A Review Of “Beasts of No Nation” by Uzodinma Iweala

by Nathaniel Jonet 

Beasts of No Nation is the first book by Uzodinma Iweala, a 23 year-old Nigerian born in America and raised in Washington, DC, England, and Nigeria. Iweala is a sub-Saharan Upton Sinclair, whose Jungle is not about dead rats and poison in your meat, but about dead families and poisoned dreams in your world. The beauty of this piece is that it takes a story we would glance past as it scrolled along the bottom of CNN news or change the channel when it broke in a short bulletin on the BBC and brings it up close and personal. Far too personal to be safe.