Edugyan, Esi

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Edugyan, Esi

PERSONAL: Female. Education: University of Victoria, B.A., Johns Hopkins University, M.A.

ADDRESSES: Home—Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Office—Department of Writing, University of Victoria, P.O. Box 1700, STN CSC, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 2Y2, Canada. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer. University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, fiction-writing instructor.

AWARDS, HONORS: Fellowships and grants from Canada Council for the Arts and Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown, MA).

WRITINGS:

The Second Life of Samuel Tyne (novel), Amistad (New York, NY), 2004.

Writing has appeared in Best New American Voices 2003, edited by Joyce Carol Oates.

SIDELIGHTS: Canadian novelist Esi Edugyan attracted considerable critical attention with her debut, a haunting novel titled The Second Life of Samuel Tyne. The main character is an immigrant from Ghana who is frustrated by his work as a civil servant in Canada. At age forty, he also finds himself in a marriage gone cold, and the father of thirteen-year-old twin daughters. When his uncle dies and leaves Tyne a house in Aster, Alberta, the opportunity presents him with the hope of starting over. He quickly moves his family to the small town, a one-time black enclave established by former slaves. Aster is not a haven for Tyne's bitter wife, who is unable to handle the increasingly strange behavior of the two girls. Tyne, now the owner of an electronics shop, seeks solace in his work.

Reviewers described the book as dark and somewhat uneven, while praising Edugyan's strong prose style. A Kirkus Reviews critic called her "a talented author to watch as her narrative technique matures." In a review for Library Journal, Kevin Greczek commented that Edugyan "effectively blends sharp existential observations with spare, graceful prose." These skills effectively counterbalance the bleak story, according a Publishers Weekly writer, who noted that the "elegiac, shimmering prose makes up for the lack of sunny skies." Booklist reviewer Vanessa Bush called the book "a haunting look at personal longing and family obligations." Writing for Black Issues Book Review, Mary N. Oluonye characterized The Second Life of Samuel Tyne as a "brilliantly written debut novel."