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Bakery #1
Kigalin kakkukauppa
Tansanialainen Angel Tungaraza on muuttanut Ruandan Kigaliin miehensä Piuksen ja viiden orvoksi jääneen lapsenlapsensa kanssa. Kotona riittää tohinaa, mutta Angelilla on myös kodin ulkopuolista toimintaa. Intohimoinen kakkuleipuri Angel on muuttanut harrastuksensa bisnekseksi: hän suunnittelee ja leipoo yksilöllisiä täytekakkuja naapureilleen ja tuttavilleen.
Angelin luo ei tulla vain kakkujen takia. Angel osaa myös kuunnella ihmisten huolia, antaa neuvoja ja vaivihkaa järjestellä asioita toisten tietämättä. Silloin tällöin hän toimii jopa amorin apulaisena.
Angelin naapurustossa asuu värikäs joukko ihmisiä, jotka ovat kotoisin ympäri Afrikkaa ja Afrikan ulkopuolelta. On japanilainen YK:n työntekijä Ken Akimoto, joka järjestää juhlia usein ja onkin siksi Angelin paras asiakas. Hänen autonkuljettajansa Bosco kärsii lemmentuskista ja tarvitsee aika ajoin Angelin neuvoja. Tohtori Rejoicelta Angel itse puolestaan saa apua kuumiin aaltoihinsa. Amerikkalainen Jenna on muuttanut Kigaliin miehensä työn vuoksi eikä uskalla poistua talosta yksin mihinkään. Se sopii hyvin aviomiehelle, jolla on monenlaisia salamyhkäisiä puuhia meneillään. Angelin on ehdottomasti työnnettävä lusikkansa siihenkin soppaan.
Romaanissa on 14 lukua, joissa kussakin paneudutaan jonkun Angelin asiakkaan tai ystävän tarinaan. Angel kuulee paljon järkyttäviä elämänkohtaloita ja hän on elämänsä varrella saanut itsekin kokea monenlaista surua. Murheiden vastapainona on kuitenkin aina myös iloja, ja silloin on syytä juhlia yhdessä Angelin leipoman kakun äärellä!
Angelin luo ei tulla vain kakkujen takia. Angel osaa myös kuunnella ihmisten huolia, antaa neuvoja ja vaivihkaa järjestellä asioita toisten tietämättä. Silloin tällöin hän toimii jopa amorin apulaisena.
Angelin naapurustossa asuu värikäs joukko ihmisiä, jotka ovat kotoisin ympäri Afrikkaa ja Afrikan ulkopuolelta. On japanilainen YK:n työntekijä Ken Akimoto, joka järjestää juhlia usein ja onkin siksi Angelin paras asiakas. Hänen autonkuljettajansa Bosco kärsii lemmentuskista ja tarvitsee aika ajoin Angelin neuvoja. Tohtori Rejoicelta Angel itse puolestaan saa apua kuumiin aaltoihinsa. Amerikkalainen Jenna on muuttanut Kigaliin miehensä työn vuoksi eikä uskalla poistua talosta yksin mihinkään. Se sopii hyvin aviomiehelle, jolla on monenlaisia salamyhkäisiä puuhia meneillään. Angelin on ehdottomasti työnnettävä lusikkansa siihenkin soppaan.
Romaanissa on 14 lukua, joissa kussakin paneudutaan jonkun Angelin asiakkaan tai ystävän tarinaan. Angel kuulee paljon järkyttäviä elämänkohtaloita ja hän on elämänsä varrella saanut itsekin kokea monenlaista surua. Murheiden vastapainona on kuitenkin aina myös iloja, ja silloin on syytä juhlia yhdessä Angelin leipoman kakun äärellä!
278 pages, Hardcover
First published August 18, 2009
About the author
Gaile Parkin
4 books66 followersBorn and raised in Zambia, Gaile Parkin has lived and worked in many African countries. Her first job was in a Soweto still simmering from the violent uprising of the school students who had begun to loosen apartheid's control of the education system in South Africa. More recently she has worked in Rwanda, counselling women and girls who had survived the genocide. A published author of numerous school textbooks and children's books, Gaile has only recently turned her hand to writing fiction for adults.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,185 reviews
May 20, 2022
Rating: 3.5* of five
2016 Comment: I can't figure people out...this book is a pleasure to read, offers revealing and touching and amusing comments on the reality of growing older in an era of chaotic change that I can't imagine NOT being of interest to a very wide readership and yet..nothing! It's a lovely story. Seek one out, give it a try, this is good stuff here.
The Publisher Says: Once in a great while a debut novelist comes along who dazzles us with rare eloquence and humanity, who takes us to bold new places and into previously unimaginable lives. Gaile Parkin is just such a talent—and Baking Cakes in Kigali is just such a novel. This gloriously written tale—set in modern-day Rwanda—introduces one of the most singular and engaging characters in recent fiction: Angel Tungaraza—mother, cake baker, keeper of secrets—a woman living on the edge of chaos, finding ways to transform lives, weave magic, and create hope amid the madness swirling all around her.
In Kigali, Angel runs a bustling business: baking cakes for all occasions—cakes filled with vibrant color, buttery richness, and, most of all, a sense of hope only Angel can deliver.…A CIA agent’s wife seeks the perfect holiday cake but walks away with something far sweeter…a former boy-soldier orders an engagement cake, then, between sips of tea, shares an enthralling story…weary human rights workers…lovesick limo drivers. Amid this cacophony of native tongues, love affairs, and confessions, Angel’s kitchen is an oasis where people tell their secrets, where hope abounds and help awaits.
In this unlikely place, in the heart of Rwanda, unexpected things are beginning to happen: A most unusual wedding is planned…a heartbreaking mystery—involving Angel’s own family—unravels…and extraordinary connections are being made among the men and women who have tasted Angel’s beautiful cakes…as a chain of events unfolds that will change Angel’s life—and the lives of those around her—in the most astonishing ways.
My Review: This book should have been a shoo-in for the bestseller lists. If the popularity of Alexander McCall Smith's Precious Ramotswe books is any index to American willingness to embrace African women as heroes, I can think of no earthly reason this tome won't light up the charts.
I found Angel and her husband Pius to be entertaining companions. The five grandchildren they are raising in post-genocide Rwanda reflect the realities of life in Africa...orphans everywhere, no matter where you look, and only the very lucky have a place to go where they are loved and nurtured.
Angel and Pius should, by the lights of their Tanzanian upbringing, be preparing for their ascent into elderhood, being looked after by the children they carefully raised. The children are dead, and the elders are thrown back into parenthood. This central tragedy is the spine of the book.
It's not a tragedy to Angel, in the sense that she revels in the life of a society cake-supplier, something she began as a home-based business to support the grandkids and has become a passionate addiction. Angel is famous in Kigali for the creative splendor of her cakes, ordered by the best and the brightest of the city to commemorate the milestones of life. Angel gets to hear all the gossip worth hearing and involve herself in all the doings of her world.
The book is a sure-fire pleasure read for many, if not most, fans of domestic fiction. It's something that readers should make a point of browsing in the local bookery.
2016 Comment: I can't figure people out...this book is a pleasure to read, offers revealing and touching and amusing comments on the reality of growing older in an era of chaotic change that I can't imagine NOT being of interest to a very wide readership and yet..nothing! It's a lovely story. Seek one out, give it a try, this is good stuff here.
The Publisher Says: Once in a great while a debut novelist comes along who dazzles us with rare eloquence and humanity, who takes us to bold new places and into previously unimaginable lives. Gaile Parkin is just such a talent—and Baking Cakes in Kigali is just such a novel. This gloriously written tale—set in modern-day Rwanda—introduces one of the most singular and engaging characters in recent fiction: Angel Tungaraza—mother, cake baker, keeper of secrets—a woman living on the edge of chaos, finding ways to transform lives, weave magic, and create hope amid the madness swirling all around her.
In Kigali, Angel runs a bustling business: baking cakes for all occasions—cakes filled with vibrant color, buttery richness, and, most of all, a sense of hope only Angel can deliver.…A CIA agent’s wife seeks the perfect holiday cake but walks away with something far sweeter…a former boy-soldier orders an engagement cake, then, between sips of tea, shares an enthralling story…weary human rights workers…lovesick limo drivers. Amid this cacophony of native tongues, love affairs, and confessions, Angel’s kitchen is an oasis where people tell their secrets, where hope abounds and help awaits.
In this unlikely place, in the heart of Rwanda, unexpected things are beginning to happen: A most unusual wedding is planned…a heartbreaking mystery—involving Angel’s own family—unravels…and extraordinary connections are being made among the men and women who have tasted Angel’s beautiful cakes…as a chain of events unfolds that will change Angel’s life—and the lives of those around her—in the most astonishing ways.
My Review: This book should have been a shoo-in for the bestseller lists. If the popularity of Alexander McCall Smith's Precious Ramotswe books is any index to American willingness to embrace African women as heroes, I can think of no earthly reason this tome won't light up the charts.
I found Angel and her husband Pius to be entertaining companions. The five grandchildren they are raising in post-genocide Rwanda reflect the realities of life in Africa...orphans everywhere, no matter where you look, and only the very lucky have a place to go where they are loved and nurtured.
Angel and Pius should, by the lights of their Tanzanian upbringing, be preparing for their ascent into elderhood, being looked after by the children they carefully raised. The children are dead, and the elders are thrown back into parenthood. This central tragedy is the spine of the book.
It's not a tragedy to Angel, in the sense that she revels in the life of a society cake-supplier, something she began as a home-based business to support the grandkids and has become a passionate addiction. Angel is famous in Kigali for the creative splendor of her cakes, ordered by the best and the brightest of the city to commemorate the milestones of life. Angel gets to hear all the gossip worth hearing and involve herself in all the doings of her world.
