional hidey-hole, who continues to make questionable decisions that haunt him to the bitter end. my only complaint is the situation with the twins. early on, these were shades of the spooky and the supernatural, which never came to fruition. my stance is, if you are going to drop spooky hints, you have got to follow through, otherwise, it just leaves the reader wondering what the point of those scenes were. although i was glad to see that i am not the only one with a twin-fear:When the pregnancy assailed them, Maud had already reached thirty-one, a distasteful age for a first child, both by Gold Coast and Western standards of the time. Her failure as a nanny also haunted her. So it devastated her when not one, but two babies arrived, and not even boys at that. Twins. Both Samuel and Maud were embarrassed to admit that not even an ocean could distance them from their superstitions. For twins were a kind of misfortune. Samuel's great uncles had been twins, and the advent of their birth had brought a maelstrom of controversy to the family. Primogeniture had been jeopardized - without knowing for certain who'd been born first, how could they name an heir? And twins, a freak occurrence, scared people. Only some awful wrongdoing could produce the same person twice. The mother's fidelity came into question; for no man on earth was so virile that he could do two at once. Only the prestige of the Tyne name saved their matriarch from suspicion. Samuel's ancestral experience was enough to put both him and Maud off.you heard it here - twins are the result of some awful wrongdoing.
*spoiler alert*I find it increasingly discouraging that this harrowing tale received such low ratings and negative reviews. The recurring theme I receive from these comments are the gloomy and dark nature of the book, and the under-development of the characters. I absolutely adored this book. It is so morose and depressive and intense. There is hardly a moment of happiness and hope in the story, though I will say that I like sad stories and poems. But there was such a beauty accomplished by the author in this. The sadness of Samuel's life echoes the despair that so often plagues humanity-- the desperate trials of Samuel to make his life better are continually rebuffed, and up till his death, he teemed with sadness. He is perhaps my favourite character in the book (close to Maud) because of his restlessly morose spirit. I disagree with the other readers, I felt close and relatable to the characters. I will say that the twins frightened me. I adored the ending as well. The compassion of Ama so closely speaks of the ability of love even in Samuel's own loss of hope. And when the last twin came back, the final message of the story was revealed. Furthermore, I loved this book, and it's enchanting description and flow of words. I wish I knew which twin came back. But at the same time I don't.
Do You like book The Second Life Of Samuel Tyne (2005)?
Edugyan writes so well that I found it disappointing that her novel is so unremittingly despondent. Every character that the reader might take an interest in is systematically ground into submission or taken prisoner by life - no mercy is shown.
—Terry
The language was excellent, and the context was interesting. The writer is very gifted. The story line was unrelentingly sad, with only the slightest notes of hope in the end. It is a story of people--and relationships--falling apart. Given that I finished the book in one day, there must have been some part of me enjoying it, which is why I gave it three stars, despite my initial inclination to give it two. I was very curious to find out what was the real story with the twins and what further havoc they would wreak. For a while, it felt a bit like a thriller. But just as the story reaches a climax, the writer dispenses summarily with the twins (who provided the only interesting tension in the book) and the rest of the characters simply spiral downward in the most mundane, hopeless ways. I was slightly intrigued by the ending, when one of the twins returns ever so briefly, and we are left to wonder which one. But I don't know if this unfinished thread was intentional so much as it was evidence of the writer losing interest in her own story.
—Charlice
I often fuss about about there not being enough narratives featuring non-stereotypical black people; yet, when I encounter a story like this one, I feel ambivalent because I still want the characters to feel heroic and colorful. I want the characters to have righteous comebacks for pushy people. I want the characters to be good parents. I don't want their children to be weird and unlikable. Esi Edugyan has painted a story of subdued personalities in a world both earthy and ethereal. It is beautifully written and I couldn't put the book down for that reason.
—Leslie Reese
