Beti, Mongo

New York. 1971. Collier/Macmillan. 1st Collier Books Paperback Edition. A Few Pen Marks in Front, Otherwise Very Good in Wrappers. 0435900137. Translated from the French by Peter Green. Introduction by Bernth Lindfors. Collier African American Library. 215 pages. paperback. 04861. keywords: Literature Translated Africa Cameroon. FROM THE PUBLISHER - A scholar in spite of himself - Wit, satire and ribaldry triumph as Jean-Marie Medza, fresh from the University and failed exams, is sent on a mission to an up-country Cameroonian tribe to retrieve the wayward wife of a local villager. Medza has been delivered from his father's wrath - temporarily only to meet a more questionable fate at the hands of his relatives in Kala who capitalize on their newly discovered treasure - a city boy - and a scholar as well! Soon distracted from his mission. Medza finds himself the center of the action - lionized by the uneducated villagers, exploited by his cunning uncle and terrorized by adoring females of all ages whose determination spells disaster to the only aspect of Medza's person which has escaped public notice: his virginity. 'Over and above its intrinsic merit as a piece of creative writing, this first novel by a French West African Negro is notable for its mere existence. What impresses about Beti's genuinely indigenous African novel is his tone of carefree gaiety, his adeptness in pouring new narrative wine into an old literary bottle, and his sympathetic contrast between two generations divided by a yawning gulf.' - The New York Times Book Review. ‘Very entertaining indeed an original talent.' - The Times Literary Supplement, London. inventory #31438 ISBN: 0435900137.