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Time of the Locust
Set in Washington D.C., New York, and Louisiana,travel into the heart and mind of an extraordinary autistic boy in this deeply imaginative debut novel of a mother’s devotion, a father’s punishment, and the power of love. Says the Washington Post: Time of the Locust "deftly brings together the fantastic and the realistic, and it touches on a variety of issues, from politics, race and murder to disability, domestic tragedy and myth...it sweeps from Depression-era Louisiana, to New York in the �60s, to Washington in the mid-�90s.�...the story is strong and original, and even the minor characters come alive...I was that mother once: terrified inside a weary body, unable to explain my missing husband or my feral son. The car, the mystery, the rift � I know them, they’re real. But Yejidé spins them with gold and possibility in this dark and fantastical tale.�"
256 pages, Hardcover
First published June 10, 2014
6 people are currently reading
748 people want to read
About the author
Morowa Yejide
2Ìýbooks121ÌýfollowersMOROWA YEJIDÉ, a native of Washington, DC, is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Time of the Locust, which was a 2012 finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize, long-listed for the 2015 PEN/Bingham Prize, and a 2015 NAACP Image Award nominee. She lives in the DC area with her husband and three sons. Her most recent novel, Creatures of Passage, was shortlisted for Women's Prize, the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and a 2021 Notable Book selection by NPR and the Washington Post.
PRONUNCIATION: Mo-RO-wa YAY-je-DAY.
PRONUNCIATION: Mo-RO-wa YAY-je-DAY.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
December 8, 2014
Every once in a while one is fortunate to come across a book that one knows they will think about for a long time, a book that leaves a lasting impression. This is such a book and unbelievably a first book by an author who has previously published short stories.
In many ways this is not an easy book to read, the tension at times was unbearable, the darkness seemed unrelenting. The characters were all trapped in some way and the way they choose to alleviate their stress was not healthy. Brenda, a mother of an autistic child, whose husband is in prison, uses food, to her own detriment. Hourus, her husband, takes revenge on the death of his father and the ills of his childhood. He is entombed in Black Plains in solitary confinement, a prison with guards and a warden whose sole jobs are to break those within. Sephris, the autistic boy, who cannot find anyway to relate his distress in the land of air, as he calls it. One can feel the love that the author has for these flawed characters, the way she wants the reader to understand how they came to be in these situations. To provide a way
She uses magical realism to break the tension, as a way for us to see inside the mind of an autistic child, to go with him into the World of Water, where he can feel safe and relate the thoughts and fears, the questions he has that he cannot express in the land of air.. She uses it as a way for Hourus to escape the inescapable, to connect with the son he has never seen. She shows the reader amazing power of the mind, a mind that will find ways against all odds.
She uses it as a way for her characters to find a measure of peace and understanding.
An unusual and powerful debut novel, full of wonderful, often beautiful prose, a novel that is filled with intense pain but one that is ultimately full of love or at least understanding, a novel that for me is memorable.
ARC from the publisher.
In many ways this is not an easy book to read, the tension at times was unbearable, the darkness seemed unrelenting. The characters were all trapped in some way and the way they choose to alleviate their stress was not healthy. Brenda, a mother of an autistic child, whose husband is in prison, uses food, to her own detriment. Hourus, her husband, takes revenge on the death of his father and the ills of his childhood. He is entombed in Black Plains in solitary confinement, a prison with guards and a warden whose sole jobs are to break those within. Sephris, the autistic boy, who cannot find anyway to relate his distress in the land of air, as he calls it. One can feel the love that the author has for these flawed characters, the way she wants the reader to understand how they came to be in these situations. To provide a way
She uses magical realism to break the tension, as a way for us to see inside the mind of an autistic child, to go with him into the World of Water, where he can feel safe and relate the thoughts and fears, the questions he has that he cannot express in the land of air.. She uses it as a way for Hourus to escape the inescapable, to connect with the son he has never seen. She shows the reader amazing power of the mind, a mind that will find ways against all odds.
She uses it as a way for her characters to find a measure of peace and understanding.
An unusual and powerful debut novel, full of wonderful, often beautiful prose, a novel that is filled with intense pain but one that is ultimately full of love or at least understanding, a novel that for me is memorable.
ARC from the publisher.
January 27, 2015
Time of the Locust
Author: Morowa Yejide
Publisher: Atria Books, June 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-3135-3
Brenda Thompson is a single mother who struggles in dealing with her young son, Sephiri, who is autistic. The story behind the circumstances surrounding her life are complicated with several characters all dealing with different issues.
