Sarah's Updates

"I have mixed feelings about this contemporary African story about love, marriage, culture and what it means to be the perfect daughter, wife and to “keep your home.�� The premise is that Afi, is a young seamstress from a rural town in Ghana who wins the proverbial lottery when she’s selected by her family’s wealthy benefactors to marry their favourite son, Eli, who’s involved with a woman they do not approve of. Afi’s task as the new (traditionally-wed, family-approved) wife is to divert Eli’s attentions from the “Jezebel�� who’s stolen him away from his family. I was intrigued by this African film industry premise and excited to check it out. The idea was not at all unrealistic to me as I’ve seen similar things play out in real life although not quite with people as cosmopolitanly urbane but I’m not disputing the plausibility.

It was a little hard to "like" any of the characters in this book because some of them were a little trope-y but for me which was fine, I don't mind a trope- but they never quite managed to break through from the shell. I really struggled with Afi’s youthful naïveté. I struggled to “buy�� the deep-seated love relationship between she and Eli, especially since she went in with eyes open knowing full well there was another woman involved in the mix. Therefore, it seemed a little out of place later when she made it seem like she was being cheated on when she came in as the latter day entrant to the “polygamous�� relationship. It didn't really make sense to me as she was built up as knowing the situation beforehand and so, I’m not quite sure what her endgame or expectations were but as a reader, it didn’t feel realistic to me. Again, to be charitable, Afi IS quite young at 21 and also quite inexperienced, so perhaps that plays a role in her characterization and behaviour.

Plot-wise to me, there were a few holes and I had questions but not enough that I couldn’t understand what was happening or go with the flow. I just I suppose didn’t get the direction of the book and don’t really understand what it wanted to accomplish. When we were introduced to Yaya’s friends, I expected more to come from that nugget to create dramatic effect. The building of tension between Afi’s family and the Ganyos was fabulous, I only wish more had been done with that potential plot angle. The author was great at creating potential opportunities for tension but she often just releases them without exploring further or stoking the flames so there were lots of moments were my expectations for more drama were built and then allowed to fall flat. The resolution and the conflicts felt a little too easily achieved when a book such as this was BEGGING for more dramatic effect.

What was good about this was the writing- it was engaging and breezy, delightfully readable and evocative of the emotions and images the author was trying to convey. It was the literary equivalent of an old-school Ghollywood movie and I was absolutely here for that. The descriptions of contemporary Ghanaian life and African Aunties and Uncles was absolutely spot on. I’m not Ghanaian but I am West African with my own African Aunties and Uncles in the village and I recognized them one hundred percent in authenticity. I loved the observations about city life and city yuppies and the descriptions of the lifestyles, people and places both in the rural and urban areas. This author is sharp and witty in her observations bringing laugh out loud humor to an otherwise frustrating story. I liked the exploration of the themes of money and love which are really pertinent in the global (and African) sugar baby culture. I thought the portrayal of grown, successful men still being controlled by their families was timely as was the incredibly problematic but still very current trend of families selling their daughters into potentially toxic relationships because out of financial need. I thought the advice and opinions of the elders, friends, and cosmopolitan neighbors was a realistic reflection of what actually happens and what would actually be said in these situations.

I thought that overall, this was fine and was a good enough debut but I wish the author had really taken it “there�� with this book. It was begging for more real conflict and more drama that matched the excellence of the set up. As it is, this is a good story about contemporary polygamous relationships and arranged marriages with modern couples in West Africa and one young woman’s courageous journey to discovering her boundaries with love and relationships.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Algonquin Books."