RavePittsburgh Post-GazetteWhat unfolds between the pages of The Eternal Audience of One is at turns a charming, witty, and incredibly humane story of a group of friends — all of them trying to establish a sense of belonging — as they maneuver interpersonal relationships in many ways predestined to be complicated by dint of historic forces ... Seen through the prism of the state of current affairs in this part of southern Africa, Ngamije’s novel is a timely and appropriate work of fiction that highlights the ways in which life is still heavily segmented along race, economic disparity, and a certain level of xenophobia in this part of the world ... Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this book is the decidedly uptempo writing style ... Ngamije may be a newcomer on the global literary scene but in the parlance of the urban slang that flows off the pages of The Eternal Audience of One, with incredible ease, he has made a bang with a slayer of a novel. It’s an instant classic.
Damon Young
RavePittsburgh Post-Gazette\"A fascinating exploration of how race, class and gender, inform notions of black identity in American life. It is a story about the range of experiences that comprise black culture in Pittsburgh, reflected in the broader narrative of what it is like to be black in America. It is to internalize certain amounts of angst, fear and neuroses that can at times seem so absurd to the point of being comical, if not heartbreaking ... in equal parts a deeply introspective account of a life and an astute critique of the contours along which black people survive the limitations of historic and systemic racism. This unfolds in honest, raw and colorful observations that reflect a spectrum of experiences ... Readers who may be unfamiliar with Mr. Young’s writing may flinch or struggle with certain colloquialisms and terms, yet the book is filled with laugh-out-loud descriptions in beautifully constructed and bold throw-away lines ... is ultimately about overcoming the many ways in which racism in America dehumanizes the soul. To overcome it, we must find our humanity through forgiveness and loving ourselves — our blackness.\
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o
RaveThe Pittsburgh Post-GazetteMr. wa Thiong’o adds yet another important book to his literary canon, where he deconstructs the language of colonialism, as much as he continues pounding away at the ills of capitalism, religion and the neocolonial estate as tools of subjugation ... It is at once a gripping account of endurance through the mental torture that is detention without trial, an indictment of the British colonial system and the savage ways in which white settlers crushed the spirit of all aspects of Kenyan life. Ultimately, it is a book on the act of writing and how the transcendent power of art can itself be a form of defiance.