Brenda had just taken a home pregnancy test which was positive when her husband Horus came into their house, with police not far behind him. Horus had not been forthcoming, with Brenda, about his childhood. However, he soon was on trial for killing the man who he was told killed his father, Jack Thompson. Brenda did not have the heart to tell her then husband that she was pregnant. Horus was sentenced to twenty-five (25) years to life.
The book is broken into three parts the first about the Thompsons, the second about the prison, and third about how things comingle into an ending. Most of the male characters in the story have problems which all appeared to begin in their childhood. One overwhelming theme is that the men in this story don’t seem to realize or care that their actions will have consequences that affect more than themselves. Horus and his brother Manden had a tough childhood. However, Horus did not seem to think about his wife when he decided to commit murder. Further, he asked for a divorce as soon as he was sentenced, not bothering to discuss this with his wife. Finally, Manden helps Brenda out with a check every month, but does not provide much other personal assistance.
At Black Plains Correctional Institute where Horus was sent after sentencing the warden, Andrew Stotsky and correctional officer, Jimmy Eckert have carte blanche in dealing with the “rodents� assigned to the Secured Housing Unit. Both, Stotsky and Eckert have histories which do not lead them to be good at their jobs.
Something has happened at the Autism Center that Sephiri goes to everyday to cause a meeting with Brenda and Manden. Manden had agreed to accompany Brenda to some conferences, if needed. Sephiri has exhibited behavior which they want discuss.
Sephiri does not communicate with Brenda. However, Sephiri does communicate. Horus cannot escape prison. However, Horus escapes. Finally, Sephiri does not respond to Brenda love and care. However, Sephiri smiles.
I really liked this (mystical) story and the writing. The author successfully tells a story about so many unlikable characters in a way that does not turn one off to the book.
Awards:
46th NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literary Work- Debut Author - Time of the Locust
2012 PEN/Bellwether Finalist, Novel finalist for Time of the Locust
Author: Morowa Yejide
Publisher: Atria Books, June 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-3135-3
Brenda Thompson is a single mother who struggles in dealing with her young son, Sephiri, who is autistic. The story behind the circumstances surrounding her life are complicated with several characters all dealing with different issues.
Brenda had just taken a home pregnancy test which was positive when her husband Horus came into their house, with police not far behind him. Horus had not been forthcoming, with Brenda, about his childhood. However, he soon was on trial for killing the man who he was told killed his father, Jack Thompson. Brenda did not have the heart to tell her then husband that she was pregnant. Horus was sentenced to twenty-five (25) years to life.
The book is broken into three parts the first about the Thompsons, the second about the prison, and third about how things comingle into an ending. Most of the male characters in the story have problems which all appeared to begin in their childhood. One overwhelming theme is that the men in this story don’t seem to realize or care that their actions will have consequences that affect more than themselves. Horus and his brother Manden had a tough childhood. However, Horus did not seem to think about his wife when he decided to commit murder. Further, he asked for a divorce as soon as he was sentenced, not bothering to discuss this with his wife. Finally, Manden helps Brenda out with a check every month, but does not provide much other personal assistance.
At Black Plains Correctional Institute where Horus was sent after sentencing the warden, Andrew Stotsky and correctional officer, Jimmy Eckert have carte blanche in dealing with the “rodents� assigned to the Secured Housing Unit. Both, Stotsky and Eckert have histories which do not lead them to be good at their jobs.
Something has happened at the Autism Center that Sephiri goes to everyday to cause a meeting with Brenda and Manden. Manden had agreed to accompany Brenda to some conferences, if needed. Sephiri has exhibited behavior which they want discuss.
Sephiri does not communicate with Brenda. However, Sephiri does communicate. Horus cannot escape prison. However, Horus escapes. Finally, Sephiri does not respond to Brenda love and care. However, Sephiri smiles.
I really liked this (mystical) story and the writing. The author successfully tells a story about so many unlikable characters in a way that does not turn one off to the book.
Awards:
46th NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literary Work- Debut Author - Time of the Locust
2012 PEN/Bellwether Finalist, Novel finalist for Time of the Locust
May 3, 2015
"Sometimes we lose things we can never get back, and sometimes we find something that we didn't know was there.
This is an amazingly well-written debut novel. Each character has a unique and distinctive voice, so much so that at times it's almost difficult to believe that they were all written by the same author. The dad's chapters reads like poetry (I actually had problems reading this, as I kept on thinking how beautiful the descriptions were, but not taking in the meaning). I thought her take on autism was incredibly imaginative. A theme in the book is people trying to escape their situations. Sephiri, the autistic boy, is trying to escape the land of air (real world), to go to the world of water (his alternative reality). His dad is trying to escape from a life sentence in a prison. His mom is trying to escape everything that weighs her down, her life and her obese body. His uncle is trying to escape by feeling nothing and slowly vanishing from life.
