| What have people said about
Jennifer Mitton's writing? Newspaper
reviewers have been positive.
I'm going to dig some quotes up
and post them here.
What have Nigerians said?
Lots. My friends were very
excited and happy to have me write a book about their
so-called 'undeveloped' region of Nigeria. The reaction
from Nigerians living here in Vancouver was enthusiastic.
The Nigeria Cultural Association
hosted a reading for me and for many years I was a
member. I finally stopped when I had a baby, because I no
longer had much Canadian time, let alone enough Nigerian
time to go to meetings.
It would have been out of
character for the men at these meetings to overlook any
mistakes I had made in my book. The one I remember best
is from a Yoruba man who could come up with side-issues
to make the 4 hour meetings go on for an extra half-hour.
He thought I should have mentioned the abundance of
skyscrapers in the south of Nigeria.
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After hearing me read from my work, or after reading
my work themselves: Mavis Gallant is one of my favorite
writers, lecturers and thinkers. I visited her at her
apartment in Paris the first time I lived there in the
early 80's, when I was still unable to write stories with
all three ingredients, a beginning, a middle, and an
ending. I was so nervous that all I can remember from our
chat is her saying, "I can always tell a Canadian.
They're never late." Mavis Gallant was resident
writer at Banff, 1992. By this time I had written and
just published my first novel, Fadimatu. Mavis listened
to some of us read from our work. She then left the room.
But when she passed me she said, "You are a very
accomplished writer. And you will get better."
Later, she remained completely calm in a discussion about
the then much-discussed topic, appropriation of voice.
Many students at the workshop thought writers should not
stray too far from their own voices, as I had done with
Fadimatu. Mavis said--I'm going to have to find my
journal to get it right--so for now I'll
paraphrase--"Rubbish. What a ridiculous idea."
Soon there was a loud "We Hate Mavis" Club
meeting in the cafeteria at meals. Of course I was not
invited to join.
Paul Bowles writes about northern Africa, sometimes
from the ex-pat's point of view, but often from an
African's. To read his stories is to travel to Africa
free of charge, smell the dust, feel the cool of the mud
wall corridors, and understand, if only briefly, laws
that make no sense under western scrutiny.
I had just seen Paul Bowles on the French television
show, Cercle de Minuit, but I knew he was in poor health.
What if he were to die before I got the courage to tell
him how much I admired his work? I sent along a copy of
Fadimatu. I didn't expect him to read it, but he did, and
commented in a long, lovely script written from his
hospital bed. In the end, he said, Fadimatu was a Chef
d'Oeuvre.
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| People who worked with me when
the books came out said nothing or very little.My
principal at that time, Barbara Stafford, was a huge fan,
and read everything I wrote. My colleagues were probably
trying to balance this. I
remember having a good laugh over the photocopy machine
with one teacher who liked a phrase I wrote in a story
about my Nana coming down to life for the Vancouver
Festival of Fire. She sat on a log with a girl who was a
compulsive journal writer, the girl's boyfriend, and
another redhaired guy who had a soccer bag full of beer.
My colleage liked the way I said girl 'involved her legs
with his' at the cappuchino bar on Denman.
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Not so Happy: A Canadian editor was putting together
a collection of stories by Black Canadian Women. She
telephoned me from Toronto and said, "I loved your
book, Fadimatu. Could you send me a story?" I said I
would do my best, and we discussed details, and then I
said, "But, you must know that I am not black."
There was silence. Then she recovered, and gave me a
lecture on how I should have written Fadimatu from the
point of view of an ex-pat. "But then it wouldn't be
the same book. And you loved the book," I said. It
seems that in the then popular formula of who can write
from which point of view, a black Canadian woman can fly
to Nigeria, live there two years, and write from the
point of a Nigerian woman. A white Canadian woman on the
other hand cannot.
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