The Blue Taxi

By N.S. Köenings

Book Overview

Against the backdrop of an East African city, an impossible romance between an Indian widower and a married Belgian woman unfolds under the most unlikely circumstances.

When a young boy loses a leg after being hit by a drunk driver in his East African town of Vunjamguu, the shockwaves that run through his small community force a Belgian expat housewife to re-evaluate her life. Raised by nuns in a secluded mission hospital, Sarie Turner is lonely and isolated from everyone around her, contemptuous of her social-climbing British husband, Gilbert, and at odds with her snooty British contemporaries. Against Gilbert's wishes, Sarie and her young daughter, Agatha, visit the injured boy as he recovers, and Sarie becomes infatuated with the boy's handsome, anguished widower father, Majid Jeevanjee. Sarie seduces Majid; as their affair becomes a respite from her unfulfilling marriage, her feelings toward her husband and the coterie of high-class expats change in unexpected ways. The world K enings has created in her accomplished debut is tragic and exhilarating, as is her portrayal of weary, left-behind colonialists, poverty-stricken natives and the uneasy manner in which each regards the other.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316010618
• ISBN13: 9780316010610
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

mesmerizing, inspiring literature

N.S. Koenings has created a remarkable story that challenges readers to examine assumptions about place, gender roles, the politics of colonialism and cultural practices. Using exquisite language - like that of Nabokov's Lolita and Ondaatje's The English Patient - she tells the story of subordinated housewife Sarie Turner's attempt, in 1970's Africa, to become a full person in clear command of her actions. Every passage is full of evocative imagery, longing and vision. Like many of the other characters, Sarie Turner suffers because of society's expectations. Due to the inability of those around her to imagine a world other than what they have come to expect, she loses her autonomy and her chance at respectful, transformative relationships. The book's narrator believes that the imagination can transform the world - but that such transformation takes hard work and dedication. This is a captivating and beautifully written book, one that must be read!

An Accident, A New Medium of Communication, A Widower's Waking

A prophetic embroidress, an ice cream king, an aspiring entrepreneur, an affair: the world of Vunjamguu, East Africa, shifts in whispers. BiBi, the embroidress, notes, "It was one thing saying bravely she would take up any vision and another to commit to stitching it, in full view of her own household." N.S. Koening's Blue Taxi is not only beautifully embroidered, but also committed to rendering the difficulties of individuals as they struggle to reconcile their desires/dreams despite social and economic circumstance, as they commit (or don't commit)to their vision in full view of the larger household of Vunjamguu. Told by a narrator who carries stories between houses and cross town, The Blue Taxi invites readers to witness the private hopes, the strengths, and the insecurities of Sari, BiBi, Majid, Gilbert, and Nisreen (among others)in the post-colony. If you appreciate the work of Marquez, Coetzee, Zadie Smith, Eugenides, or Soyinka, you will appreciate this book. If you are unfamiliar with these authors, but searching for a beautiful and saavy story that recognizes the difficulties of love as inextricable from the the difficulites of the society that love inhabits, you will be grateful for N.S. Koenings's vision.

fascinating historical look at 1970s Africa

In Vunjamguu East Africa, a drunk driver hits a young boy. Raised in a mission hospital, Belgium expatriate Sarie Turner tries to stop the child's bleeding with a tourniquet while her daughter Agatha holds the lad's severed leg. Everyone in the small town is shocked by the tragedy, but especially stunned is Sarie, who feels like an outsider with the locals and especially with her British husband Gilbert and his social climbing peers. Sarie feels a need to visit the injured child Tahir recuperating in the hospital. So in spite of Gilbert demanding she should not, she and Agatha visit the lad. There Sarie meets his distressed father, the widower Majid Jeevanjee. Though he is a Muslim, Majid and Sarie find a kindred spirit in one another and she soon seduces him while Gilbert panics that his "sponsor" Uncle James will abandon him without a pound so he tries to persuade Majid to forge a business partnership. THE BLUE TAXI is a historical look back to the 1970s when many African nations were struggling between an affluent decadent colonial upper class and the vast impoverished natives. The story line cleverly uses its characters to represent differing, often in conflict, groups. Though more a cerebral tale with little action, fans who enjoy a fascinating historical with a deep symbolic cast will want to read THE BLUE TAXI. Harriet Klausner