5.8 /10 1 Votes5.8
Publication date 2004 Originally published 2004 Publisher Alfred A. Knopf | 2.9/5 Goodreads Media type Print (Hardback) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Pages 328 p. (hardcover edition) ISBN 0-676-97630-1 (Alfred A. Knopf Canada) Genres Canadian literature, Historical Fiction Historical Fiction books The Book of Negroes, More Than Conquerors, Barkskins, Three complete novels, The Happy Return | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Second Life of Samuel Tyne is the debut novel of Canadian author Esi Edugyan. It was published in 2004 by Alfred A. Knopf.
Contents
Plot
In 1968, Samuel Tyne, an unhappy Ghanaian civil servant residing in Calgary, Alberta, learns that he has inherited his late uncle Jacob's estate in rural Aster and soon tries to persuade his wife Maud and twin daughters Yvette and Chloe to move to the once African Canadian town.
Reception
Kirkus Reviews described the novel as "unrelenting" in its portrayal of life as "somber and bleak", with a "suitably ominous atmosphere" and a conclusion that is "astonishingly moving", but stated that the plot developed "haltingly and predictably". Bronwyn Drainie characterized Edugyan's portrayal of rural Alberta as "vicious and hilarious and pitch-perfect", but stated that the mental illness of Tyne's daughters was "not a very compelling fictional device", and that the novel had "illogicalities" and "too much telling and not enough showing". Similarly, Malcolm Azania stated that although Edugyan writing showed "a poet’s attention to wordcraft" and "extremely refined skills", both the novel and its characters were "frustrating", and the overall negative portrayal of humanity "makes for joyless and ultimately rather flat reading".
The novel was shortlisted for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award.