An engaging novel of personal stories within a broader conflict.
In Oki’s debut novel, set in 1997, an ethnic conflict disrupts the lives of a disparate group of Nigerians.
The Itsekiri and Ijaw communities clash in the city of Warri, Nigeria, and Oki’s narrative follows a group of initially unconnected characters whose paths intersect and diverge as the violence intensifies. Laju and Tonye are engaged, but their love isn’t enough to overcome the objections of Laju’s grandmother, an Itsekiri chief, who doesn’t want her marrying an Ijaw man. Brothers Mogha and Seye, who live in the United Kingdom, were hoping to surprise their father with a visit, but when they arrive, they realize that he’s fled—and that his home is now the target of a local militia. Physician Toritseju and her journalist husband, Jolomi, find that their jobs make it impossible for them to avoid the conflict. Law student Oyinmiebi is drawn into the situation by his cousin Zuokumo but tries to avoid the violence near his home. Over the course of the fighting, coincidence brings characters together (Mogha and Seye end up in Toritseju’s hospital; Oyinmiebi and Jolomi end up at the same battle), and their stories offer moments of tragedy and heroism. The book’s final section takes place six years later, bringing resolution to the various character arcs, just as ethnic tensions rise again. Oki does an excellent job of bringing the reader into a piece of recent African history. Local dialect (“I sidon house dey wait for my cousin wen wan begin make-up like a girl before leaving the house”) is interspersed with standard English in a manner that will allow readers who may be unfamiliar with Nigerian Pidgin to follow along. Although occasional flashbacks sometimes complicate the timeline, they offer valuable character development and give emotional resonance to the various relationships. Oki also shows the political and interpersonal aspects of the conflict within communities, driving home the tragedy of widespread violence.
An engaging novel of personal stories within a broader conflict.Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-79168-723-6
Page Count: 239
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Not as thematically ambitious as Whitehead’s earlier work, but a whole lot of fun to read.
Another surprise from an author who never writes the same novel twice.
Though Whitehead has earned considerable critical acclaim for his earlier work—in particular his debut (The Intuitionist, 1999) and its successor (John Henry Days, 2001)—he’ll likely reach a wider readership with his warmest novel to date. Funniest as well, though there have been flashes of humor throughout his writing. The author blurs the line between fiction and memoir as he recounts the coming-of-age summer of 15-year-old Benji Cooper in the family’s summer retreat of New York’s Sag Harbor. “According to the world, we were the definition of paradox: black boys with beach houses,” writes Whitehead. Caucasians are only an occasional curiosity within this idyll, and parents are mostly absent as well. Each chapter is pretty much a self-contained entity, corresponding to a rite of passage: getting the first job, negotiating the mysteries of the opposite sex. There’s an accident with a BB gun and plenty of episodes of convincing someone older to buy beer, but not much really happens during this particular summer. Yet by the end of it, Benji is well on his way to becoming Ben, and he realizes that he is a different person than when the summer started. He also realizes that this time in his life will eventually live only in memory. There might be some distinctions between Benji and Whitehead, though the novelist also spent his youthful summers in Sag Harbor and was the same age as Benji in 1985, when the novel is set. Yet the first-person narrator has the novelist’s eye for detail, craft of character development and analytical instincts for sharp social commentary.
Not as thematically ambitious as Whitehead’s earlier work, but a whole lot of fun to read.Pub Date: April 28, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-385-52765-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2009
BOOK TO SCREEN
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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