Book Title: Doom, Gloom, and the Pursuit of the Sun by Antoine F. Gnintedem
Category: Adult Fiction, 208 pages
Genre: Biographical Fiction
Publisher: Createspace
Release date: February 7, 2018
Tour dates: June 11 to 22, 2018
Content Rating: PG (No f-words, some mild profanity, and mild religious expletives such as "damn", "hell" and "Oh God!", some depictions of brief sexual content.)
Book Description:
The town is famous in the region for its chronic stillness...Consequently, every ambitious person who grows up there eventually leaves in search of better opportunities.
Life in Mbengwi, Cameroon, is not easy for Austin-or for anyone else. While growing up, he bears witness to the worst parts of life and the cruelties of human nature. These things keep his homeland trapped in a cycle of misery and suffering. In a country overrun by poverty, death, unrest, and corruption, he sees no future for himself. The only way to escape the cycle is to flee to a place Austin believes to be free of all these troubles, a place where he hopes his dreams will come true: the United States of America.
However, when Austin arrives in this supposed promised land, he is met with a crushing revelation. He finds America to be rife with all the same problems he thought he'd escaped, merely in different forms. Rather than give in to disappointment, he decides to combat these obstacles with a firm resolve. Before long, though, these obstacles threaten to overwhelm him. This realization prompts Austin to rethink how he sees the world and the challenges it throws at him.
To read reviews, please visit Antoine F. Gnintedem's page on iRead Book Tours.
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Meet the Author:
Antoine F. Gnintedem is a renowned educator both in the United States and across the world. As a linguistic consultant, he has worked for the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security. In addition, he has served as an educational assessment expert for leading national and international testing companies. His academic achievements include a PhD in English language and literature and another doctorate in educational leadership.
Guest Post
Corruption in Cameroon: From the Cradle to the Casket
By Antoine F. Gnintedem
From the fetus to the lifeless body of a deceased person, no one is spared the stinging of endemic corruption in Cameroon. It is a cancer that has metastasized to all areas of life, and is so deeply rooted in the country that, it is almost accepted as the norm.
For instance, entrance into professional schools is not based on merit, but on the size of a person’s wallet. Getting a job does not depend on academic and professional qualifications as it is in the developed world, but it is contingent on how much money one is willing to pay. Even starting a business or developing an invention is rendered almost impossible by bureaucratic huddles that are opportunities for bribery. Thus, Einstein, Descartes, Newton, Voltaire, Rousseau, Gates, Jobs, and the rest of the geniuses the world has had or currently has, would be jobless in Cameroon, if all they had were their brains.
Additionally, to get paperwork processed in public offices, one has to bribe the officials. Even to retrieve one’s own money from the bank is a nightmare. One does not just have to stand in line for hours, but when one finally makes it to the teller, one has to pay up or else the bank would mysteriously run out of funds. As nefarious as these examples of corruption are, they are not the most atrocious, for there are other depraved cases that lead to deaths everyday.
For example, pregnant women cannot see a medical practitioner to get the care that they and their babies need if they do not bribe. They would be told that the doctor is not available and would be made to stand in extremely long lines to wait, while those who accept to drop “something” for the doctor’s or nurse’s “drink” would instantly get bumped to the front of the line, and the previously absent practitioner would magically become available. Many women and their unborn babies have perished at these so-called hospitals and clinics.
Similarly, thousands of patients die every year because they do not have the means to bribe the medical personnel to get the care that they need. Even the ones who have the means or take out a loan to bribe these devils in white coats end up getting prescribed tests and medications that they do not need, simply because the private facility running the tests is owned by the doctor or nurse, and the “pharmacy” selling the medication is owned by a family member or a friend.
It is important to note here that these medical facilities, most of them government owned, are usually decrepit, and have antiquated, dilapidated equipment. The hospitals and equipment are in such disrepair that one could very easily contract a disease after using them. The fact that members of government and the president of the country prefer to seek medical treatment in Europe and America underscores the precarious nature of the health facilities and medical practitioners in Cameroon.
Sadly, when a patient is not lucky and ends up dying, he or she is not yet free from the corruption, as the quality of the treatment that the deceased’s body would receive at the morgue would be determined by how generous his or her loved ones are toward the mortuary personnel. After paying the regular mortuary charges, families still have to pay huge sums of money to mortuary workers to “take good care” of their loved one. In fact, many bodies have disappeared, while others have been roughly handled by those who are charged with offering the departed a befitting and dignifying final treatment before their burial. Therefore, after a lifetime of enduring the excruciating pains of corruption, one’s lifeless body still receives one last blow from this monster before one’s funeral. That is Cameroon!
Ironically, the government of Cameroon acts like it is surprised that the country is so highly indebted and bankrupt. The same government is alarmed by the dizzying number of highly educated, brilliant and innovative citizens leaving the country on a daily basis to pursue better opportunities in America, Asia and Europe. It is time for the authorities and the citizens in Cameroon to take honest and legitimate steps to eradicate corruption from all sectors of life in the nation, because no meaningful progress could happen in an environment where corruption is the norm. The development that the nation so desperately needs and seeks is incredibly incompatible with the prevailing culture of corruption nationwide.
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Ends June 30, 2018
My Review
Doom, Gloom, and the Pursuit of the Sun is a great read by Antoine F Gnintedem. It was interesting to see the early years for Austin in Mbengwi, Cameroon. It is a reminder for me how blessed my family and I are. Austin experiences more suffering and cruelty than I could ever imagine. The poverty and the misery his family was going through brought me to tears. It seemed like he was always getting into trouble for one reason or another. I loved how he did all he could to try to overcome what he had been through to make a better life for himself. I was rooting for him when he chose to leave his homeland and come to the United States of America, the land of the free and opportunity. However, he is disappointed to find that the United States of America, also, has its share of problems-such as homelessness and racism. I always wondered about what an immigrant must be feeling when they first arrive here. I can imagine it must be quite difficult to leave your family and home behind. It has to be a shock to come to a new country where you know no one I thought the author did a fantastic job showing what it would be like for Austin when he first arrived. I continue to root for him and hope he will find the peace, happiness, and life he desperately wanted to find.
I have to admit I was not sure if Doom, Gloom, and the Pursuit of the Sun would be a read for me. That quickly changed when I began reading. Mr. Gnintedem has a talent of keeping a reader engaged. I only wanted to read a few pages but found myself not wanting to put it down until I finished it a few hours later. I most definitely highly recommend this book and would give it 100 stars if I could.
I received this book from the author. This review was 100% my own honest opinion.
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