Book Review - Day 5

Hello, Steemheads. Welcome to book review day 5. Every week, I will be talking about one or two books I enjoyed reading. I call myself ‘irregular bookworm.’ I love books like that, I can’t help it. Bibliophile and nerd sound too serious. LOL. The books I’ll be talking about may be your best or worst books, so read with an open mind.

This week, I’m bringing it home. African literature is and has always been my first love. I have two books by two Nigerian authors. Both are literary fiction made beautiful by their plots, settings and characterisation. I’ll give an overview of the books and also my thoughts on them.

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The first is Born on a Tuesday by Elnathan John.

The story follows Dantala, a boy who lives in Bayan Layi and studies in a Sufi Quranic school, far away from home. By chance he meets gang leader Banda, a normal Muslim. Dantala is thrust into a world with fluid rules and casual violence. In the bloody aftermath of presidential elections, he runs away and ends up living in a Salafi mosque. With a simple and practical approach to life, as he teaches himself English, Dantala slowly embraces the Salafism preached by his new benefactor, Sheikh Jamal. He falls in love with Sheikh's daughter, Aisha, and tries to woo her without breaking the rules. All the while, Sheikh struggles to deal with growing jihadist extreme within his own ranks.

Here an excerpt:

The boys who sleep under the kuku tree in Bayan Layi like to boast about the people they have killed. I never join in because I have never killed a man. Banda has, but he doesn’t like to talk about it. He just smokes wee-wee while they talk over each other’s heads. Gobedanisa's voice is always the loudest. He likes to remind everyone of the day he strangled a man. I never interrupt his story even though I was there with him and saw what happened. Gobedanisa and I had gone into the lambu to steal sweet potatoes but the farmer had surprised us while we were there. As he chased us, swearing to kill us if he caught us, he fell into a bush trap for antelopes. Gobedanisa did not touch him. We just stood by as he struggled and struggled and then stopped struggling.

The book is narrated in Dantala's voice. It explores brotherhood, religious fundamentalism and loss. It captures life in contemporary Northern Nigeria and effects of extremist politics on the average citizens.

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The second is Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett.

It follows Furo Wariboko, who was born and bred in Lagos. He wakes up on the morning of his job interview only to discover he has turned into a white man. As he hits the city streets running, still reeling from his newfound condition, Furo is amazed to find the dead ends of his life wondrously open out before him. As a white man in Nigeria, the world is seemingly his oyster, except for one thing. Despite his radical transformation, his ass remains robustly black. He however, refuses to go back home and decides to explore the new opportunities made possible by his skin colour.

Except:

Furo Wariboko awoke this morning to find that dreams can lose their way and turn up on the wrong side of sleep. He was lying nude in bed, and when he raised his head a fracture, he could see his alabaster belly, and his pale legs beyond, covered with the fuzz that glinted bronze in the cold daylight pouring in through the open window. He sat up with a sudden motion that swilled the panic in his stomach and spilled his hands into his lap. He stared at his hands, the pink life lines in his palm, the shellfish-coloured cuticles, the network of blue veins that ran from knuckle to wrist, more veins than he had ever noticed before. His hands were not black but white, same as his legs, his belly, all of him. He clenched his fists, squeezed his eyes shut and sank on to the bed. Outside, a bird chirruped short piercing cries, like mocking laughter.

This book captures what life in Lagos looks like and at the same time introduces modern satire. Igoni succeeded in bringing to life the message written on every face that wakes up and leaves the house every morning; the message of survival. Furo tries and fails like every other person, despite his transformation.

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Thanks for stopping by!
What are your thoughts?