Abstract:
May We All Wake Up One By One is the beginning of a novel set in the West African country of Guinea. The story follows Sean Wake, a twenty-something American who finds himself working for the Feed the World Program as the country falls apart around him. While his co-workers try to push him out of his job, and he battles with the loneliness of cultural dislocation, Sean meets various characters who influence his decision making for better and worse.
The novel examines the issue of race in the frame work of cross-cultural interactions, while observing how traditional values conflict with newly colonizing western commercialization and technology. The narrator attempts to make sense of Guinea’s seemingly self-destructive nature and searches for a responsible party. But his snap judgments only lead him further from the truth. The novel looks closely at the tribulations of living in cultural isolation and the frustrations of unmet expectations, as well as the nature and role of development work in developing countries.
