Floating in a Most Peculiar Way

A Memoir

De: Louis Chude-Sokei

Narrado por: Louis Chude-Sokei

The astonishing journey of a bright, utterly displaced boy, from the short-lived African nation of Biafra, to Jamaica, to the harshest streets of Los Angeles—a searing memoir that adds fascinating depth to the coming-to-America story

The first time Chude-Sokei realizes that he is “first son of the first son” of a renowned leader of the bygone African nation is in Uncle Daddy and Big Auntie’s strict religious household in Jamaica, where he lives with other abandoned children. A visiting African has just fallen to his knees to shake him by the shoulders: “Is this the boy? Is this him?”

Chude-Sokei’s immersion in the politics of race and belonging across the landscape of the African diaspora takes a turn when his traumatized mother, who has her own extraordinary history as the onetime “Jackie O of Biafra,” finally sends for him to come live with her. In Inglewood, Los Angeles, on the eve of gangsta rap and the LA riots, it’s as if he’s fallen to Earth. In this world, anything alien—definitely Chude-Sokei’s secret obsession with science fiction and David Bowie—is a danger, and his yearning to become a Black American gets deeply, sometimes absurdly, complicated. Ultimately, it is a boisterous pan-African family of honorary aunts, uncles, and cousins that becomes his secret society, teaching him the redemptive skill of navigating not just Blackness, but Blacknesses, in his America.

©2021 Louis Chude-Sokei (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Biafra Not Forgotten

A story of love, tragedy, longing and a coming of age and understanding. A wonderful memoir.

Many memorable nuggets

For the vastness of experiences this is short enough to remember and rich enough to want to. Extra meaningful to me because of family connections to Africa—though distant similarities to Chude-Sokei’s path. Valuable insight into blackness in America.

excellent for any first generation americans

many things in this book resonated with me, a first generation American...but what had the most impact was this," complaining about America to African cousins is like those with wings complaining about thin air." i don't think I'll ever do it again.

Difficult to listen at times, but so worth it.

This touches on so many things that I can't imagine explaining. There are moments I had to stop, to breathe through the pain expressed in words. But it's such an important piece, a picture of diaspora.
Some parts may make you laugh, others cry. But it's a picture overall that you cannot help but stop and look at.

Insights into a place not well known

This is a well written and poignant story about a young African man’s difficult journey to manhood and in different parts of the diaspora.