Biyi Bandele, The Sympathetic Undertaker and Other Dreams

Thomas Martinek (Universitat Wien)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 8.2.3: Anglophone African Writing and Culture: Subsaharan.
Vol. editors: Helen Rachel Cousins (Birmingham Newman University), David Firth (University of Manchester)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1991

Places

Nigeria (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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‘Biyi Bandele’s second novel,

The Sympathetic Undertaker and Other Dreams

, was first published by Bellew Publishing in 1991, shortly after the author’s emigration from Nigeria to the United Kingdom. Two years later, the work was also issued in Heinemann’s African Writer Series.

The Sympathetic Undertaker provides a vivid, high-powered and multi-facetted portrayal of the young Nigerian protagonist Rayo struggling to come to terms with the fierce political and social realities of his country in the late 1980s. Events are related by the intrusive first-person narrator Kayo, the protagonist’s older brother. Both in their early twenties, the two young men live in the city of Kafanchan in the Hausa region of northern Nigeria.

The Sympathetic Undertaker

provides a vivid, high-powered…

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1501 words

Citation: Martinek, Thomas. "The Sympathetic Undertaker and Other Dreams". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 October 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=19397, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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