An engaging though excessively wordy examination of Nigeria and the challenges facing the nation.
A debut memoir explores life in Nigeria from the earliest days of independence to the present.
In this volume, Vegha takes a third-person approach to his personal history, telling the story of Zak, beginning with the day the protagonist, from one of Nigeria’s ethnic minorities, is forcibly retired from his job as a pilot. The author then traces Zak’s life, from childhood through primary and secondary education, professional training in the United States and England, career development, and unsuccessful marriages. Vegha links the character’s experiences to Nigeria’s evolution as an independent nation and reflects on the past (“Growing up in pre-independence rural Nigeria was like standing by the entrance of a room with the door shut, hearing the noise of activity within but having no idea what might be going on in there”). Zak confronts trials ranging from dictatorial teachers during his school days to prejudice in professional settings, retaining a clear sense of his own purpose while acknowledging the toll the adverse situations take on him. His champion throughout is his mother, who makes frequent appearances as his advocate and as a force for stability. The author also presents corruption as a serious problem for the nation, detailing many cases of unethical behavior that Zak observes and has to deal with. The writing is uneven, a mix of insightful and vivid description (“This young man was known to be a yam-and-beans major and could sweep triple rations without mincing”) and excessively wordy prose (“Zak was neither a banker nor an economist, yet he could not fail to observe the aberration in the environment that spelt economic crunch for the teeming population but mounted humungous profits for the banks even as industries lost capacity and many were folding up or moving out of the seemingly unhealthy business environment”), making the book far longer than necessary. Vegha, clearly passionate about Nigeria’s future and the obstacles it faces, presents a detailed portrait of daily life in a country and culture that will be unfamiliar to many U.S. readers. (A glossary identifies and defines the many geographic locations and regional terms used in the book.) Although the volume loses focus in many overly long sections, it offers a thoughtful and impassioned analysis of the post-colonial experience through the context of an individual life.
An engaging though excessively wordy examination of Nigeria and the challenges facing the nation.Pub Date: March 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4828-6147-1
Page Count: 636
Publisher: PartridgeAfrica
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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