The book is a sure-fire pleasure read for many, if not most, fans of domestic fiction. It's something that readers should make a point of browsing in the local bookery.
October 29, 2010
This is the latest selection for our book group at the book store where I work. I led the group this month, so obviously, I had to read the book. Well, it wasn't terrible but it was pretty bad.
This is a debut from Parkin, who grew up in South Africa and has done lots of volunteer type work, teaching, and other good stuff. But a fiction writer she is not. The story centers around Angel, the resident cake baker for this UN type compound in Kigali, Rwanda. Various characters come to her to order cakes, tell her little stories about why they want the cake and maybe give a little snippet about their horrible lives in terms of surviving genocide, AIDS, poverty, et al. You'd think this would be pretty riveting stuff but in Parkin's hands, it all falls flat. The dialogue is super stiff and polite and every statement is met with the proper response, for example, "How are you today," she asked. "I'm lovely, thank you for asking. And you?" "Eh, I've been better." "Oh, what is the matter?" and so on. That is not verbatim but it's not far off. The main narrative isn't really any better. And the plot device was repetitive (customer comes to order cake, Angel listens to their story, x12).
And since the story takes place mostly on this isolated apartment complex which has its own guard, you get the sense that this isn't exactly an accurate portrait of modern Rwanda, post genocide. It's a little too sunny and everything has a silver lining and the book even ends with a triumphant wedding. It's kinda like watching Disney's Aladdin and thinking, "So that's what the Middle East is like!"
Parkin tries to touch upon some serious issues (AIDS, genocide, homelessness, female genital mutilation, feminism, prostitution, corporation, race, education, traditional African marriages) but they are more less mentioned in passing and not fully explored.
Now, the rest of the book group almost completely disagreed with me. They enjoyed the "light hearted" tone and outlook of the main character. They felt that this was a nice change for a book about Rwanda, to show that it's not all bad there and that people have happy lives. Sure. Fine. I'm just saying Parkin didn't do a good job with that premise. Maybe if the setting had been more indicative of Rwanda as a whole it would have worked. The book group, all middle-aged women, said I didn't "get it" because I'm a man. Please.
Why can I write so much more about the books I dislike than than the ones I do like?
This is a debut from Parkin, who grew up in South Africa and has done lots of volunteer type work, teaching, and other good stuff. But a fiction writer she is not. The story centers around Angel, the resident cake baker for this UN type compound in Kigali, Rwanda. Various characters come to her to order cakes, tell her little stories about why they want the cake and maybe give a little snippet about their horrible lives in terms of surviving genocide, AIDS, poverty, et al. You'd think this would be pretty riveting stuff but in Parkin's hands, it all falls flat. The dialogue is super stiff and polite and every statement is met with the proper response, for example, "How are you today," she asked. "I'm lovely, thank you for asking. And you?" "Eh, I've been better." "Oh, what is the matter?" and so on. That is not verbatim but it's not far off. The main narrative isn't really any better. And the plot device was repetitive (customer comes to order cake, Angel listens to their story, x12).
And since the story takes place mostly on this isolated apartment complex which has its own guard, you get the sense that this isn't exactly an accurate portrait of modern Rwanda, post genocide. It's a little too sunny and everything has a silver lining and the book even ends with a triumphant wedding. It's kinda like watching Disney's Aladdin and thinking, "So that's what the Middle East is like!"
Parkin tries to touch upon some serious issues (AIDS, genocide, homelessness, female genital mutilation, feminism, prostitution, corporation, race, education, traditional African marriages) but they are more less mentioned in passing and not fully explored.
Now, the rest of the book group almost completely disagreed with me. They enjoyed the "light hearted" tone and outlook of the main character. They felt that this was a nice change for a book about Rwanda, to show that it's not all bad there and that people have happy lives. Sure. Fine. I'm just saying Parkin didn't do a good job with that premise. Maybe if the setting had been more indicative of Rwanda as a whole it would have worked. The book group, all middle-aged women, said I didn't "get it" because I'm a man. Please.
Why can I write so much more about the books I dislike than than the ones I do like?
October 17, 2015
Angel and her family have temporarily relocated from Tanzania to Rwanda. While her husband works for the local university, Angel spends her time running her successful celebratory cake business. Her customers include her lovely friends, neighbours and the odd (and I mean odd) new client who comes her way. If this book is any indication, Rwandans really love their cakes! But Angel isn't just a master baker and decorator; she is also the 'Auntie' whom everyone comes to for advice. And she dishes it out, while slowly - very slowly - coming to recognise the root of her own emotional pain.
I didn't know a great deal about Rwanda other than the two Gs - genocide and gorillas. Rwanda's difficult recent history provides a sober backdrop to this funny, charming story, with characters often having natural conversations about their wartime experiences, subsequent investigations, the trials and imprisonment. Many of the expat characters surrounding Angel have come to Rwanda to help with the country's recovery in one way or another.
I really enjoyed this. Recommended for anyone who would like to learn a little bit about Rwanda without resorting to non-fiction.
I didn't know a great deal about Rwanda other than the two Gs - genocide and gorillas. Rwanda's difficult recent history provides a sober backdrop to this funny, charming story, with characters often having natural conversations about their wartime experiences, subsequent investigations, the trials and imprisonment. Many of the expat characters surrounding Angel have come to Rwanda to help with the country's recovery in one way or another.
I really enjoyed this. Recommended for anyone who would like to learn a little bit about Rwanda without resorting to non-fiction.
February 5, 2016
This beautiful African story, set in post-genocide Rwanda, is not only compellingly and simply told - but also touches on much of what makes us truly happy in life.
Angel is a Tanzanian living in Rwanda with her husband and the five grandchildren she's raising. Her claim to fame in the town of Kigali is her extraordinary and unique cakes. The process of designing the perfect cake for her customers lets her into their lives - they share their stories. Through these stories we see in many people a remarkable ability to adapt and to survive, to change and grow and find goodness wherever they are. We also see great depravity and horror as those who managed to live through the genocide begin to put heir lives and their country back together, with the help of people from many nations.
I loved so much about this book - I loved Angel's listening ear and her desire to look at things truthfully. I loved how the plot revolved around her cakes, those scrumptious creations designed for so many different reason and for so many different kinds of people. And the people! A cross section of humanity - UN workers, refugees, professors, volunteers, orphans, chauffeurs, stay-at-home moms and poor AIDS patients that are trying to gain skills to make a living. We meet so much of Africa and her people - as well as those from near and far who legitimately desire to help Rwanda come back to life. The educated and illiterate are living side by side - Hutus and Tutsis are choosing to look beyond their past to a larger-than-life future. I loved the depth of this charming story.
Read it.
Angel is a Tanzanian living in Rwanda with her husband and the five grandchildren she's raising. Her claim to fame in the town of Kigali is her extraordinary and unique cakes. The process of designing the perfect cake for her customers lets her into their lives - they share their stories. Through these stories we see in many people a remarkable ability to adapt and to survive, to change and grow and find goodness wherever they are. We also see great depravity and horror as those who managed to live through the genocide begin to put heir lives and their country back together, with the help of people from many nations.
I loved so much about this book - I loved Angel's listening ear and her desire to look at things truthfully. I loved how the plot revolved around her cakes, those scrumptious creations designed for so many different reason and for so many different kinds of people. And the people! A cross section of humanity - UN workers, refugees, professors, volunteers, orphans, chauffeurs, stay-at-home moms and poor AIDS patients that are trying to gain skills to make a living. We meet so much of Africa and her people - as well as those from near and far who legitimately desire to help Rwanda come back to life. The educated and illiterate are living side by side - Hutus and Tutsis are choosing to look beyond their past to a larger-than-life future. I loved the depth of this charming story.
Read it.
August 30, 2014
This was one of the most irritating books I have ever read. Alexander McCall Smith is a comparable and close second, so if you like him, you'll probably like this too.
I think my problem is that I don't know who this book is aimed at. What is clear, is that whoever the intended audience is, it doesn't include me. The trick of having a Tanzanian living in Rwanda, and explaining things through her eyes (although still in the third person) could have been used to great effect. Instead, the insider-outsider (African but non-Rwandan) perspective appeared to be used to poke fun at the narrator ("oooh look, there's a not-particularly-educated menopausal African woman, how funny to constantly hear how she keeps money in her brassiere, polishes her glasses when she's feeling uncomfortable and, while trying to find her feet in Rwanda, oversimplifies everything while at the same time occasionally accidentally putting her finger right on the point but without realising it").
The formula is predictable: person arrives to order a cake, protaganist listens to their story, person orders cake. This happens several times. At some point later in the narrative, each of the customers reappears and get linked in with various other characters whom I can't drum up enthusiasm to engage with on any level.
The story attempts to engage with some big current issues. However, they are just too huge to be dealt with in such a way and require much greater skill from the narrator. Attempts to look at genocide, HIV/AIDS, FGM, the politics of aid, cultural insensitivity of expatriates, divorce, infidelity, Ebola, suicide etc, grate - either they are treated with humour (which belittles them) or seriously (which comes over as mawkish) or a combination of both (the least successful of all). Anyone who has had to deal with these issues as an insider (by which I mean that they affect your friends, your family and / or your country) will recognise that using a condescending attitude towards the main characters throughout the novel is not the way to set the right tone to address them successfully.
The author might have been born in Africa, but she is not an African. This is what shines through the story. From the unnecessarily detailed description of how a couple of girls had their hair in cornrows which interrupts the description of a wedding, to the details of how grasshoppers are cooked and eaten, there are touches which are supposed to provide authenticity but feel like a tourists' guide to Africa - and not in a good way.