If you don't mind heartbreaking stories and a big dose of magical realism then try this. I can't wait to see what the author does next.
August 3, 2016
I was fortunate enough to receive a prepublication copy of this amazing book, but in no way does that affect my rating or review. This book is a stunner, one that will haunt you long after you read it. Borrowing a quote from another reviewer (author J. Michael Lennon), the characters in this book are enmeshed in "seven kinds of imprisonment—autism, gluttony, self-hate, inanition, racism, vengefulness, and a fiendish species of incarceration in a supermax Colorado prison." But shining through the grimness of this novel is the beauty of hope. Yejide is an amazing writer. Without minimizing the torment faced by Sephiri, an autistic child, and Brenda, his mother, Yejide takes the reader on an amazing trip into the alternate reality of Sephiri's mind where he creates a world in which he can be far more comfortable than he is in the "Land Of The Air". The contrast between Sephiri's inner life and what is experienced by his loving but broken mother is depicted beautifully here. The world of Sephiri's father, incarcerated in solitary confinement, is as dark a depiction of horror as one could imagine. The examination of his family and what brought him to this point brings up many issues - particularly, for me, the often unseen cost paid by the families of those who stand up against injustice. This book is painful. But Yejide's seamless use of magical realism breaks through the separate worlds that imprison the members of this family to lift them into a place of light and hope. This book is Yejide's first published novel. It was a 2012 finalist for the national PEN/Bellwether Prize and it will be released on June 10, 2014. It is a remarkable beginning for a brilliant new author.
June 6, 2015
The thing that stands out about every character in this book is that they are all prisoners. Of circumstance, emotional or physical limitations, disease or just isolation, they are all fighting their own demons alone.
The story starts off with introducing Sephiri, a little autistic boy whose narration I loved. He lives in his own world and views the normal world, as we know it, as the Land of Air, a place where he is misunderstood and cannot speak the language.
My heart went out to Brenda, his mother even though some of her narrative felt almost jarring and out of place with the rest of the book.
She wanted her little boy, wherever he was inside of the impenetrable thing that held him. She thought of the many days she had listened to him scream and bang the wall wondering what would become of them. The lost boy and his mother. Or was she the one who was lost, afraid to behold the tangled forest in which her boy lived.
Horus, Sephiri’s father is absent, living out the remains of his life in prison for taking vengeance for his own father’s death by killing a retired policeman. The description of the prison and its inmates reminded me a lot of
Black Plains is made to kill you, that’s for sure. But first, it’ll teach you how to die.
The prose was beautiful and the magical realism woven through, initially with a very light touch, grew in strength as the story sucked me in.
Highly recommended for anyone who loved or just looking for a wonderful piece of literary fiction.
The story starts off with introducing Sephiri, a little autistic boy whose narration I loved. He lives in his own world and views the normal world, as we know it, as the Land of Air, a place where he is misunderstood and cannot speak the language.
My heart went out to Brenda, his mother even though some of her narrative felt almost jarring and out of place with the rest of the book.
She wanted her little boy, wherever he was inside of the impenetrable thing that held him. She thought of the many days she had listened to him scream and bang the wall wondering what would become of them. The lost boy and his mother. Or was she the one who was lost, afraid to behold the tangled forest in which her boy lived.
Horus, Sephiri’s father is absent, living out the remains of his life in prison for taking vengeance for his own father’s death by killing a retired policeman. The description of the prison and its inmates reminded me a lot of
Black Plains is made to kill you, that’s for sure. But first, it’ll teach you how to die.
The prose was beautiful and the magical realism woven through, initially with a very light touch, grew in strength as the story sucked me in.
Highly recommended for anyone who loved or just looking for a wonderful piece of literary fiction.
November 1, 2014
Time of the Locust was recommended to me by my mentor, Jeff Talarigo at Wilkes University. After reading it, I felt compelled to weigh in. Sometimes writing a review can be as difficult as writing a novel. This is definitely the case with Morowa Yejide’s Time of the Locust. Yejide, is to Literary Fiction, what Marsalis (Wynton) is to Jazz, and if they were giving away “rookie of the year� awards for the genre, it would have to go to Yejide. I input four stars, but this is nothing less than five-star work. To weave such a magical story through absolutely breathtaking prose is nothing short of phenomenal. Her vivid descriptions are intoxicating and keep you turning pages wondering what will happen next in this tumultuous family’s life. I could feel the lion set to conquer in Jack Thompson as he turned to see the skyscrapers of The Big Apple and at the same time hear the bluesy voice of Ethel Waters singing the foreboding, Stormy Weathers. And I have no adequate words to describe the world she captures when she goes into the mind of Sephiri, the seven year old boy with autism, accept to say magnificent.
