SECOND CLASS CITIZEN

by Buchi Emecheta ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1975

Third class, really, since Adah Obi is both a black and a woman. Buchi Emecheta's autobiographical novel traces her personal development from a little Nigerian ""tigress"" determined to go to the exclusive Methodist girls' school to the events following her arrival in the United Kingdom, the land of her dreams, where she's sent husband Francis ahead to study accounting. But Francis, whom she was obliged to marry to escape her family, turns out to be a loafer who gives her sermons, beatings and children (four by the time she's 21, plus another on the way) while taking her librarian's wages and sleeping around with other women. Meanwhile she can't find a landlord who will let to ""coloureds,"" her son contracts meningitis from the sluttish but state-approved babysitter, and Francis takes to burning her passport and marriage license as well as the manuscript of her novel. At her worst moment, Adah encounters a fellow Ibo who advises her, by their tribal laws, to beseech her husband for ""forgiveness."" Her story is a harsh, un-self-pitying struggle; and even though the appearance of this, her second novel, is an indication of her resourcefulness, you have to grieve for all the shame and degradation that her ambitious intelligence has imposed on her.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1975

ISBN: 0807610666

Page Count: -

Publisher: Braziller

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1975

Categories: FICTION