I am not one for giving bad reviews on the whole. However, with this book I don't feel guilty as I am sure it will probably do just fine. It will provide the stereotyped picture of Africa, and African women in particular, that certain groups within privileged, Western society will want to believe and, along with Precious Ramotswe, Angel will become the typical African woman that people who have never been to Africa or explored good writing about Africa, think exists. It's just that in all my years of living in Africa (and yes, I am African born and bred and have lived in a few different African countries), I've never met anyone like her. I doubt that anyone else ever has either.
I think my problem is that I don't know who this book is aimed at. What is clear, is that whoever the intended audience is, it doesn't include me. The trick of having a Tanzanian living in Rwanda, and explaining things through her eyes (although still in the third person) could have been used to great effect. Instead, the insider-outsider (African but non-Rwandan) perspective appeared to be used to poke fun at the narrator ("oooh look, there's a not-particularly-educated menopausal African woman, how funny to constantly hear how she keeps money in her brassiere, polishes her glasses when she's feeling uncomfortable and, while trying to find her feet in Rwanda, oversimplifies everything while at the same time occasionally accidentally putting her finger right on the point but without realising it").
The formula is predictable: person arrives to order a cake, protaganist listens to their story, person orders cake. This happens several times. At some point later in the narrative, each of the customers reappears and get linked in with various other characters whom I can't drum up enthusiasm to engage with on any level.
The story attempts to engage with some big current issues. However, they are just too huge to be dealt with in such a way and require much greater skill from the narrator. Attempts to look at genocide, HIV/AIDS, FGM, the politics of aid, cultural insensitivity of expatriates, divorce, infidelity, Ebola, suicide etc, grate - either they are treated with humour (which belittles them) or seriously (which comes over as mawkish) or a combination of both (the least successful of all). Anyone who has had to deal with these issues as an insider (by which I mean that they affect your friends, your family and / or your country) will recognise that using a condescending attitude towards the main characters throughout the novel is not the way to set the right tone to address them successfully.
The author might have been born in Africa, but she is not an African. This is what shines through the story. From the unnecessarily detailed description of how a couple of girls had their hair in cornrows which interrupts the description of a wedding, to the details of how grasshoppers are cooked and eaten, there are touches which are supposed to provide authenticity but feel like a tourists' guide to Africa - and not in a good way.
I am not one for giving bad reviews on the whole. However, with this book I don't feel guilty as I am sure it will probably do just fine. It will provide the stereotyped picture of Africa, and African women in particular, that certain groups within privileged, Western society will want to believe and, along with Precious Ramotswe, Angel will become the typical African woman that people who have never been to Africa or explored good writing about Africa, think exists. It's just that in all my years of living in Africa (and yes, I am African born and bred and have lived in a few different African countries), I've never met anyone like her. I doubt that anyone else ever has either.
September 11, 2014
I smell book series.
Yet another white person who grew up in Africa tries to cram themselves into the Africans' skin and lives, and "tell it like it is". Only of course, it can't be. Not really. The author obviously believes she has the "insider's view" and yet by her own admission, the people do keep themselves separate even while living side-by-side. All of the white people are depicted as untrustworthy, grasping, immodest, or downright thieves--oh, except for the "volunteers." They're OK. (The author, after all, was one. And we are always the exception, in our own lives). The Hindu women characters are all obsessed with germs and cleanliness, and essentially ignorant and "laughable" (which reveals some kind of issue burning somewhere). All of the African characters are wonderful, warm, understanding folks--even the guy who waits to see if his girlfriend has a boy or a girl so he can decide whether or not to kick her to the curb and go off with his other baby mama. Even the guy who "falls in love" with a different girl every five minutes--but the moment she doesn't meet his untried, unrealistic expectations, he's off to the next "love." The only "bad" Africans in the story are obviously mentally unbalanced, so we can blame it all on the tragedy that is African life, and blame "the colonials" for everything. The authoress seems to believe that if the white man had just left Africa alone, everything would be rosy.
As for the story itself, the first two or three chapters bubble and chatter and ferment with dozens of characters, crowding the pages to the place it's hard to keep them all straight, or engage with any of them. The main character lives in an exclusive compound (ie gated,. guarded community) inhabited by "aid workers" who live a large slice above the people on the street. Her husband works at the university (I think, I'm still rather confused) and she makes cakes to sell and help out. Of course, she has American friends who bring her supplies on a monthly basis, in the suitcases that breeze unchecked through Customs, or none of this would even be possible. The people she deals with on a daily basis can all somehow afford custom-made celebratory cakes, and she somehow has time to make and decorate them, in spite of looking after 5 grandchildren whose parents are all dead.
I kept looking for a unifying narrative thread. It takes about half the novel to find one...Angel has to learn to deal with the reality of "that disease" (AIDS) in her own family. Oh, it was there, all right, but she couldn't deal with it. Miraculously, of course, her grandkids are all unaffected, despite their parents being positive.
This book is an excuse for the author's own philosophical ruminations. It could have been so much better, but for me it read like a combination of McCall Smith's "philosophy club" books (ugh) with a patina of Precious Ramotswe. The Number One novels are also chains of stories, but each story has a central issue, with some kind of resolution. Parkin's book chatters on to the end, leaving the reader rather dazed. As Billy Crystal would say, "She didn't leave anything on the table."
Yet another white person who grew up in Africa tries to cram themselves into the Africans' skin and lives, and "tell it like it is". Only of course, it can't be. Not really. The author obviously believes she has the "insider's view" and yet by her own admission, the people do keep themselves separate even while living side-by-side. All of the white people are depicted as untrustworthy, grasping, immodest, or downright thieves--oh, except for the "volunteers." They're OK. (The author, after all, was one. And we are always the exception, in our own lives). The Hindu women characters are all obsessed with germs and cleanliness, and essentially ignorant and "laughable" (which reveals some kind of issue burning somewhere). All of the African characters are wonderful, warm, understanding folks--even the guy who waits to see if his girlfriend has a boy or a girl so he can decide whether or not to kick her to the curb and go off with his other baby mama. Even the guy who "falls in love" with a different girl every five minutes--but the moment she doesn't meet his untried, unrealistic expectations, he's off to the next "love." The only "bad" Africans in the story are obviously mentally unbalanced, so we can blame it all on the tragedy that is African life, and blame "the colonials" for everything. The authoress seems to believe that if the white man had just left Africa alone, everything would be rosy.
As for the story itself, the first two or three chapters bubble and chatter and ferment with dozens of characters, crowding the pages to the place it's hard to keep them all straight, or engage with any of them. The main character lives in an exclusive compound (ie gated,. guarded community) inhabited by "aid workers" who live a large slice above the people on the street. Her husband works at the university (I think, I'm still rather confused) and she makes cakes to sell and help out. Of course, she has American friends who bring her supplies on a monthly basis, in the suitcases that breeze unchecked through Customs, or none of this would even be possible. The people she deals with on a daily basis can all somehow afford custom-made celebratory cakes, and she somehow has time to make and decorate them, in spite of looking after 5 grandchildren whose parents are all dead.
I kept looking for a unifying narrative thread. It takes about half the novel to find one...Angel has to learn to deal with the reality of "that disease" (AIDS) in her own family. Oh, it was there, all right, but she couldn't deal with it. Miraculously, of course, her grandkids are all unaffected, despite their parents being positive.
This book is an excuse for the author's own philosophical ruminations. It could have been so much better, but for me it read like a combination of McCall Smith's "philosophy club" books (ugh) with a patina of Precious Ramotswe. The Number One novels are also chains of stories, but each story has a central issue, with some kind of resolution. Parkin's book chatters on to the end, leaving the reader rather dazed. As Billy Crystal would say, "She didn't leave anything on the table."
October 27, 2011
I started out not liking this book. I thought the author had a checklist of issues she wanted to cover and was stuffing them into this short novel. But as I read I came to love this book. Her message is hope, its done simply and with grace. She delivers it through a woman named Angel who bakes cakes. People come to Angel with their need for a cake and reasons to celebrate. This is a book about survivors whether it is from the horrific genocide that devastated Rwanda in the mid 90s or AIDS. Its about small changes that bring about big results. Toward the end of the novel, a group of women are talking and they liken themselves to the ingredients of bread, how alone they are not much but when gathered together, the results are amazing, "they stick together and rise" (p.277). Its these little gems of wisdom that are sprinkled throughout the novel and have endeared Angel and the many colorful characters of Baking Cakes in Kigali to me. I hope we get another opportunity to meet these characters again.
April 29, 2019
Angel Tungaraza is living with her husband and grandchildren in a compound in Kigali, Rwanda, where she has a cake-making business she operates out of the family’s apartment kitchen. Angel is frequently privy to her customer’s secrets, and as a “professional somebody,” she knows that she must keep these confidences. But there’s nothing to say that she cannot act to try to help her customers as they negotiate the pitfalls of life, and celebrate the joys of living.
This is a delightful debut novel. I love Angel – she’s wise, discreet, confident, compassionate, decisive and a great friend and mentor. There are several humorous episodes (Capt Calixta’s belief that a white woman will marry him if he presents her with a cake!), and several touchingly sad ones (the unhappiness of a young bride married to a serial philanderer, or the women who feel they have no other choice but to become prostitutes to earn money to feed their families), but Angel deals with any situation with aplomb and compassion. In the process, she learns something about herself and strengthens her own marriage by opening a conversation about a very difficult subject.
Parkin peoples the novel with a wide array of characters from many walks of life: native Rwandans, Americans, Canadians, Indians, Germans, etc. Some are wealthy, some are impoverished. They all form a community and celebrate together with one of Angel’s excellent cakes, of course!
I’ll definitely read more from this author.
