Season of Anomy

Season of Anomy is the story of an individual selling a utopian world out in order to spread its ideas. This dispersal results in a country fracturing into chaotic revolutionary violence. Many die pointlessly, and many more suffer simply out of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. It is a violent, destructive book, yet it is filled with some of the most beautiful passages that I have ever read. Soyinka possesses a sublime understanding of man and his role in the world. He sees the corruption of his country by the greedy, souless collective machine known in the novel as the Company. Hell is created in Africa's resistance, which is most evident in the prison scene, where the tour of the prison parallels Dante's Inferno in the worst sorts of ways. The human spirit, however, cannot be held back or reigned in. Soyinka's words soar above all of the violence of the Company's colonies, freeing man's mind from his holds and establishing in the reader a hope in the spirit that cannot be disregarded or oppressed.

Synge's widow is a modern-day Sarah and Season of Anomy is her Isaac.

Seasons of Anomy is a great introduction to the problems and failures of modern, post colonial, Africa. There are great insights about Nigerian society bundled within a very satisfying story. The journey or search of the lead character is used by Soyinka to deliver this information and the end of the book might realy be just a new begining. It is really too bad that Seasons of Anomy is out of print; people are really missing a treat, from a great writer.