The motif of silence runs through the novel, shaping its emotional landscape and deepening its tensions. Characters retreat into silence as a shield against pain. In this novel, silence becomes a language of its own. It speaks in pauses, in averted gazes, in unfinished sentences. Relationships are defined as much by what is withheld as by what is expressed, and the gaps in communication often widen into emotional chasms.
Book Review
On the surface, the book appears to be Abdullahi’s story, but in telling his story, it becomes other people’s stories as well. “Nobody’s story has been as intricately connected with mine in the 20 years that this book covers as Senator Bukola Saraki’s… For most of the journey, I walked under his shadow… Therefore, readers will find that, to a large extent, this book is his story as well,” Abdullahi writes. But in a lot of ways, the book is more Saraki’s story than the memoirist claims.
Interestingly, the strongest story in the collection – the titular Where Women Meet Boys – is one of two narratives written from the female perspective and showcases Shyaka’s skill with handling multiple perspectives. At its heart, it is about the domino effects of a man disappointing his family and so, still falls in line with the book’s overarching theme.
eading Heinneken University, one quickly realizes that plot is not quite the novel’s primary engine. Instead, the narrative is sustained by the actions, thoughts, and voices of a wide array of characters who feel strikingly real and far from exaggerated which is a triumph in satire.
Decorated novelist Chika Unigwe’s latest novel, Grace, raises several questions: Is survival ever morally neutral?…
There is no denying the fact that childlessness is perhaps the most devastating predicament for…
In Ayo Deforge’s works, there is always an attempt to stab at the deeper intricacies…
Akinremi reminds us of the great poet Gabriel Okara, of ‘The Call of River Nun’ fame, with his poem ‘The Call of River Congo’. In this piece, his concern is plastic pollution and neglect. We see how bottles, cans and paper scraps have taken over the great body of water. It is a blow delivered on the authorities who neglected their responsibilities to this natural resource and watch with reckless abandon as it becomes a dumping ground.
The title might hint at a story about a father’s wrongdoing, but the real sins in this book belong overwhelmingly to the mother. Still, through psychoanalysis, David uncovers yet another layer of abuse, this time from another close family member. Is Sins of the Father worth reading despite its dark, unsettling themes?
The desire to have children is a complex mix of biological urges, emotional drivers and…
In a climate where social media constantly serves up a glut of unattainable beauty standards, a book like Hairstory offers a refreshing antidote to such messaging and should be valued. This quality has earned it favourable comparisons to Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry and Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o
The memoir progressively comes off as an album of eclectic cuts. If “Signs of Our Redemption” burns bright as the bold anthem chronicling the #EndSARS saga, “Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina” is the wistful paean for diminished talents and dreams (“Nigeria happens to the best of us…”), while “And Always Remember Them” stands out as a poetic and elegiac tribute to the fiery season of 2020 (“It is the forgotten who are truly dead” p. 192). David’s use of “We remember them” as a refrain in that chapter creates a hypnotic, incantatory rhythm that sustains emotional accumulation.