This is a delightful debut novel. I love Angel – she’s wise, discreet, confident, compassionate, decisive and a great friend and mentor. There are several humorous episodes (Capt Calixta’s belief that a white woman will marry him if he presents her with a cake!), and several touchingly sad ones (the unhappiness of a young bride married to a serial philanderer, or the women who feel they have no other choice but to become prostitutes to earn money to feed their families), but Angel deals with any situation with aplomb and compassion. In the process, she learns something about herself and strengthens her own marriage by opening a conversation about a very difficult subject.
Parkin peoples the novel with a wide array of characters from many walks of life: native Rwandans, Americans, Canadians, Indians, Germans, etc. Some are wealthy, some are impoverished. They all form a community and celebrate together with one of Angel’s excellent cakes, of course!
I’ll definitely read more from this author.
December 5, 2010
MY INTERVIEW WITH GAILE PARKIN
Happiness after the tears
Rwandans are finding joy at last
By NICOLETTE SCROOBY
BORN in Kitwe, Zambia, Gaile Parkin , 51, studied at Rhodes University and taught English at the Fort Hare campus in Alice in the 80s. Baking Cakes in Kigali is her debut novel.
Question: Where do you write?
Answer: On whatever surface there is wherever I happen to be living. Right now, it’s the kitchen counter-top in the flat I’m renting in Joburg.
Q: Best time of day to write?
Early morning – 3am. My mind shuts down come evening.
Q: Computer or pen?
A: Computer – or pencil when I can’t get to a computer or when there’s no electricity.
Q: Where did you get the idea for the plot of your novel?
A: During my two years in Rwanda I found that people were focusing less on the recent genocide and more on finding reasons – and creating occasions – for happiness, laughter and celebration. That was the aspect of Rwandan life I was interested in conveying, and cakes seemed the perfect vehicle.
Q: Did you encounter any difficulties while writing?
A: I struggled enormously with the idea of being light and funny about such a tragic context, and wasn’t able to begin writing until I’d persuaded myself it was okay.
Q: You currently live in Johannesburg, are a freelance consultant in education, gender and HIV/Aids. When do you get time to write?
A: In the spaces between assignments.
Q: I really liked the fact that you touched on HIV/Aids in the novel. With your work, this is obviously very close to your heart. Tell us your thoughts about addressing HIV/Aids in your book.
A: I don’t think you can set a novel in modern-day Africa and not mention HIV/Aids. I wanted in particular to deal with the problem of denial of the reality of the disease, so I had Angel confront the denial of the ambassador’s wife in the beginning, only to discover, later on, another level of denial within herself.
Q: You described each cake so intricately. Where does your interest in cakes come from?
A: I’ve seen so many beautiful, intricate, ornate cakes emerge from the very basic kitchens of women who wouldn’t regard themselves as remotely clever, skilled or creative. They have no idea how talented they are!
Q: Do you enjoy baking?
A: Yes, but I’m not very good at it.
Q: I loved that your main character Angel Tungaraza challenged and encouraged people to become better. Who/what did you base this character on?
A: Angel is an amalgamation of character traits from many women I’ve met over the years, and I think she’s fairly typical of strong African women who support and uplift one another and find a way to cope – and to remain positive – no matter what life throws at them.
Q: Have you started working on your next novel?
A: My agent in London has just given me a deadline for another novel. But I won’t jinx it by talking about it.
Q: What is your favourite book?
A: Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels, for the exquisite beauty of the writing.
Q: Anything else you would like to tell us?
A: I baked a few cakes in Kigali myself. In my first year there I had no oven – the university refused to let me have one of the several ovens that were sitting in storage on campus not being used. In my second year I was moved to a smaller flat, and a Ghanaian colleague (a man) was moved into my old flat – and was immediately given one of the ovens from storage. My boss, a wonderful Ugandan woman, was incensed. She gathered together all the men who made decisions and asked them if they were discriminating against me because I was a woman, or because I was white. They were too ashamed not to give me an oven then – and I embarrassed them further by baking cakes for all of them.
REVIEW:
Baking Cakes in Kigali
By Gaile Parkin
(Atlantic Books )
BAKING Cakes in Kigali is funny, charming and simply delightful.
Set in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, the story revolves around Angel Tungaraza and her small cake baking business.
Angel and her husband, Pius, have recently moved to Rwanda from her native Tanzania, with their five orphaned grandchildren in tow. While her husband works at the university, Angel bakes individually designed cakes for her neighbours and friends’ parties and celebrations.
You won’t find any posh British talk between these Kigali neighbours, which makes for fun, light and simple reading, which South Africans will easily relate to.
Each chapter deals with a cake Angel is commissioned to make.
I think Angel is a local version of her favourite talk show host – Oprah Winfrey. She listens, gives advice and challenges their thinking. For instance, there’s a father, Dr Binaisa, who wants a cake for his daughter who likes planes. He thinks she’ll become an air hostess, but Angel makes him realise that his daughter can become an aircraft engineer.
Behind the heartache of the Rwandan genocide, the novel also addresses the issue of HIV/Aids, making it another reason why Baking Cakes in Kigali gets my thumbs up. — Nicolette Scrooby
(Published in the Daily Dispatch on February 7, 2009)
Happiness after the tears
Rwandans are finding joy at last
By NICOLETTE SCROOBY
BORN in Kitwe, Zambia, Gaile Parkin , 51, studied at Rhodes University and taught English at the Fort Hare campus in Alice in the 80s. Baking Cakes in Kigali is her debut novel.
Question: Where do you write?
Answer: On whatever surface there is wherever I happen to be living. Right now, it’s the kitchen counter-top in the flat I’m renting in Joburg.
Q: Best time of day to write?
Early morning – 3am. My mind shuts down come evening.
Q: Computer or pen?
A: Computer – or pencil when I can’t get to a computer or when there’s no electricity.
Q: Where did you get the idea for the plot of your novel?
A: During my two years in Rwanda I found that people were focusing less on the recent genocide and more on finding reasons – and creating occasions – for happiness, laughter and celebration. That was the aspect of Rwandan life I was interested in conveying, and cakes seemed the perfect vehicle.
Q: Did you encounter any difficulties while writing?
A: I struggled enormously with the idea of being light and funny about such a tragic context, and wasn’t able to begin writing until I’d persuaded myself it was okay.
Q: You currently live in Johannesburg, are a freelance consultant in education, gender and HIV/Aids. When do you get time to write?
A: In the spaces between assignments.
Q: I really liked the fact that you touched on HIV/Aids in the novel. With your work, this is obviously very close to your heart. Tell us your thoughts about addressing HIV/Aids in your book.
A: I don’t think you can set a novel in modern-day Africa and not mention HIV/Aids. I wanted in particular to deal with the problem of denial of the reality of the disease, so I had Angel confront the denial of the ambassador’s wife in the beginning, only to discover, later on, another level of denial within herself.
Q: You described each cake so intricately. Where does your interest in cakes come from?
A: I’ve seen so many beautiful, intricate, ornate cakes emerge from the very basic kitchens of women who wouldn’t regard themselves as remotely clever, skilled or creative. They have no idea how talented they are!
Q: Do you enjoy baking?
A: Yes, but I’m not very good at it.
Q: I loved that your main character Angel Tungaraza challenged and encouraged people to become better. Who/what did you base this character on?
A: Angel is an amalgamation of character traits from many women I’ve met over the years, and I think she’s fairly typical of strong African women who support and uplift one another and find a way to cope – and to remain positive – no matter what life throws at them.
Q: Have you started working on your next novel?
A: My agent in London has just given me a deadline for another novel. But I won’t jinx it by talking about it.
Q: What is your favourite book?
A: Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels, for the exquisite beauty of the writing.
Q: Anything else you would like to tell us?
A: I baked a few cakes in Kigali myself. In my first year there I had no oven – the university refused to let me have one of the several ovens that were sitting in storage on campus not being used. In my second year I was moved to a smaller flat, and a Ghanaian colleague (a man) was moved into my old flat – and was immediately given one of the ovens from storage. My boss, a wonderful Ugandan woman, was incensed. She gathered together all the men who made decisions and asked them if they were discriminating against me because I was a woman, or because I was white. They were too ashamed not to give me an oven then – and I embarrassed them further by baking cakes for all of them.
REVIEW:
Baking Cakes in Kigali
By Gaile Parkin
(Atlantic Books )
BAKING Cakes in Kigali is funny, charming and simply delightful.
Set in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, the story revolves around Angel Tungaraza and her small cake baking business.
Angel and her husband, Pius, have recently moved to Rwanda from her native Tanzania, with their five orphaned grandchildren in tow. While her husband works at the university, Angel bakes individually designed cakes for her neighbours and friends’ parties and celebrations.
You won’t find any posh British talk between these Kigali neighbours, which makes for fun, light and simple reading, which South Africans will easily relate to.
Each chapter deals with a cake Angel is commissioned to make.
I think Angel is a local version of her favourite talk show host – Oprah Winfrey. She listens, gives advice and challenges their thinking. For instance, there’s a father, Dr Binaisa, who wants a cake for his daughter who likes planes. He thinks she’ll become an air hostess, but Angel makes him realise that his daughter can become an aircraft engineer.
Behind the heartache of the Rwandan genocide, the novel also addresses the issue of HIV/Aids, making it another reason why Baking Cakes in Kigali gets my thumbs up. — Nicolette Scrooby
(Published in the Daily Dispatch on February 7, 2009)
May 28, 2019
A solid 4 star read for me. I loved reading about the African country through the eyes of a wonderfully sweet woman named Angel. I learned about a nation I know little about and it sourced an interest for me to read more stories from that region.
November 26, 2017
Can I just say I really loved this book!? Great characters, funny, sweet taste in my mouth after reading this and no it is no Mma Ramotswe but in the in-between it will definitely do.
