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Pilgrims Way (novel)
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Wikipedia article
'Pilgrims Way' is a novel by Abdulrazak Gurnah, first published in 1988 by Jonathan Cape in the United Kingdom. It is Gurnah's second novel.
The protagonist of 'Pilgrims Way' is Daud, an immigrant to England from Tanzania who works as an orderly in Canterbury in the 1970s. Daud experiences racist abuse from skinheads and others and begins to feel fearful and dejected as a result. Daud is named for the biblical figure David. Daud develops a romantic attachment to Catherine Mason, a nurse. Daud's other friends include Lloyd, a white man with racist tendencies, and Karta, a pan-African Black nationalist.
Critic Jopi Nyman argues that 'Pilgrims Way', like Gurnah's novels 'By the Sea' (2001) and 'Desertion' (2005), evinces "an interest in the structures of feeling generated by migration and exile". Maria Jesus Cabarcos Traseira reads 'Pilgrims Way' as a pastoral in which Daud is "transformed" through "moments of harmony with nature". Critics Ann Blake, Leela Gandhi, and Sue Thomas, comparing 'Pilgrims Way' to 'Dottie' and 'Admiring Silence' (1996), state that 'Pilgrims Way' "take[s] up the damaging day to day experiences of migration and black Britishness". In 'Trinidad and Tobago Newsday', Debbie Jacob writes: "Pilgrims Way demonstrates Gurnahs remarkable restraint in presenting his characters stories. He is a master of that old piece of writing advice, 'Show, dont tell.' Gurnah shows his characters complex lives and feelings without telling the reader what to feel or think. This evokes empathy while allowing readers to experience, however vicariously, the conflicts and ambiguity immigrants go through in their conflicted lives."
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Category:1988 novels
Category:Books by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Category:Jonathan Cape books
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