RFBC #14: What Napoleon Could Not Do
…and a link to the podcast
For some Black Africans, America is the prize. In pursuing that prize, many find that it’s unattainable—something many Black Americans could have told them. And underlying it all are questions of industry and love and sacrifice and justice and worth.
There’s more. It’s a lot for a first novel, and DK Nnuro’s What Napoleon Could Not Do handles it with the aplomb you’d expect of a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, which made it perfect for the August, 2023 edition of Radio Free Book Club. The novel takes place in near-present-day Ghana and America, and in Vietnam War-era Southeast Asia. It’s the story of Jacob, a fortyish man in Ghana, and the extended Nti family; Belinda, his sister in America; and Belinda’s much-older American husband, Wilder; and their quests to get to, belong to, and overcome what America is in their lives.
And this is one that, if you plan to read it, we definitely don’t want to spoil. Fortunately, you can find our discussion right here on Mixcloud, or practically anywhere you stream podcasts. Please come on back.
Show notes:
The RFBC crew for our July 2023 show was Indianapolis writer Ken Honeywell; writer, baker, and biking enthusiast Traci Cumbay; novelist Barb Shoup; and writer and editor (and daughter of Barb) Kate Shoup. Our show was recorded at Listen Hear in Indianapolis and produced by the always-amazing Oreo Jones for 99.1 WQRT-LP.
It’s about America as a beacon—and the different things it means to African-Americans, Black Africans, and Black African American immigrants. Engaging the novel at this level—as a novel of ideas—puts a spin on it that makes What Napoleon Could Not Do different from a simple family saga.
We weren’t sure who the protagonist was. The story seemed, at first blush, to be about Jacob. But in the end, we knew less about him than we did about Belinda, and we knew even more about Wilder. If we had to pick one, a couple of us landed on Belinda. But later in the discussion, none of us named the Belinda section as the most interesting part of the book. Puzzling.
The easiest character to love was Alfred. Poor Alfred. Nnuro revealed in an interview that the story actually started with Alfred, son of Robert and Martha, whose ability to communicate with them via sign language gave him power children in Ghana usually don’t possess. It made his death even more devastating.
About those sections: Some of us loved Wilder’s Vietnam/Laos journey. We all we taken with the opening divorce scene in Ghana. None of us loved the magical realism, if it was magical realism.
Was Jacob feckless? “Yes,” seemed to be the easy answer. He didn’t have much of a purpose in life beyond maybe, “Go to America,” which seems to have been forced upon him. He doesn’t seem to show any initiative at all until he’s divorced at age 40 (after having never met Patricia, his wife of five years). He was too lazy even to learn sign language to communicate with Robert and Martha, his deaf brother and sister-in-law. His life seems to revolve entirely around his sexual proclivities.
Jacob’s sexual proclivities were…just odd? Traci was quick to point out that his masochism does not explain his passivity; most people who enjoy being dominated are actually people in power looking for someone to take it away from them.
Kate had many pages of typed notes. Just sayin’. She’s welcome any time.
We all kinda loved the divorce scene. It took us to a place none of us had ever experienced before. In some ways, we were more interested in those characters—Patricia’s mother, for example—than we were with the principal characters whose stories dominatedthe book.
Don’t just take our word for it. What Napoleon Could Not Do is on Barack Obama’s summer reading list.
Would we recommend it? Neither Barb nor Kate loved the book, and wouldn’t recommend it to most readers. Traci called out Mr. Obama as simply wrong: She did not like it. Ken loved parts of it and thought it well worth reading as a novel of ideas.
Bonus recommendations: Traci recommended The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty. (It’s our November Radio Free Book Club selection—stay tuned.) Kate recommended Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton and Bonnie Garmus‘s Lessons in Chemistry. Barb recommended Half-Life of a Stolen Sister by Rachel Cantor and The Secret Book of Flora Lee by Patti Callahan Henry. Ken recommended Dana Spiotta’s Eat the Document and Stone Arabia and Wayward. In general, Dana Spiotta.
Next month: What’s sure to be an animated in discussion of Lorrie Moore’s first novel in more than a decade, I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home. Do join us.