July 20, 2010
I ostensibly got this book for a reading challenge, but I would have wanted to read it anyway - who could resist a gorgeous cover like that?! What's even better is that I absolutely loved this book, and it's going straight to my Favourites list.
Angel Tungaraza is a native of Tanzania who moved to Rwanda with her husband, Pius, when he got a contract to work at KIST (the Kigali Institute of Science & Technology), helping get the country back on its feet after the genocide. It's the year 2000, and with them are their orphaned grandchildren, Grace, Faith, Benedict, Moses and Daniel - the children of their son Joseph and daughter Vinas - and their servant Titi. Angel has plenty to keep her busy aside from the children: her cake business is doing very well, and the stories and problems of her neighbours in the complex where they live occupy her thoughts too.
Whether it's the people who come to her home to order a cake for a christening, a birthday, an anniversary or a homecoming, or her old and new friends, everyone has a story, everyone has something to confide in Angel. Through Angel, we get a taste not just of her wonderful, colourful cakes but of what the people of Rwanda - no matter their ethnicity or religion - have been through on a personal level, and where their lives are now.
I absolutely loved this book. It certainly reminded me of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - anyone who's read it will find comparisons between Angel and Mma Ramotswe, but I also felt that Angel was a complete character in her own right, and I didn't even think about Mma Ramotswe again after the first time. I loved McCall Smith's book (I have more to read in the series), but I loved this one just as much. Angel was a wonderful character, solid and generous and shrewd, caring and with a great sense of humour.
The novel fairly zings with colour and life and vibrancy; it's what I love to get when I read a book set in another country: a life experience. I want that insight into day-to-day living, into customs and traditions, differences and similarities. I'm fascinated by the different diction, by the attitudes and humour. Baking Cakes in Kigali is rich with that, as well as life lessons. It touches on the aftermath of the genocide - what people who survived live with, and also what's happening to those who have been accused of participating. AIDs figures somewhat prominently, as it's something that has touched nearly all the characters' lives, and there's a clever little scene between Angel and "the Canadian" who lives upstairs and is a consultant for the IMF. There are people from all over the world populating this novel, and it creates a real kaleidoscope of perspectives, attitudes and motivations.
From the very beginning of the novel, I was thoroughly engaged. I think this is a debut novel; if so, it's a very impressive one! The prose is confident, smooth and perfectly paced. Parkin doesn't get fancy or experimental: her style is as honest and grounded as the character of Angel herself; a perfect complement. I always love it when a story is written in a style that matches the story itself, because it draws you so much more fully, and the experience is richer. The characters may seem like caricatures to some readers but to me they came across as honest portrayals, and each character is written with both humour and respect so that they are completely believable.
While the author is a white woman originally from Zambia, all the stories in the book (the stories the characters tell Angel) are based on true stories people in Rwanda told Parkin; I didn't find that the novel had been written through a white Anglo lens - true, since I too am white and Anglo, it might not be noticeable to me, but that's my impression anyway. I feel cynical enough to spot it when I come across it ;) It's a world-wise novel, but it would be arrogant to say that Africans don't know what's going on.
I really don't have any criticism of this novel. I was wholly satisfied; I was entertained; I learned a lot; and I got to really spend some time in a country I have never actually been to. It was especially good to read after having read some weightier, more depressing stories like A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali or the story set in Rwanda in Say You’re One of Them. Because both of those stories were so extreme - set during the genocide itself - Baking Cakes in Kigali provides the right kind of balance, and a great way to see what's happening in the country now. It also humanises the people again, who had their humanity ripped from them in 1994.
I whole-heartedly recommend this book, and I can see myself re-reading this and enjoying it just as much the next time 'round.
Angel Tungaraza is a native of Tanzania who moved to Rwanda with her husband, Pius, when he got a contract to work at KIST (the Kigali Institute of Science & Technology), helping get the country back on its feet after the genocide. It's the year 2000, and with them are their orphaned grandchildren, Grace, Faith, Benedict, Moses and Daniel - the children of their son Joseph and daughter Vinas - and their servant Titi. Angel has plenty to keep her busy aside from the children: her cake business is doing very well, and the stories and problems of her neighbours in the complex where they live occupy her thoughts too.
Whether it's the people who come to her home to order a cake for a christening, a birthday, an anniversary or a homecoming, or her old and new friends, everyone has a story, everyone has something to confide in Angel. Through Angel, we get a taste not just of her wonderful, colourful cakes but of what the people of Rwanda - no matter their ethnicity or religion - have been through on a personal level, and where their lives are now.
I absolutely loved this book. It certainly reminded me of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - anyone who's read it will find comparisons between Angel and Mma Ramotswe, but I also felt that Angel was a complete character in her own right, and I didn't even think about Mma Ramotswe again after the first time. I loved McCall Smith's book (I have more to read in the series), but I loved this one just as much. Angel was a wonderful character, solid and generous and shrewd, caring and with a great sense of humour.
The novel fairly zings with colour and life and vibrancy; it's what I love to get when I read a book set in another country: a life experience. I want that insight into day-to-day living, into customs and traditions, differences and similarities. I'm fascinated by the different diction, by the attitudes and humour. Baking Cakes in Kigali is rich with that, as well as life lessons. It touches on the aftermath of the genocide - what people who survived live with, and also what's happening to those who have been accused of participating. AIDs figures somewhat prominently, as it's something that has touched nearly all the characters' lives, and there's a clever little scene between Angel and "the Canadian" who lives upstairs and is a consultant for the IMF. There are people from all over the world populating this novel, and it creates a real kaleidoscope of perspectives, attitudes and motivations.
From the very beginning of the novel, I was thoroughly engaged. I think this is a debut novel; if so, it's a very impressive one! The prose is confident, smooth and perfectly paced. Parkin doesn't get fancy or experimental: her style is as honest and grounded as the character of Angel herself; a perfect complement. I always love it when a story is written in a style that matches the story itself, because it draws you so much more fully, and the experience is richer. The characters may seem like caricatures to some readers but to me they came across as honest portrayals, and each character is written with both humour and respect so that they are completely believable.
While the author is a white woman originally from Zambia, all the stories in the book (the stories the characters tell Angel) are based on true stories people in Rwanda told Parkin; I didn't find that the novel had been written through a white Anglo lens - true, since I too am white and Anglo, it might not be noticeable to me, but that's my impression anyway. I feel cynical enough to spot it when I come across it ;) It's a world-wise novel, but it would be arrogant to say that Africans don't know what's going on.
I really don't have any criticism of this novel. I was wholly satisfied; I was entertained; I learned a lot; and I got to really spend some time in a country I have never actually been to. It was especially good to read after having read some weightier, more depressing stories like A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali or the story set in Rwanda in Say You’re One of Them. Because both of those stories were so extreme - set during the genocide itself - Baking Cakes in Kigali provides the right kind of balance, and a great way to see what's happening in the country now. It also humanises the people again, who had their humanity ripped from them in 1994.
I whole-heartedly recommend this book, and I can see myself re-reading this and enjoying it just as much the next time 'round.
July 23, 2012
This book is a loosely woven amalgam of anecdotes about the lives of a group of people who come into the life of the protagonist, Angel. She happens to be the premier cake maker in Kiagali, a city in Rwanda; she is also somewhat of a sounding board and mother hen to all she encounters.
This book started out as a three-star kind of book for me. Although it is fairly light in tone, the protagonist is appealing--what grandmother of five who takes in her grandchildren after her own children die wouldn't be? I enjoyed the moments that rang true, such as conversations between the women of the apartment complex in which Angel lives and Angel's frustration with the slow course of menopause (lol). The stories that are told by her prospective customers are fairly interesting, although it took some suspension of disbelief that they'd tell everything about their lives to a complete stranger, and the character device tic of cleaning her glasses (so she and all others can SEE CLEARLY--get it?) got old pretty fast.
As the story wound on (and it really isn't a story as much as a series of vignettes) though, I got more and more irritated as every possible social and political issue in Africa was thrown into the pot. We have your AIDS, your suicide, your homelessness and hunger, military factions, child soldiers, racism, sexism, prostitution, genocide, feminism, Western clulessness (it's too much to call it Imperialism here)... the list goes on and on. It's not so much that I don't believe these could all be things that Angel could encounter; it's just that it was too much and each was treated too shallowly in a short book. Parkin would have been more well suited to show us a few of the problems facing Africans than everything at once--that device did not serve her storytellers well.
At the end of the day, Baking Cakes in Kigali was okay. I finished it, and I didn't end up severely disliking Angel. It just might have been better.
This book started out as a three-star kind of book for me. Although it is fairly light in tone, the protagonist is appealing--what grandmother of five who takes in her grandchildren after her own children die wouldn't be? I enjoyed the moments that rang true, such as conversations between the women of the apartment complex in which Angel lives and Angel's frustration with the slow course of menopause (lol). The stories that are told by her prospective customers are fairly interesting, although it took some suspension of disbelief that they'd tell everything about their lives to a complete stranger, and the character device tic of cleaning her glasses (so she and all others can SEE CLEARLY--get it?) got old pretty fast.
As the story wound on (and it really isn't a story as much as a series of vignettes) though, I got more and more irritated as every possible social and political issue in Africa was thrown into the pot. We have your AIDS, your suicide, your homelessness and hunger, military factions, child soldiers, racism, sexism, prostitution, genocide, feminism, Western clulessness (it's too much to call it Imperialism here)... the list goes on and on. It's not so much that I don't believe these could all be things that Angel could encounter; it's just that it was too much and each was treated too shallowly in a short book. Parkin would have been more well suited to show us a few of the problems facing Africans than everything at once--that device did not serve her storytellers well.
At the end of the day, Baking Cakes in Kigali was okay. I finished it, and I didn't end up severely disliking Angel. It just might have been better.