I can only hope that whatever Yejide gained from being a MFA Creative Writing student at Wilkes University finds its way into my restless soul as well, but I have a feeling talent like this came long before she walked the ancient halls of Kirby. So, why input four instead of five stars? One, It is my opinion that we pay more attention to the imperfect than the perfect: the fours over the fives, and two, I wanted some place to go up with my next review of Ms. Yejide’s work, which I’m confident will be five-star, as this one was.
Read this one if you want to be moved by magic so real it transcends the realty of the pain and suffering the masterpiece is set in. Read this one if you, not only want to see beautiful passages, but hear the musical quality that resides in them. Read this one.
One more thing. There could be a wonderful film adaptation, in the spirit of Life of Pi, Oscar material, winning awards for best picture and of course cinematography.
I can only hope that whatever Yejide gained from being a MFA Creative Writing student at Wilkes University finds its way into my restless soul as well, but I have a feeling talent like this came long before she walked the ancient halls of Kirby. So, why input four instead of five stars? One, It is my opinion that we pay more attention to the imperfect than the perfect: the fours over the fives, and two, I wanted some place to go up with my next review of Ms. Yejide’s work, which I’m confident will be five-star, as this one was.
Read this one if you want to be moved by magic so real it transcends the realty of the pain and suffering the masterpiece is set in. Read this one if you, not only want to see beautiful passages, but hear the musical quality that resides in them. Read this one.
One more thing. There could be a wonderful film adaptation, in the spirit of Life of Pi, Oscar material, winning awards for best picture and of course cinematography.
Want to read
February 24, 2014I have yet to read this work, but I've had the pleasure of hearing Ms. Yejide read her prose at Wilkes University. She is a riveting writer with much depth and beauty in her words. Her short story, "Tokyo Chocolate" brought me to tears. I have no doubt this book will take her to the stars...
November 15, 2014
This novel was more backstory than story, and I really couldn't tell who the main character was. Yejide seemed to spend a great deal of time with each character and the effect, in just over two hundred pages, is that I didn't feel like I knew any of them. I also couldn't tell who the bad guy's were, if there were any. At first I'm thinking the warden, the prison guard or maybe Sam Teak, but there's enough about them to make you feel sympathy and not enough about the Thompsons to make you strongly care about their outcome. The writing is beautiful and at times I feel like I'm reading poetry, but the story never stays in one place long enough for my emotions to take root. I'd only recommend this if you want to read some beautiful passages, but not if you want to sink your teeth into a riveting story with a few well developed characters.
March 2, 2015
Time of the Locust is a book about many things. It begins as a child's fantasy, with a boy name Sephiri, who lives in the World of Water, with a talking dolphin and other fish friends. In the next chapter, we are introduced to Brenda Thompson, mother of a 7 year old with autism named Sephiri. He husband is dead in every way that matters, as he is in prison, serving the seventh year of life sentence, for murder. We learn about the trans-generational traumas that shaped each major character in the story, including the prison warden. We experience magical realism as Sephiri meets the father he never knew. We learn that we can heal from trauma, that life moves forward, with or without us. We learn, of course, that there are other worlds than this one, and that there are people who can cross those distances. Time of the Locuts is a beautiful, intensely emotional book. A woman struggles to understand her son, a child struggles to understand the world that has no place for him, a man struggles to reconcile his deeds with what he has left behind.
July 28, 2014
This book came up as the choice for our bookclub. It was a pleasant surprise. I really enjoyed it. I have no personal connection to autism and I do not think it is necessary to have one to enjoy this book. If you are a fan of magical realism, this would be a great choice. Also, if you are familiar with the D.C. area, you may enjoy the familiarity of the setting.
August 19, 2014
Wow, what a book! It is hard to believe that this is a debut novel from Morowa Yejide. It is so accomplished, working emotionally, visually and verbally.
The book is about several themes. The first is imprisonment. Horus is literally imprisoned in an establishment that is closer to a Guantanamo than a regular prison, a place where the prisoners (or rats as they are called) have their spirits broken. There is meant to be no escape both physically and mentally. Sephiri is imprisoned by his autism and Brenda is imprisoned by her roles as mother to a child whose behaviour is at the severe end of the autistic spectrum and as the wife of a "cop killer".
The second theme is communication. Clearly Brenda and Sephiri cannot communicate with each other verbally (Sephiri cannot speak or understand words) and there is no communication between Brenda and Horus, nor is there any real emotional communication between Brenda and other people, including Horus' emotionally damaged brother, Manden.
