Brittle Paper: Into the Go-Slow “is as much an African story as it is an American story”
High praise from the site run by a Duke University Ph.D student in African literature! Here’s some of what Ainehi Edoro said about Into The Go-Slow:
Stories about African Americans going off to Africa in search of things past and lost have become familiar. But in Into the Go-slow (2014), American novelist, Bridgett Davis, breathes a new life into this classic motif.
And here:
Davis has a thing for space and setting. She is able to capture the spirit of a place with a poetic flair that I found to be a joy to read.
And finally:
As a Nigerian, Davis spoke to me. She took me back to what I like to think of as the weird ’90s. It was the decade of botched democracies, sky-high inflation, psychopathic rulers, and widespread panic.
Davis captures a good bit of what was so unsettling about the political climate, but she also captures the lighter mood of the decade—the obsession with Michael Jackson, American ballads, and what would end up being the last years of Fela’s life.
In Davis’ work, Africa is not this abstract idea. Her Lagos, her Kano bristles with abundant life, around which she weaves a lovely story about those small but lasting redemptions that only a sister’s love can bring.
