A novel that offers an original, compelling facet of the African-American female experience.
In Tewogbade’s debut novel, Garnett, an African-American woman, immigrates with her husband to his home in Nigeria and struggles with the values of a tribal society.
Garnett was raised by her grandmother in a Brooklyn, N.Y., housing project, and at first glance, her pampered life as the wife of Kayode, a Nigerian banker, seems like a success story. However, her domestic life becomes unsettled when she doesn’t become pregnant. As a result, she faces her husband’s disappointment; her meddling mother-in-law also disapproves and reminds Garnett that she’s “a wife of this family not just my son.” Other dark clouds hover, as well; her husband’s sketchy financial dealings and infidelities add to her teetering self-worth and fear of losing him to a “junior wife.” It may be hard for readers to stomach the low expectations that Garnett has for her marriage, but the author paints the character’s complexities and dichotomies honestly and realistically. Garnett excels in her work as a clothing boutique owner and displays inner strength, but she also feels that her present reality may one day be stolen away—and in the end, she’s right. She eventually stands up to her husband but at a great cost; when Kayode forbids Garnett from leaving the country, she draws on the survival methods of her childhood to quickly develop a plan. Tewogbade portrays Nigerian culture and Garnett’s daily life in flowery, metaphorical prose, and at times, the narrative overuses foreshadowing, which often deflates the tension. That said, Tewogbade provides a rare window into how women live in a society where they’re considered the property of their husbands. It’s refreshing to see even a fictional story of an African-American woman’s experience in Africa; many of Garnett’s Brooklyn friends romanticize the continent as the motherland, but she discovers that it brings her none of the comforts of home.
A novel that offers an original, compelling facet of the African-American female experience.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-1491094181
Page Count: 252
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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