The last theme is the way emotional damage is carried from childhood and even passed down between generations. This is reflected in all the people who appear in the book, including a sadistic prison guard and the prison warden. Much of the book is about the unravelling of the back story - how and why Horus killed a man, understanding how Brenda turned from a pretty woman hopeful that she will be able to save her husband to a woman who is killing herself with overeating and why Manden reacts the way he does.
All this could be too depressing, and indeed at times it is very painful to read, but Yejide offers a magical answer. Sephiri has an alternative world to the one that scares him. This world is not presented as an imagined or dream world but as an alternative reality. Horus too finds an alternative: a route out of his foul-smelling concrete cell, through the catacombs beneath the prison where extinct locusts are stirring to the shore of the sea on which his son is floating. Love finds a way.
This book has everything I look for in a novel: in-depth psychology, beautiful use of words and images, strong themes, magic that is not about escaping serious issues, and an element of uplift.
I received this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in return for a fair review.
This review first appeared on the Magic Realism Books Blog
September 17, 2014
I’ve been really good lately at picking novels to read without knowing anything about them first. The only thing I knew about Time of The Locust was that the story surrounded an autistic boy, Sephiri, and his internal life. I wasn’t prepared for any of the rest of the characters and their respective journeys or the magic realism that runs throughout.
The water world that Sephiri has created in his mind is the only thing that makes sense to him and the sea creatures that inhabit it help him to understand “the land of the air� where his mother, Brenda, and the rest of us live. Increasingly, he begins to be pulled in deeper and deeper into the water world and when he comes back he starts to sketch elaborate pictures of this place in his mind. With Sephiri’s father, Horus, serving a life sentence, Brenda is tasked with trying to raise and reach her son on her own with little or no help save an occasional appearance by her brother-in-law. But she never gives up on the hope of one day having Sephiri one day really “seeing� her and becoming reachable.
While reading this, I was really affected by how severely alone and imprisoned each of the characters were due to very different circumstances: autism, imprisonment, health issues, guilt, emotional pain. Yejidé’s beautiful and poignant writing make all of the pain that these people are in seem real enough to touch. But the magic she includes, especially in the second and third parts of the book, offer much hope in the form of love and family bonds. Time of the Locust is definitely one of the most meaningful books I’ve read in a long time.
I received a complimentary copy of this e-book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
The water world that Sephiri has created in his mind is the only thing that makes sense to him and the sea creatures that inhabit it help him to understand “the land of the air� where his mother, Brenda, and the rest of us live. Increasingly, he begins to be pulled in deeper and deeper into the water world and when he comes back he starts to sketch elaborate pictures of this place in his mind. With Sephiri’s father, Horus, serving a life sentence, Brenda is tasked with trying to raise and reach her son on her own with little or no help save an occasional appearance by her brother-in-law. But she never gives up on the hope of one day having Sephiri one day really “seeing� her and becoming reachable.
While reading this, I was really affected by how severely alone and imprisoned each of the characters were due to very different circumstances: autism, imprisonment, health issues, guilt, emotional pain. Yejidé’s beautiful and poignant writing make all of the pain that these people are in seem real enough to touch. But the magic she includes, especially in the second and third parts of the book, offer much hope in the form of love and family bonds. Time of the Locust is definitely one of the most meaningful books I’ve read in a long time.
I received a complimentary copy of this e-book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
December 18, 2014
Due to the busyness of my recent schedule, I have been reading bits and pieces here and there which the story appears a bit choppy for me probably because of reading here and there.
This was a book selected read for LFPC Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Group; and finally trying to get the chance to read it. Some of the books chosen this year have been quite remarkable. So now I had to read the back of the book (reviews) and a couple here to get the gist of what I am attempting to read and comprehend since I never read this writer before (also finding out this is their first novel).
I hope to find some time to just sit and read at least 2 hrs to see if the book read works for me...not just picking up little parts here and there and also trying to understand it all. Finally completed after a week or so.
Time of the Locust is a creative, fresh, unique story that shows Sephiri's imaginary world for how he grasps with his reality due to his autism as his mother Brenda genuinely wants to reach her son and show her motherly love but feels she cannot reach him as well as her husband Horus told his wife while receiving a life sentence to see him "as dead". Yet Horus' brother, Manden, picks up the bill to check on them while bro is serving lifetime sentence for murder. Ironically Horus' son mental condition (autism) lives in this imaginary world and meets him in this world because now Horus' mind isn't all there...which makes it a touchy moment for me. (may be a spoiler alert).
Leisure read 2014.
Adrienna Turner
Author of God is in the Equation
This was a book selected read for LFPC Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Group; and finally trying to get the chance to read it. Some of the books chosen this year have been quite remarkable. So now I had to read the back of the book (reviews) and a couple here to get the gist of what I am attempting to read and comprehend since I never read this writer before (also finding out this is their first novel).
