It has been a long while since I read an autobiography and this one, contrary to most everything else professors have assigned to read, was pretty decent. Camara Laye’s The Dark Child is at first glance your run of the mill coming of age tale, with a few different odds and ends thrown in. After the first few pages though, you begin to realize that it isn’t quite as normal and bland as some of the other required readings you may have been assigned. Whether you are a fan of autobiographies or not, The Dark Child is without a doubt worth your time. This is something that I thought he did wonderfully; as the book continues and he grows older, his perception and understanding of the world change along with his writing. So while he is writing
This is all good and fine, the part that irritated me was the ending: there wasn’t one! It ended with him sitting on the bus feeling the map in his pocket. Now don’t get me wrong, I understand and appreciate how impactful and significant of a picture this paints, but for me personally, I wanted to see what would happen to him and what he did with himself. For me, that was the greatest, and one of the very few, letdowns of the book. As I stated previously, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There were several chapters which I enjoyed even more than the others; one of those chapters was chapter 2, my favorite part of the book. This chapter was all about his father and his craftsmanship with metals, but above all, gold. He is a very young boy when he recalls his father’s brilliance and skill as a blacksmith. He sits in his father’s shop and marvels at his skill and precision. The way it is described it is almost as though there is a magical quality to the way his father works. The way he strike is so precise and destined to land, the way the go-between would sing of his praise; it was a near godly act. Of course they would never say this in the book; that would be blasphemy. It also is very characteristic of his age. Most children that age look up to their fathers with awe and see them above other men and as the true definition of a man.