Plot Synopsis: William Powers scores a position with Catholic Relief Services in Liberia. In charge of allocating money to different programs, Powers runs into problems inherent to international aid. He also breaks up with his American fiance and finds a new Liberian girlfriend. He writes a book about it.
My Two Cents:For a country coming from such dark, dense, violent political upheaval, and it's unique spot in the African continent as a former colony of the U.S.A, for a lack of a better way to put it, "Blue Clay People" can be sometimes surprisingly pithy. The book is an easy read and that's not what I'd expect from a novel about the plight of Liberia. It was interesting reading about the how difficult it was to get anything done over there, but it wasn't interesting reading about his love life. Is the novel about Liberia? Is it about William Powers? Is it about William Power's experience in Liberia? It is more the latter, and while I did not expect a piece of journalistic narrative, a la Aidian Hartley and Howard French, I did want more than the dramatization of a long-distance relationship that was doomed from the start. Anybody over 25 could have told him that. It was equally depressing reading about his relationship with the young Liberian Ciatta. What these asides did was make Powers seem incredibly ill-prepared for the job, as well as unconcerned. He'd have been better off joining the Peace Corps, and writing that memoir. As such, he was put in charge of millions of dollars worth of aid through the Catholic Relief Services. I just don't think he seemed qualified enough to take on that responsibility. With all that being said, it is important that books like this get published, not only to shed light on what is happening in West Africa, but to make us question the various aspects of international aid that sometimes go horribly wrong. As for his love life, hopefully that won't make much of a difference in the grand scheme of African history.
My Grade: C