I hope to find some time to just sit and read at least 2 hrs to see if the book read works for me...not just picking up little parts here and there and also trying to understand it all. Finally completed after a week or so.
Time of the Locust is a creative, fresh, unique story that shows Sephiri's imaginary world for how he grasps with his reality due to his autism as his mother Brenda genuinely wants to reach her son and show her motherly love but feels she cannot reach him as well as her husband Horus told his wife while receiving a life sentence to see him "as dead". Yet Horus' brother, Manden, picks up the bill to check on them while bro is serving lifetime sentence for murder. Ironically Horus' son mental condition (autism) lives in this imaginary world and meets him in this world because now Horus' mind isn't all there...which makes it a touchy moment for me. (may be a spoiler alert).
Leisure read 2014.
Adrienna Turner
Author of God is in the Equation
September 29, 2014
Tragedy piled on top of misery piled on top of despair. I’m not comfortable with this book’s attempt to simultaneously straddle the line between reality and fairy tale. Fairy tales can be used to hold up a mirror to society � but this novel rather seems to be using fairy tales/magical realism/fantasy to escape and yet magnify terrific events. So the events can’t be coherently judged within either framework, much less simultaneously both.
This could have been a magnificent tale of despair and racism and unbearable agony. The seeds are all there. Or it could have been a tragic modern fairy tale vision of unendurable pain. But it falls completely flat on its face by attempting to simultaneously be both. A man can be driven mad by unjust imprisonment, or a man can access a magical escape � but to have him somehow do both cheats us of the full implications of either option. A child can be imprisoned by autism, or escape within his magical alternate reality, but again, attempting to do both is a vast disservice, neither version is fully explored and the reader is left cheated of any actual understanding.
This could have been a magnificent tale of despair and racism and unbearable agony. The seeds are all there. Or it could have been a tragic modern fairy tale vision of unendurable pain. But it falls completely flat on its face by attempting to simultaneously be both. A man can be driven mad by unjust imprisonment, or a man can access a magical escape � but to have him somehow do both cheats us of the full implications of either option. A child can be imprisoned by autism, or escape within his magical alternate reality, but again, attempting to do both is a vast disservice, neither version is fully explored and the reader is left cheated of any actual understanding.
August 20, 2014
There is something beautiful, mystical, magical here. It is a snapshot of several characters, very different, fleshed out with backstory and introspection: the long-suffering mother, the autistic child, the imprisoned father, the distant uncle, the warden and the guard, the deceased grandfather. They are arranged like exquisite colors on a palette, ready to set something in motion.
But... The plot is the plot of a short story. At the end, something is declared accomplished, changed, but we don't get a chance to see it. It is cut off, the picture never finished. I often feel that debut novels are too long, but this one is at the other end of the spectrum. All dressed up and nowhere to go. But man, just getting started was truly beautiful.
This one was only about 3.5 stars for me because it never got fully developed. But this woman can write, and I'll certainly be in line when her next book comes out.
But... The plot is the plot of a short story. At the end, something is declared accomplished, changed, but we don't get a chance to see it. It is cut off, the picture never finished. I often feel that debut novels are too long, but this one is at the other end of the spectrum. All dressed up and nowhere to go. But man, just getting started was truly beautiful.
This one was only about 3.5 stars for me because it never got fully developed. But this woman can write, and I'll certainly be in line when her next book comes out.
January 13, 2015
This one took me a long time not because it wasn't a great book but because I kept getting behind on my book club reading at the end of 2014.
I finally finished the book today and I was not disappointed with the ending.
The book, at face value, is about Brenda who is struggling to raise her autistic son Sephiri following his father's imprisonment. In fact, Horus, Sephiri's father, never knew his wife was pregnant before going to jail.
This book is a high quality addition to the literary fiction genre as the reader spends time with each character and learns more about them.
The ending of this book is beautiful.
I would highly recommend this book to fans of literary fiction.
I finally finished the book today and I was not disappointed with the ending.
The book, at face value, is about Brenda who is struggling to raise her autistic son Sephiri following his father's imprisonment. In fact, Horus, Sephiri's father, never knew his wife was pregnant before going to jail.
This book is a high quality addition to the literary fiction genre as the reader spends time with each character and learns more about them.
The ending of this book is beautiful.
I would highly recommend this book to fans of literary fiction.
January 21, 2019
Time of the Locusts is an utterly compelling magical tragedy. It's steeped in the hopelessness of its many characters, all of whom are trapped in some prison or another, metaphorical or not. Ultimately, though, this is a book about the possibility of hope, and of escape, no matter how remote or seemingly impossible.
January 18, 2017
This is a story of how the victims dealt with the racism and hate that had set itself upon their family. It tells of the spiritual path of a young autistic boy. Great story that held my attention.
