The political implications of The Fishermen are obvious, though never overstated. Countries can take a wrong turn, Obioma suggests, just as people can ... As things fall apart and the family’s center cannot hold, Obioma’s readers will begin to recall another work of fiction from Africa, a book that, after more than half a century, has never been out of print. In his exploration of the mysterious and the murderous, of the terrors that can take hold of the human mind, of the colors of life in Africa, with its vibrant fabrics and its trees laden with fruit, and most of all in his ability to create dramatic tension in this most human of African stories, Chigozie Obioma truly is the heir to Chinua Achebe.
One of Obioma’s most powerful decisions is to assign the role of narrator to 9-year-old Benjamin, who is at once looking back as an adult and conjuring up the perspective of his childhood self. Benjamin’s loyalty to his brothers sometimes clouds his understanding, but also makes a mythic story feel human ... Obioma never rules out the possibility of the supernatural, but the driving forces of the book are internal, not external—the push-pull of characters fighting for a sense of agency but believing all the while in fate. Some of the most striking scenes come at moments when Benjamin realizes that his brothers’ obsessions are consuming them ... Though The Fishermen reads like a parable, it offers no clear lesson. There are too many unanswered questions, or too many questions for which every answer is unsatisfying ... Obioma pulls readers beyond symbolism into a human story of personal fates and what shapes them.
The most frustrating thing about The Fishermen is that the author has no other books for the reader to devour once the final page is reached ... The Fishermen operates on several levels. On the surface, it is a story of any family's worst nightmare playing out with terrible, unstoppable momentum ... Beyond the intimate recounting of the family's tragedy, the story is a fresh rethinking of the ancient story of Cain and Abel ... The Fishermen carries a dark message — that sometimes chaos arrives in your home and takes up residence there until it destroys you and everything you care about. There is nothing you can do about it.
One day at the river they meet the local oddball, Abulu, who has the power of prophecy, and who predicts that Ikenna, the eldest, will be killed by one of his brothers; by a 'fisherman'. It is from this simple, almost mythological conceit that Chigozie Obioma’s debut novel grows, gaining complexity and power as it rises to its heartbreaking climax ... The Fishermen mixes the traditional English novel form with the oral storytelling tradition, dramatising the conflict between the traditional and the modern. But The Fishermen is also grounded in the Aristotelian concept of tragedy ... But as in all good tragedies, after the prophecies and the omens, it is character and logic and moral choices that drive the story to its conclusion.
There is very little light in The Fishermen; it's a relentlessly somber book that still manages to pull the reader in even as it gets more and more melancholy. The few scenes of carefree childhood joy are clouded by the prospect of what's to come, and Obioma is unsparing when it comes to writing about death, grief and the increasingly tragic destruction of an already beaten down family ... As dark as Obioma's prose is, though, it's also beautiful. His use of language is rich and hypnotic, and nearly every page is filled with an unexpected and perfectly rendered description ... Many parts of The Fishermen read like an incantation, albeit one that slowly turns into an elegy ... The Fishermen might be bleak, but it's an excellent debut that does a very good job wrestling with some extremely difficult themes. Obioma writes with sophistication and inventiveness; he's obviously deeply in love with the English language, and it shows. This is a dark and beautiful book by a writer with seemingly endless promise.
It’s a passionate, jostling and flamboyant piece of work, set in Nigeria during the military rule of the Nineties, which conceals a subtle state-of-the-nation allegory in its tale of a progressive family driven to disintegration by a folk prophecy ... There’s a tinge of Shakespearean or Greek tragedy to such a prophetic set-up – with the fatal flaw being the father’s presumptuous ambitions for his children. There is also a succinct postcolonial allegory, as the sprouting seeds of division and dissatisfaction begin to tear the family apart. But The Fishermen is anything but programmatic in its concerns. The overwhelming impression it leaves is one of vitality, profusion and abundance, as Obioma’s narrative leaps about in time, teases with digressions or surrenders to purple enthusiasm ... Even if this doesn’t win the Booker, I’d be astonished if other prizes don’t await Obioma down the road.
Obioma provides a vibrant snapshot of life for a middle class Igbo family in a 1990s Yoruba-majority town ... The novel’s narration is enlivened by Obioma employing two narrators in one, Ben the child and Ben the adult. The older voice allows for a more articulate telling of the story whereas the younger only knows what he experiences or hears ... Metaphors and parables populate the pages, a tribute to the idea that 'although Christianity had almost cleanly swept through Igbo land, crumbs and pieces of the African traditional religion had eluded the broom' ... Despite an overabundance of metaphors, Obioma’s The Fishermen is a fine, heartfelt debut. It just might be too premature to call him the next Achebe.
The plot’s initial fairytale-like simplicity mutates into something darker, similar to the 'metamorphosis' Ikena himself undergoes in the aftermath of Abula’s foretelling, as he transforms into a 'python' ... One of the many delights of The Fishermen is how deeply multi-layered the narrative is. Commonplace sibling rivalry is elevated to the realm of classical literature ... Knitting it all together are the threads of an oral storytelling tradition: parents who speak in parables; superstitions and beliefs that still hold sway despite the authority of Christianity; and the overarching tension between a fate set in stone by divination versus the ability to direct the course of one’s own life through rational cool-headedness ... A strikingly accomplished debut.
Seamlessly interweaving the everyday and the elemental, Obioma’s strange, imaginative debut—the translation rights to which have been sold in 12 countries—probes the nature of belief and the power of family bonds ... Obioma excels at juxtaposing sharp observation, rich images of the natural world, and motifs from biblical and tribal lore; his novel succeeds as a convincing modern narrative and as a majestic reimagining of timeless folklore.
...the joy of childhood which permeates Obioma’s lively, energetic debut novel thus swiftly becomes shadowed with the disturbing ghosts of Cain and Abel. Although Benjamin's first-person narration distances the reader from the emotional states of other characters at key moments—especially Benjamin's mother in the aftermath of so much loss—the talented Obioma exhibits a richly nuanced understanding of culture and character ... A powerful, haunting tale of grief, healing, and sibling loyalty.
