NIIWAM AND TAAW by Sembene Ousmane,...

NIIWAM AND TAAW by Sembene Ousmane, translated from the French by Catherine Glenn-Lauga (Heinemann: $8.95; 110 pp., paperback original). In these moving novellas, the noted author/film maker examines the conflict between traditional African culture and modern urban life in his native Senegal. An impoverished father carries his dead son to the cemetery in “Niiwam”; as he struggles with the complexities of the urban bus system, the boy’s body becomes a symbol of the more humane village culture the city has destroyed. “Taaw” focuses on a husband and wife trying to maintain a frayed network of familial obligations while their children seek a place in an increasingly industrialized society. A shrewd observer of human interactions, Ousmane uses acerbic humor to depict the minor skirmishes of daily life.