July 31, 2017
This book was good. It illustrated the power that our minds have to help us transcend our circumstances. Sephiri, a young autistic child, struggled to connect with the world. His mother, Brenda was struggling to raise him on her own after his father was imprisoned. Sephiri separated the world into two places, the Land of Air, which was where his physical being was and where his mom, doctors, and uncle was, and the World of Water, which was where his mind was. Sephiri is nonverbal and his communication consists of screams, spinning, flailing arms, and screeches, which his mom and those in the Land of Air cannot understand. On the contrary, in his World of Water, Sephiri can communicate with words with the dolphin and the Great Octopus. His father, Horus, is imprisoned in Black Plains and is residing in the solitary confinement wing. He too exists in two separate worlds, the Amenta, which is the physical realm of Black Plains, and the Catacombs, where his mind takes him, and where he is eventually led to Sephiri's World of Water. Sephiri's uncle Manden, is seemingly stuck in the physical realm with no mental escape. He works as a subway employee in Metro D.C. Manden is haunted by his past, and wonders just how long he can keep going. The characters in this book are all trapped in some way, but Sephiri and his father find a way to escape their surroundings and connect with one another in a spiritual realm. This book is not about spirits, or ghosts and ghouls. It is a story about the power of our minds. I also learned something new. The warden of Black Plains had a framed photograph of Dr. Alex D. Biderman's Chart of Coercion. Biderman's Chart of Coercion was a delineation of tactics the Communists used on U.S. Air Force prisoners of war in North Korea. The chart consist of 8 methods that were designed to breakdown the mental fortitude of prisoners of war. In the book, the warden uses Biderman's chart to do just that, break down the will of the prisoners of Black Plains. Upon further research, Biderman's Chart of Coercion has been used to explain domestic violence, workplace bullying, and religious cult following. I found it very interesting to learn about this because I had never heard about Biderman or his work.
March 11, 2018
I picked up this book because it was a story of a mother's love with her autistic son. But it is mostly about the mother's self-pity, the father's self-loathing while in prison, the uncle's "woe-is-me" for having to work a 40 hr work week! Only a few chapters even talked about the autistic boy. The book was crap!
June 30, 2018
Amazing read, Yejide is skilled with words and can describe the most mundane phenomenon with pure poetry. The story is a multi-generational tale. With the theme of revenge repeating itself across three generations. But honestly I'll have to read this book a few more times to really understand it.
January 9, 2016
I don't know what this book was trying to convey but I was just not getting the message. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it. I still had emotional connections to some of the characters. But without a plot, I felt lost while reading this novel. Nothing really happened until the third part of the story and that wasn't until the last 20 pages or so. There was too much build up, not enough resolution. In the future, I'll be avoiding this author for the simple fact that her writing is borderline obnoxious.
June 21, 2015
This was a deeply disturbing book, but so well written and so imaginative that I felt I had to give it 5 stars. It's about the relationship of a severely autistic boy, his imprisoned father, and his overwrought mother. And it's about love and magic.
September 10, 2014
A powerful, moving debut novel.
May 29, 2015
beautiful book...extremely well written...recommended!!!
April 21, 2025
Shortly after I started reading Time I had to remind myself that this was Yejide’s debut novel. This was because it was crafted with the skill one expects to see in a more experienced writer. There were three reasons for this.
The first was the depth with which she developed her characters. Over the course of my 30+ career as a psychologist I did not specialize in working with autistic children and their families. But I had enough experience and have done enough reading to confirm how well she depicted the immense struggles a 7 year old nonverbal autistic boy Sephiri faces in coping with the complexities of the world. Likewise for her portrayal of his mother Brenda trying to raise this child on her own.
Brenda’s distress over her husband Horus� incarceration was equally skillfully done. And the impact which witnessing his father being killed had on Horus as well as his struggles to maintain his emotional and mental well being in a cruel maximum security prison were powerfully portrayed.
Unlike most other novels the author took the time to also carefully develop other lesser characters. These included Horus� brother Manden, the warden of the prison Stotsky, and the guard Jimmy responsible for the horrendous day to day treatment of Horus.
Second, Yejide accomplished this with an eloquent, at times lyrical prose. For example, when Horus was found guilty and led away from Brenda in court, the ‘…foundations collapsed around her, and the braces she had spent the four month trial fortifying buckled and snapped. She looked on in horror and awe. The free fall of consciousness and doubt. The tumble of hope and and the fall of dream.�
Third, the author’s use of metaphors and magical realism was wonderfully imaginative. Sephiri lives in the Land of Air where he cannot understand or communicate with others. But he escapes in his dreams to the World of Water where he can communicate with his friends the dolphin and the octopus who guide and protect him. Horus describes the prison as Amenta: the Egyptian underworld where the sun never rose and the dead and spirits are buried. But he and Sephiri discover the Catacombs where truth, healing, and reconciliation are possible. The locusts are powerful symbols of change emerging from dormancy.