January 9, 2012
My first impression of this book was that the writing was quite simple. As I read further, realized that it was deceptively simple. It was written in the voice of the protagonist, Angel.
The setting of the book is a compound of international people living in Kigali, helping it rebuild after the 1994 genocide. Angel (appropriately named) bakes and decorates cakes for her friends and customers. Throughout the book, their individual stories are revealed.
I noticed early on that many of the members of the compound had family members who were "late" (dead). Angel's two children were late. One was shot by robbers, saving him from a lingering death by AIDS. The other died, seemingly of a stroke. As Angel listens to her friends' and neighbors' stories, she accepts the truth of her daughter's death.
One story that left a huge impact on me was when Angel's husband and his collegues went to the technical school memoridal where men, women and children were massacred. In the guest book, Angel's husband noticed the sentiment, "Never again" written over and over. Angel recalled that the memorials of the Holocast in Germany had the same written sentiments. She questioned if there would be another future time, when people would have the occasion of writing, "Never again" in a memorial book for another genocide. Of course, the setting was prior to the Sudanese genocide in Darfur.
There were several other incidents in the book that had me contemplating the cruelties that people survived. In the words of one of the women, "Survival isn't always good."
In spite of the atrocities mentioned in the book, there was also a balance of hope, of rebuilding and reconnecting.
The setting of the book is a compound of international people living in Kigali, helping it rebuild after the 1994 genocide. Angel (appropriately named) bakes and decorates cakes for her friends and customers. Throughout the book, their individual stories are revealed.
I noticed early on that many of the members of the compound had family members who were "late" (dead). Angel's two children were late. One was shot by robbers, saving him from a lingering death by AIDS. The other died, seemingly of a stroke. As Angel listens to her friends' and neighbors' stories, she accepts the truth of her daughter's death.
One story that left a huge impact on me was when Angel's husband and his collegues went to the technical school memoridal where men, women and children were massacred. In the guest book, Angel's husband noticed the sentiment, "Never again" written over and over. Angel recalled that the memorials of the Holocast in Germany had the same written sentiments. She questioned if there would be another future time, when people would have the occasion of writing, "Never again" in a memorial book for another genocide. Of course, the setting was prior to the Sudanese genocide in Darfur.
There were several other incidents in the book that had me contemplating the cruelties that people survived. In the words of one of the women, "Survival isn't always good."
In spite of the atrocities mentioned in the book, there was also a balance of hope, of rebuilding and reconnecting.
July 24, 2009
This was a book I got for free in one of the giveaways. It was an amazingly well written book. I loved the main character and it was very interesting to see how she very subtly empowered the younger women and girls around her. The story takes place in Rwanda in the city of Kigali. Angel is an excellent baker of cakes and through her client's stories the author discusses the genocide in Rwanda, the AIDS epidemic in Africa, female genital mutilation and many more very serious topics in a way that makes you want to keep reading. I look forward to reading Ms. Parkin's future novels.
March 27, 2023
Angel Tungaraza is a Tanzanian grandmother, looking after her five orphaned grandchildren and living in Kigali with her husband Pius, who teaches at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, one of many foreigners helping Rwanda rebuild itself. Angel bakes cakes - beautifully customised ones suited for any occasion: a birthday, a christening, a wedding anniversary, a wedding, a scholarship...
From the very beginning, Baking Cakes in Kigali reminded me of Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. A woman in sub-Saharan Africa, running a business and using it to help people, not just in a practical way, but with compassion, good advice, sensitivity and often humour as well. The story with its layers of pain, its undercurrents of everything from violence to poverty to severe illness (Gaile Parkin weaves into this story everything from Rwanda's genocide to the horror of AIDS and the brutal practice of female genital mutilation, besides many other instances of injustice, fear, exploitation, and more).
Yet, despite all of that, there is hope, forgiveness, understanding. The lesson is gently but sensitively put forward: our problems will not go away, but we can learn to reconcile, to come to terms. And if we all pull together - as friends, as family - we can do it.
A lovely, heartwarming novel. My copy, incidentally, is a second-hand one which has an interesting inscription on the flyleaf: "You must now actively think of happy things. This book is nice and happy. So it will help you get there."
I would agree.
(On the other hand, the fact that this was a second-hand book makes we wonder why it was given away by the recipient. I hope it was because she didn't need it anymore).
From the very beginning, Baking Cakes in Kigali reminded me of Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. A woman in sub-Saharan Africa, running a business and using it to help people, not just in a practical way, but with compassion, good advice, sensitivity and often humour as well. The story with its layers of pain, its undercurrents of everything from violence to poverty to severe illness (Gaile Parkin weaves into this story everything from Rwanda's genocide to the horror of AIDS and the brutal practice of female genital mutilation, besides many other instances of injustice, fear, exploitation, and more).
Yet, despite all of that, there is hope, forgiveness, understanding. The lesson is gently but sensitively put forward: our problems will not go away, but we can learn to reconcile, to come to terms. And if we all pull together - as friends, as family - we can do it.
A lovely, heartwarming novel. My copy, incidentally, is a second-hand one which has an interesting inscription on the flyleaf: "You must now actively think of happy things. This book is nice and happy. So it will help you get there."
I would agree.
(On the other hand, the fact that this was a second-hand book makes we wonder why it was given away by the recipient. I hope it was because she didn't need it anymore).
September 18, 2018
This is the momliest mom book in the momiverse and would make a great Mothers' Day present. It's also a pan-African novel, an expat novel, an ensemble novel, heartwarming, and occasionally snort-laughing hilarious, like when the American neighbor from upstairs comes to visits Angel and makes her confession about her husband, the man the whole neighborhood is calling "The CIA." Angel Tungaraza and her husband are Tanzanian grandparents living in Rwanda because Angel's husband gets hazard pay working at the university, 'tho the genocide is over. They need the money because they are raising their five grandchildren whose parents, Angel's son and daughter, and their daughter-in-law, died of AIDS-related complications. (Angel's son was shot in a botched robbery on his way back from visiting his wife dying of AIDS in the hospital, which is an AIDS-related complication if there ever was one.) Angel supplements her husband's income at the university by running a cake baking business, and everyone comes to her apartment to order cakes and tell her their secrets. The Japanese-American UN official orders a lot of cakes for karaoke parties. The British NGO worker needs a cake for her obnoxious party. The Tanzanian diplomat's wife wants a boring muzunga-style cake. The driver needs a cake for his niece's birthday. The prostitute never approaches Angel for a cake but there's a cake in there anyway. By the end of the novel, Angel has set up two or three couples, deflected some weirdo with a gun, visited a genocide memorial, watched her grandson find his passion in zoology, extorted a Canadian for the good, improved parent-child relationships, and given a lecture on running a cake-baking business to a club of eager young Girls Who Mean Business. This is not a heavy novel that addresses the pathos of post-genocide Rwanda by any means; it is a collection of vignettes told from the perspective of the universal grandma. I highly recommend the audiobook, which nails a half-dozen accents from several continents.
July 23, 2011
I thought that this book was an accessible, sensitive treatment of modern life in Africa. The story of a Tanzanian family touched by tragedy who relocates to Rwanda manages to address a whole host of present-day issues: HIV/AIDS, FGM, foreign aid, reconciliation, religious, cultural, and economic differences, empowerment of women, effects of colonialism, etc. etc. The constant are the cakes created by the innovative and wise protagonist, Angel, and the way her role in the community draws out the stories of those around here. Interestingly, the Tanzanians are part of an expat community making a better living in Rwanda in the post-genocide rebuilding and unification.
Yes, it's a book about Rwanda, so there is inevitable discussion of the genocide in 94. I thought the treatment was sensitive, personal, and focused on the real individual, human results of living in a society so decimated. Rather than throwing a bunch of statistics or making sweeping generalizations, the author chose to tell aspects of the story of the genocide through very personal accounts. In contrast, SO many other books about Africa tend to treat the continent's myriad tragedies as a backdrop or an anonymous set of events without really portraying the personal heartbreak. However, this was not one of those solemn or depressing accounts; just a very human treatment of life somehow going on, with joys and daily dramas and love and children as well.
One of my favorite aspects of this book was how well I thought the author handled the English dialogue of native Kiswahili speakers. The idioms were all there, and the book's authentic chats and circular communication over cups of milk tea were some of the best illustrations of the modern speech and customs of East Africans. I'd highly recommend this book to people interested in Africa as well as those planning to travel there; the truths in this fiction contain sweets to savor for a long time.
Yes, it's a book about Rwanda, so there is inevitable discussion of the genocide in 94. I thought the treatment was sensitive, personal, and focused on the real individual, human results of living in a society so decimated. Rather than throwing a bunch of statistics or making sweeping generalizations, the author chose to tell aspects of the story of the genocide through very personal accounts. In contrast, SO many other books about Africa tend to treat the continent's myriad tragedies as a backdrop or an anonymous set of events without really portraying the personal heartbreak. However, this was not one of those solemn or depressing accounts; just a very human treatment of life somehow going on, with joys and daily dramas and love and children as well.
One of my favorite aspects of this book was how well I thought the author handled the English dialogue of native Kiswahili speakers. The idioms were all there, and the book's authentic chats and circular communication over cups of milk tea were some of the best illustrations of the modern speech and customs of East Africans. I'd highly recommend this book to people interested in Africa as well as those planning to travel there; the truths in this fiction contain sweets to savor for a long time.
