Malcolm's Village

B.A. Robinson was a freelance reviewer from Toronto.

Malcolm is a Swedish boy who is living with his parents in an African village near the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. The story ostensibly deals with the decline, death, and burial of the oldest member of the compound, whom everyone called Grandma. The story itself is mundane, which is unfortunate, for within the book itself are several fascinating tales and allegories that deserve their own book. It would have been appropriate to identify the tribal group to which the book refers, for each group has its own distinct heritage of legends, stories, and traditions. In addition, tribal and Christian burial traditions are intermingled and are not clearly defined. The photographs and drawings are not necessarily placed adjacent to the text, and, while the English is clear, it suffers in this translation from the Swedish original.