In one respect Time is a proverbial victim of its own success: Yejide’s descriptions of the inner workings of many of her characters are so highly textured that the novel is a bit slow going in places. But those readers with the patience to read these passages will be richly rewarded.
I have already read and enjoyed the author’s second novel, Creatures of Passage. I hope it does not take her as long to write her third book as the seven year gap between these two. She is already a masterful storyteller.
The first was the depth with which she developed her characters. Over the course of my 30+ career as a psychologist I did not specialize in working with autistic children and their families. But I had enough experience and have done enough reading to confirm how well she depicted the immense struggles a 7 year old nonverbal autistic boy Sephiri faces in coping with the complexities of the world. Likewise for her portrayal of his mother Brenda trying to raise this child on her own.
Brenda’s distress over her husband Horus� incarceration was equally skillfully done. And the impact which witnessing his father being killed had on Horus as well as his struggles to maintain his emotional and mental well being in a cruel maximum security prison were powerfully portrayed.
Unlike most other novels the author took the time to also carefully develop other lesser characters. These included Horus� brother Manden, the warden of the prison Stotsky, and the guard Jimmy responsible for the horrendous day to day treatment of Horus.
Second, Yejide accomplished this with an eloquent, at times lyrical prose. For example, when Horus was found guilty and led away from Brenda in court, the ‘…foundations collapsed around her, and the braces she had spent the four month trial fortifying buckled and snapped. She looked on in horror and awe. The free fall of consciousness and doubt. The tumble of hope and and the fall of dream.�
Third, the author’s use of metaphors and magical realism was wonderfully imaginative. Sephiri lives in the Land of Air where he cannot understand or communicate with others. But he escapes in his dreams to the World of Water where he can communicate with his friends the dolphin and the octopus who guide and protect him. Horus describes the prison as Amenta: the Egyptian underworld where the sun never rose and the dead and spirits are buried. But he and Sephiri discover the Catacombs where truth, healing, and reconciliation are possible. The locusts are powerful symbols of change emerging from dormancy.
In one respect Time is a proverbial victim of its own success: Yejide’s descriptions of the inner workings of many of her characters are so highly textured that the novel is a bit slow going in places. But those readers with the patience to read these passages will be richly rewarded.
I have already read and enjoyed the author’s second novel, Creatures of Passage. I hope it does not take her as long to write her third book as the seven year gap between these two. She is already a masterful storyteller.
September 2, 2021
I enjoyed this book�
just disappointed that just as it was getting good it ended� this book spent way too much time on insignificance, backstories on boring characters when the meat of the bones was neglected� the story was the trifecta of the boy, his mother and his father everything else was fodder� the verbiage in places was unnecessary too� I gave it a four for a missed opportunity which is unfortunate
just disappointed that just as it was getting good it ended� this book spent way too much time on insignificance, backstories on boring characters when the meat of the bones was neglected� the story was the trifecta of the boy, his mother and his father everything else was fodder� the verbiage in places was unnecessary too� I gave it a four for a missed opportunity which is unfortunate
December 23, 2022
I am at an absolute loss for words. This astounding novel, which weaves together magic and reality so deftly, defied and subverted my expectations beyond measure.
This book tells the story of a family torn apart by a murder; it articulates tales of racism and intergenerational trauma; and it gives voice to a non verbal boy.
Poignant, vivid, and poetic, this novel is going to haunt me for a while.
This book tells the story of a family torn apart by a murder; it articulates tales of racism and intergenerational trauma; and it gives voice to a non verbal boy.
Poignant, vivid, and poetic, this novel is going to haunt me for a while.
February 6, 2023
Slow
This was an interesting read for the parent struggles with an autistic child. However, it's very slow, not a lot happens, and not much is explained in the end. It is different, though, and a little sci-fi (though this is not sufficiently explained). I originally picked it up because it's set in DC but I was disappointed it didn't describe the city much, not even the subway system.
This was an interesting read for the parent struggles with an autistic child. However, it's very slow, not a lot happens, and not much is explained in the end. It is different, though, and a little sci-fi (though this is not sufficiently explained). I originally picked it up because it's set in DC but I was disappointed it didn't describe the city much, not even the subway system.
May 21, 2022
I loved Creatures of Passage so much I picked up Morowa Yejide's fist novel. Time of the Locust has some beautiful lyrical writing but I found the plot muddled in this novel. Worth a read. I will read whatever this author writes.
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