May 13, 2017
How could anyone not enjoy this book? The cover is just beautiful and colourful and it made me feel so happy just looking at it. The real strength of this book however is in the stories that are told. Set in the years just after the Rwandan Genocide and with the common theme of cakes, stories of love, hope, unlikely friendships and survival emerge between an unlikely set of people. The characters are warm and honest and the stories are sometimes challenging, but always heartwarming. They're challenging especially to those of us who've never had to live through such atrocities. The author challenges the reader gently with the unfolding stories of each character, while at the same time dispelling long held stereotypes and making us love each and every one of the quirky cast despite their circumstance or background. It is important to remember this period of Rwandan history and the way that Parkin approached this was with simple honest prose. Each character had warmth and simple and pure honesty. Parkin had me crying one minute and laughing out loud the next. This was such a lovely book to read.
August 17, 2009
I loved the way the author wove together the issues of the African people, the stories behind the cakes she baked, and energy she put into helping the people around her feel hopeful and whole, despite the sadness she had experienced. When Angel cleaned her glasses or made tea, you knew to expect a thoughtful conversation between the characters. I could visualize the characters and the cakes and feel the comfort she offered her guests when she served them. Having been to Kenya on a mission trip, I could easily picture Kigali and the people of the community. I enjoyed the book very much.
July 28, 2019
I just loved this book.. Angel is such a mother hen and so passionate about her cakes. All the characters felt like family. So well written.
October 10, 2013
Set in post-Genocide Rwanda, Baking Cakes in Kigali focuses on Angel Tungaraza, the wife of a visiting professor at the Kingali Institute of Science and Technology. The Tungarazas are from neighbouring Tanzania and have taken the foreign posting in order to afford the care of the five grandchildren they took in when the youngters' parents died . In order to make a bit more money, Angel operates a professional cake business out of their apartment in a secure compound that houses foreigners, especially workers in aid foundations and NGOs.
This book is a series of vignettes and each one is pretty much the same: Someone comes to the apartment door, reveals an interest in ordering a cake, is served tea by Angel while they discuss the details, the customer will say something worrisome ("I need a Christening cake for my niece 'Goodenough' -- Goodenough because she wasn't a boy but the parents had to name her something" or "It's my daughter's birthday and I don't care what the cake looks like"), and Angel will start rubbing her glasses on her kanga; to help her think; to see more clearly. Angel will slyly say just the right thing to prompt the customer to make a wiser choice and everyone becomes a better, more caring and moral person because of the lessons the cake impart (The baby girl is christened "Perfect" or the ambivalent father, after much prodding says that his daughter likes airplanes, and the resulting cake makes her feel special and loved).
Along the way, Angel deals with the issues of child prostitution, child soldiers, homeless orphans, female genital mutilation, AIDS, the lavish lifestyles of the UN workers, racism, sexism, promiscuity...pretty much every evil that might lurk in a community rears its head in Angel's apartment. Most customers reveal their deepest secret with the following, typical conversation:
I was confused by the code of confidentiality between cake maker and customer but Angel stays true to her professional ethics and finds a way to help everyone without breaching their trust. This is a very simplistic book, and although it makes an effort to touch on important issues, there's no art in it.
I picked up Baking Cakes in Kigali because I recently read Running the Rift (about the lead-up to and horror of the genocide from a Tutsi perspective) and Shake Hands With the Devil (about the UN's inability to prevent or stop the genocide as it was happening). I thought that a novel set in Rwanda's capital fifteen years or so after the genocide would be an enlightening glimpse into life there now, especially as it is written by an African. What I didn't realise until I started reading was that this is a book about a black African woman written by a white African woman -- if I was in a book club, I'd love to discuss whether other readers think that even matters. I appreciate that Gaile Parkin was born and raised in Zambia and has "worked in Rwanda, counselling women and girls who had survived the genocide". I understand that she says in this book she is sharing some of the stories of people she has actually met. But this doesn't feel like it is her story to tell. It also felt more than strange that all of the white people in Baking Cakes in Kigali are idiots (and amusing that the only Canadian is a total jerk).
If I hadn't already read some on the genocide, I don't think I would have understood the nature of the tragedy from this book, but maybe it's not unfair to expect readers to have a basic understanding. The most interesting post-genocide comment I found was this:
Is this the official policy in Rwanda I wonder? Can the virulent racism that caused former friends and neighbours to pick up machetes and hack every Tutsi they found to pieces be avoided in the future by just not using the words "Tutsis" and "Hutus" anymore? That the book ends with a marriage between a Hutu and a Tutsi, with all those in attendance finding their own inner purpose fulfilled, seems like a happily-ever-after-fairytale-ending that rings false with the litany of evils that are described as lurking in the shadows throughout the book.
This part, about a widow -- a Hutu who with her husband tried to hide Tutsis during the massacre -- who survived the genocide but helplessly watched as her husband and child were killed, felt more honest:
But this leads into another point that I found annoying -- spoiler ahead -- Angel frets throughout the book about the chilly relationship she had with her daughter before she died and finally confronts the fact that Vinas must have committed suicide, likely to spare her family watching her waste away. As a strong Catholic, Angel is certain her daughter has gone to Hell, but Jeanne D'Arc, the young prostitute with the heart of gold says:
After this being Angel's big existential crisis, these few words were enough to make her think, "Hey, maybe that's right. Problem solved." This kind of triteness pervades Baking Cakes in Kigali and, as a result, it is not for me.
This book is a series of vignettes and each one is pretty much the same: Someone comes to the apartment door, reveals an interest in ordering a cake, is served tea by Angel while they discuss the details, the customer will say something worrisome ("I need a Christening cake for my niece 'Goodenough' -- Goodenough because she wasn't a boy but the parents had to name her something" or "It's my daughter's birthday and I don't care what the cake looks like"), and Angel will start rubbing her glasses on her kanga; to help her think; to see more clearly. Angel will slyly say just the right thing to prompt the customer to make a wiser choice and everyone becomes a better, more caring and moral person because of the lessons the cake impart (The baby girl is christened "Perfect" or the ambivalent father, after much prodding says that his daughter likes airplanes, and the resulting cake makes her feel special and loved).
Along the way, Angel deals with the issues of child prostitution, child soldiers, homeless orphans, female genital mutilation, AIDS, the lavish lifestyles of the UN workers, racism, sexism, promiscuity...pretty much every evil that might lurk in a community rears its head in Angel's apartment. Most customers reveal their deepest secret with the following, typical conversation:
"Can I speak freely with you Angel?"
"Of course you can," she assured him. "You are my customer. I'll never repeat what you say to me because I know how a professional somebody is supposed to behave."
I was confused by the code of confidentiality between cake maker and customer but Angel stays true to her professional ethics and finds a way to help everyone without breaching their trust. This is a very simplistic book, and although it makes an effort to touch on important issues, there's no art in it.
I picked up Baking Cakes in Kigali because I recently read Running the Rift (about the lead-up to and horror of the genocide from a Tutsi perspective) and Shake Hands With the Devil (about the UN's inability to prevent or stop the genocide as it was happening). I thought that a novel set in Rwanda's capital fifteen years or so after the genocide would be an enlightening glimpse into life there now, especially as it is written by an African. What I didn't realise until I started reading was that this is a book about a black African woman written by a white African woman -- if I was in a book club, I'd love to discuss whether other readers think that even matters. I appreciate that Gaile Parkin was born and raised in Zambia and has "worked in Rwanda, counselling women and girls who had survived the genocide". I understand that she says in this book she is sharing some of the stories of people she has actually met. But this doesn't feel like it is her story to tell. It also felt more than strange that all of the white people in Baking Cakes in Kigali are idiots (and amusing that the only Canadian is a total jerk).
If I hadn't already read some on the genocide, I don't think I would have understood the nature of the tragedy from this book, but maybe it's not unfair to expect readers to have a basic understanding. The most interesting post-genocide comment I found was this:
Forgive me, Angel, we do not talk of Tutsis and Hutus anymore; we are all Banyarwanda now. But I must use those words to talk about the past because in the past we were not yet Banyarwanda.
Is this the official policy in Rwanda I wonder? Can the virulent racism that caused former friends and neighbours to pick up machetes and hack every Tutsi they found to pieces be avoided in the future by just not using the words "Tutsis" and "Hutus" anymore? That the book ends with a marriage between a Hutu and a Tutsi, with all those in attendance finding their own inner purpose fulfilled, seems like a happily-ever-after-fairytale-ending that rings false with the litany of evils that are described as lurking in the shadows throughout the book.
This part, about a widow -- a Hutu who with her husband tried to hide Tutsis during the massacre -- who survived the genocide but helplessly watched as her husband and child were killed, felt more honest:
Do you think I feel blessed to live in this house with the ghosts of everyone who was killed here? Do you think I feel blessed to go in and out through the gate where my husband and my child were killed? Do you think I feel blessed to see what I saw that night every time I close my eyes and try to sleep? Do you think I feel blessed not knowing where the bodies of my husband and my first born lie? Do you think I feel blessed in any way at all, Angel?...There are many survivors who feel like I feel. There are many who regret surviving, who would like to make the other choice now…As Catholics we know that we will go to Hell if we suicide ourselves…And what's the point of going to Hell after we die? Because we already live there now.
But this leads into another point that I found annoying -- spoiler ahead -- Angel frets throughout the book about the chilly relationship she had with her daughter before she died and finally confronts the fact that Vinas must have committed suicide, likely to spare her family watching her waste away. As a strong Catholic, Angel is certain her daughter has gone to Hell, but Jeanne D'Arc, the young prostitute with the heart of gold says:
I think that Vinas chose to do what she did in order to save others, Auntie. When she suicided herself, did she not save her parents the pain of watching her suffer? Did she not save her children from the pain of watching her die? I think that when a person dies to save others, Hell is not the place for her soul. I think the Bible tells us that such a soul belongs in Heaven.
After this being Angel's big existential crisis, these few words were enough to make her think, "Hey, maybe that's right. Problem solved." This kind of triteness pervades Baking Cakes in Kigali and, as a result, it is not for me.
