A flawed but brutally truthful drama about Africa.
A play focuses on gender inequality, kidnapping, and rape in Africa.
The work begins with a conversation between Abade, a “top public servant,” and his “homemaker” wife, Ladaba. The opening lines indicate the level of patriarchal dominance in the household, with Abade castigating his wife for not having his breakfast ready. As the play progresses, Abade’s staggering cruelty and misogyny are revealed. In a conversation with Aliyah, a friend and neighbor, Ladaba confides that Abade attacked and raped her when she refused to have sex. Ladaba then discovers that her husband also raped their maid, Sarafa. Ladaba approaches a female lawyer, but in a male-dominated society, the odds are stacked against Abade's being prosecuted. The play also introduces Danlade and Tanmu, a married couple who met at medical school and respect each other as equals. Their lives are turned upside down when their daughter, Asa, is kidnapped and held for ransom. A third narrative deals with Dansibe, “a true African who believes the measure of a man is determined by the number of seeds his loins bring forth.” Agbere, one of his three wives, is confronted with the fact that she is “one big baby factory.” The play draws attention to issues of violence and inequality in Africa but does not establish a specific sense of place. A passing reference to the “UAC” (United Africa Company) of Nigeria suggests a possible location, but that country is never mentioned directly. Brisibe-Dorgu (Love So Pure, 2019, etc.) possesses the ability to shock her audience by writing frank conversations about taboo subjects. Dansibe and his friend Ledi witness a man with AIDS being beaten by a gang on the street. Ledi reveals: “That pathetic man’s idea of a cure” for his AIDS “is the blood of a virgin!” and goes on to say, “This man goes about raping little girls aged no more than six years!” Despite the playwright's never pulling her punches, the work has its failings. Her writing often lacks consistency. For instance, Kamo, a security guard, “appears dead” but a few lines later “will be alright.” A strong editor is also needed (“helter shelter”; “LAdaba”; “clean your.?”). Still, this disturbing play draws powerful attention to urgent human rights issues and succeeds in delivering an important message.
A flawed but brutally truthful drama about Africa.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5462-3620-7
Page Count: 110
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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