![]() ![]() Ramatoulaye, feeling the burden of etiquette and custom, cannot respond to her husband’s messengers in the way she wants. Rather than confront Ramatoulaye directly about his decision to marry a new woman, he sends his brother to break the news to her. For one, Modou’s abandonment of Ramatoulaye and her children is framed as a complete breakdown of communication and dialogue. The theme of dialogue is manifested not just in the form of the novel, but also in its plot. In this way, So Long a Letter is framed as an ongoing conversation-a conversation that may extend into the future-in which the reader is included and perhaps even encouraged to respond. Indeed, much of what Ramatoulaye writes seems written for the reader’s sake, as so many of the details she recounts, Aissatou already knows. The book has the quality of a dialogue in the sense that the writing is interpersonal, addressed to another mind, but the dialogue is ultimately one sided.Ĭonsequently, the reader comes to stand in for Aissatou, and becomes the addressee of Ramatoulaye’s musings. ![]() And yet we never get to read Aissatou’s response. Ramatoulaye, writing during the 40 days of mourning she must observe in the wake of her husband’s death, addresses her reflections to her best friend Aissatou. ![]() It is at once an epistolary novel-a novel composed of letters-and a diary. ![]()
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