November 14, 2023
Just a warm, fuzzy, hopeful and beautiful book we all need.
March 23, 2020
Very similar to the 'No 1 Ladies Detective Agency' in style and involvement. In that it revolves around a central character who solves problems as much as runs a business, in this case baking cakes, but also looks into the wider world around her as much as you the reader are prepared to go. All the characters are there just like anywhere else in the world, so the problems faced are universal but with an African twist but then there are the African problems which you, as a reader, can explore as little or as much as your like. Perhaps, GP is braver than AMcS in taking on Rwanda but it opens eyes - people are people are people the world over.
Toast
Toast
August 18, 2009
I don't quite know what to make of this book. It has a really beautiful theme of celebrating small victories after surviving horrible situations. It also does a brilliant job of describing the AIDS crisis in Africa in a very moving way. The author, Gaile Parkin, does not throw statistics in your face. Rather, she quietly describes how people in Africa- everyone in Africa- is affected by AIDS, even in just the tiniest of ways. Almost every character in the book has a family member with AIDS, and the way each person has adapted to living with the disease makes for compelling and moving reading.
At the same time, though, I don't think the writing style was all that great. I am not sure if the author wanted to achieve a very particular style, but I found the storytelling language a bit stilted and awkward at times. It was fun to read the different dialects and mannerisms of Rwandans, but it could also get tiring when conversations would consist of saying, "Eh," and "Uh-uh" about ten times. Maybe those phrases are used a lot in Rwanda, but it can get annoying to read them so many times in a book. And sometimes the way people talked seemed very structured- as though the author were using the same phrases over and over in the way that a young author might, rather than one who has a full command of vocabulary. I have a feeling that this was all done for stylistic purposes; if that is the case, though, I think it could have been done in a cleaner manner.
There isn't really a plot to this book- there are just vignettes, basically, of everyday life in Kigali, Rwanda. The book progressese chronologically, but it could have just as easily been told in a short story format. I can't really say that there was rising action or a climax or falling action. There was just... activity. But it was a really nicely put-together way of reading about very serious topics such as AIDS and genocide, and how it affects the lives of people living in Rwanda. If you want a gut-wrenching and tissue-requiring read for those sorts of topics, steer clear. But if you'd like to read a book about how people survive such things, and adapt their lives around them, then this is the story for you.
At the same time, though, I don't think the writing style was all that great. I am not sure if the author wanted to achieve a very particular style, but I found the storytelling language a bit stilted and awkward at times. It was fun to read the different dialects and mannerisms of Rwandans, but it could also get tiring when conversations would consist of saying, "Eh," and "Uh-uh" about ten times. Maybe those phrases are used a lot in Rwanda, but it can get annoying to read them so many times in a book. And sometimes the way people talked seemed very structured- as though the author were using the same phrases over and over in the way that a young author might, rather than one who has a full command of vocabulary. I have a feeling that this was all done for stylistic purposes; if that is the case, though, I think it could have been done in a cleaner manner.
There isn't really a plot to this book- there are just vignettes, basically, of everyday life in Kigali, Rwanda. The book progressese chronologically, but it could have just as easily been told in a short story format. I can't really say that there was rising action or a climax or falling action. There was just... activity. But it was a really nicely put-together way of reading about very serious topics such as AIDS and genocide, and how it affects the lives of people living in Rwanda. If you want a gut-wrenching and tissue-requiring read for those sorts of topics, steer clear. But if you'd like to read a book about how people survive such things, and adapt their lives around them, then this is the story for you.
February 17, 2020
Angel Tungaraza and her husband Pious are raising their grandchildren because their son and daughter are both "late". They live in an apartment compound with an international cast of characters. Angel makes ends meet by baking cakes for special occasions and parties. She is a good listener and an excellent confidant because she is a "very professional businesswoman". We learn about the lives and struggles of Angels friends, neighbors and customers in the post-revolutionary Rwanda.
June 30, 2009
So Gaile Parkin has lived in Africa, she knows it really well! OK, I get that, I really do, I couldn’t escape it after having had it hammered at me for page after page after dreadful-dreary page.
I’ve never lived in Africa but I’d imagine real Africans don’t keep a running dialogue of the many details of their daily lives both in their own heads and with everyone they meet. Real people don’t make mental notes about the bins and the shops and the dusty streets or the way people regard a cake or their children or the AIDS crisis and then point it all out again in contrived, stilted conversations to all the other people for whom these things are part of the inconsequential, common experience. The entire book seemed to be constructed around a list of Things That Happen in Rwanda on a Daily Basis and after a while, it started to drive me not-so-slowly mad.
I may be mistaken but there seems to be to be hardly any plot here (where would you fit one in amongst the many tedious, incidental details that cram the pages?) but if there was, it was of no interest to me.
I’ve never lived in Africa but I’d imagine real Africans don’t keep a running dialogue of the many details of their daily lives both in their own heads and with everyone they meet. Real people don’t make mental notes about the bins and the shops and the dusty streets or the way people regard a cake or their children or the AIDS crisis and then point it all out again in contrived, stilted conversations to all the other people for whom these things are part of the inconsequential, common experience. The entire book seemed to be constructed around a list of Things That Happen in Rwanda on a Daily Basis and after a while, it started to drive me not-so-slowly mad.
I may be mistaken but there seems to be to be hardly any plot here (where would you fit one in amongst the many tedious, incidental details that cram the pages?) but if there was, it was of no interest to me.
August 14, 2022
A book that will make you proud to be an African! I really enjoyed this thoughtfully written story balancing critical historical events in a lighthearted setting.
The book takes place in Kigali, Rwanda. Angel Tungaraza is a Tanzanian entrepreneur; she bakes cakes for people in her neighborhood. While taking orders, she often finds herself the recipient of family tales and histories. Through this, we learn about the stories of different people and how civil unrest, migration and war have impacted on their lives.
The book touches on many women’s issues, from traveling in a skirt, feminist volunteers (or were they lesbians?) to female circumcision, the impact of HIV/AIDS and the difference between condoms and cardamom. Balancing humor with insight, the author manages to examine difficult subjects (i.e. Rwandan genocide, prostitution, poverty, infidelity, orphans) graciously.
What I love about this book is how matter of fact it is; Angel's earnest and honest goodness shines through each interaction, teaching us more about life in Kigali. The author does not shy away from difficult issues but balances the book with warmth.
The book takes place in Kigali, Rwanda. Angel Tungaraza is a Tanzanian entrepreneur; she bakes cakes for people in her neighborhood. While taking orders, she often finds herself the recipient of family tales and histories. Through this, we learn about the stories of different people and how civil unrest, migration and war have impacted on their lives.
The book touches on many women’s issues, from traveling in a skirt, feminist volunteers (or were they lesbians?) to female circumcision, the impact of HIV/AIDS and the difference between condoms and cardamom. Balancing humor with insight, the author manages to examine difficult subjects (i.e. Rwandan genocide, prostitution, poverty, infidelity, orphans) graciously.
What I love about this book is how matter of fact it is; Angel's earnest and honest goodness shines through each interaction, teaching us more about life in Kigali. The author does not shy away from difficult issues but balances the book with warmth.
July 26, 2009
I'm so glad I won this through Library Thing's member share, because I might not have known about it otherwise.
This is a truly terrific and unusual book. The author uses a narrative structure of a woman taking orders for cakes as a device to tell real stories about the people of Rwanda post-genocide. The writing is superb. The stories are sometimes inspirational, sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes terrifying and sometimes hilarious, but always a page-turner. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a refreshingly new type of story and darn good read.
This is a truly terrific and unusual book. The author uses a narrative structure of a woman taking orders for cakes as a device to tell real stories about the people of Rwanda post-genocide. The writing is superb. The stories are sometimes inspirational, sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes terrifying and sometimes hilarious, but always a page-turner. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a refreshingly new type of story and darn good read.
July 20, 2018
This may seem like the perfect, happy summer read about a Tanzanian woman who bakes cakes in Rwanda however it has very dark undertones on the topics of grief, denial, suicide, AIDS, genocide, FGM, unity and reconciliation, truth, sex work, wealth & poverty, Western corruption, religion, cultural acceptance and resilience.
For me, this book was particularly healing as I have recently worked and lived in an African capital and this book is set in an international environment in a capital city in Africa. So it portrayed many of the aspects I experienced on a daily basis.
What I love about this book is that it seems so light-hearted and has many hilarious moments whilst at the same time dealing with issues which are difficult to talk about. In addition, it reveals different people's perspectives on the above topics- a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, a Japanese-American UN worker, European voluteers, Somali, Tanzanian, Egyptian migrants, South African journalists, university professors, a Canadian IMF worker, etc.
I love the way this is written, with each character having their own particular way of speaking, which makes the overall expression so much funnier. The chapters are organised into different events for which Angel, the main character, bakes a cake. The stories of all the characters become cleverly intertwined with a fantastic resolution at the end.
I cannot recommend this enough.
For me, this book was particularly healing as I have recently worked and lived in an African capital and this book is set in an international environment in a capital city in Africa. So it portrayed many of the aspects I experienced on a daily basis.
What I love about this book is that it seems so light-hearted and has many hilarious moments whilst at the same time dealing with issues which are difficult to talk about. In addition, it reveals different people's perspectives on the above topics- a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, a Japanese-American UN worker, European voluteers, Somali, Tanzanian, Egyptian migrants, South African journalists, university professors, a Canadian IMF worker, etc.
I love the way this is written, with each character having their own particular way of speaking, which makes the overall expression so much funnier. The chapters are organised into different events for which Angel, the main character, bakes a cake. The stories of all the characters become cleverly intertwined with a fantastic resolution at the end.
I cannot recommend this enough.
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