AFRICAN ME & SATELLITE TV

by Jo Robinson

 BOOK BLURB: 

For many years Suzette has managed very well to live her life without actually taking part in it, avoiding any possibility of pain by very carefully ignoring reality. Until something happens. Something so terrible that she has no choice but to abandon her cocoon of safety.
After the brutal beating of an elderly domestic worker, Suzette takes her in, and sets off a chain of events that leads to devastating heartbreak. And an unexpected hero changes everything. Finally finding her voice, she speaks out, and her world explodes, culminating in the death of a very special man.
On her path to make amends, she discovers the story of his life, connects with the people of his past, and finds the chance to fully live her life once again if that’s what she chooses to.

MY REVIEW:

This is not the type of book I would normally read.

With teary eyes, I write this review.  This was a very profound story with a poignant ending to the story. I believe the last two chapters, Christopher and The Diarist were meant to be uplifting, but since I’m only human and still trying to recover from my own personal tragedies, I only felt sadness. A sadness for missed opportunities, which is kind of how the story makes you feel.

This was a beautiful tale. Jo Robinson did a wonderful job portraying the characters and their interactions between each other and the world around them. Most American’s get used to reading material only from American authors, so it was a welcome change to see the world from another prospective. Especially a country with so much strife, loss and heartache.

When Suzette changed her moral compass from South (head buried in the ground) to North (standing on own two feet), the reader understood why and how she changed. The description of the girl in the painting was very vivid. I grieved with Suzette for her losses and chuckled over the crazy antics of her cook.  And of course, I hated the villains. I really enjoyed Princess and the parrot, Mr. Mandela. I felt Jo Robinson stood on a soapbox more than needed, but that is understandable, when you’re an ant standing on the head of a matchstick trying to get the attention of an uncaring world. Sometimes you have to jump up and down several times just to light a fire over the injustices being done in Africa.

I really enjoyed how she brought the personal conflict of Africa together at the end:  Bystander, Pacifist and Activist.

I would have given this book 5 stars, but for all the technical errors in the writing. There were missing words and wrong words used. In one place, the end of the sentence was missing. Also, on my Kindle PC and my phone, there were doubles spaces between a lot of the dialogues and the person speaking and sometimes it was hard to follow the conversation on who was actually talking. I don’t have this issue with my books on Amazon, so it has to be a formatting problem on the author’s end. If the editing problems get cleaned up, I will change to 5 stars.

I highly recommend this book and give it 4 feathers.