TOADS FOR SUPPER. By Chukwuemeka Ike

 



This book was published well over 50 years ago. A re-reading even now shows how very well written the book is, excellent in so many ways.

Whether as an excellent, absorbing, straightforward novel, a relevant realistic work, a brilliant insight into the lives and wiles of undergraduates...the book excels in every conceivable manner.

It is also filled with elements of mystery, thrills and spills, twists and turns... the whole work, throughout. For example the major revelation here is perhaps the unfortunate mystery in Aduke's (one of the 3 young women Amadi is somewhat involved with) life, and the haunting twist at the very end of the work.

But the sophistication goes much further than this. For example it is with a sense of great shock that we are suddenly introduced to Sweetie, the Lagos "good time" girl - she and her cantankerous mother. What are they doing inside Amadi's room? Why is Amadi reluctant for Aduke to enter the room?

And later on, it is a masterstroke when we suddenly see Amadi brave enough to propose to Aduke ...at a time when it seems all is bleak for him. How is he suddenly rid of the albatross of Sweetie with the path clear for him and Aduke to move on? Needless to say it is a great exhilaration for Aduke herself and her romantic reaction makes good reading... in the depths of the night!

Another example: Amadi seems to reach a nadir at one point in the book, he has been rusticated from the University, disgraced out of his humble village, his life in ruins, it appears he is ready to commit suicide by drowning ....but a bit later on we see that he has moved on as a temporary teacher.

Such fresh twists and turns augment the beauty of this very fine novel, even before we refer to the often sparkling wit and sense of humour throughout. Also much of the dialogue is fresh and endearing. Excellent work.

- H. Ozogula

Comments

  1. KATHY11 March 2021 at 04:32

    Haunting love affair, really. The young man even travelled to meet her parents, or family

    ReplyDelete
  2. Eric11 March 2021 at 13:26

    One of the early African masterpieces... KUDOS

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LAUREL FOR OMOSEYE BOLAJI

Image
  The Gbobaniyi Club of Ikire ( Nigeria ) has conferred its ‘Exquisite Calabash’ award on Writer, Omoseye Bolaji for his ‘Contributions to the Genre of Mystery/Detective Writing in Africa'. Excerpts from the formal Citation here:   ‘It is quite apposite and seemly that the recipient Mr Omoseye Bolaji would be receiving this award exactly 20 years after he published the very first adventure of the Tebogo Mystery series, titled Tebogo Investigates. That was in 2000. The series has grown in leaps and bounds since then and is now known worldwide. ‘We refer to Omoseye Bolaji as ‘Mr' here, not because we are unaware that he is an eminent Chief (of Ibadan)himself, or out of disrespect; but Mr. Bolaji has always stressed in his simple way that he prefers to be addressed simply as ‘Mr’. We are also very happy that despite reported poor health over the recent years Mr Bolaji is here in person to receive the award. We also appreciate the presence of literary men, reviewers, critics ...
Read more

BOOKS BARDS AND BARBS. By Omoseye Bolaji

Image
What do we make of Omoseye Bolaji's new book, BOOKS BARDS AND BARBS? Certainly it is an important work that readers, bibliophiles and scholars etc will benefit from. The book underlines the author's long-standing love and passion for books and writers. Bolaji himself is recognised as one of the relatively very few African writers who have created and written a regular series on a detective, a sleuth - The Tebogo Mokoena Mystery series. A number of Bolaji's works have been reviewed on this blog over the years. Hence we are not surprised that in this new book the author focuses on many books that fall under the Mystery/Detective/Suspense genre; for example, here we read some of Bolaji's thoughts on writers (and books) like Sidney Sheldon, John Grisham, and Leslie Mieir. But not only Eurocentric writers. This new work also shows how much Bolaji appreciates African writers who have done well in this genre too; he particularly likes Dillibe Onyeama, Sunday Adebomi, Cyp...
Read more

The Exhilarating World of African Books By George Rampai

Image
By George Rampai (George Rampai is the author of the absorbing novel, From Where I Stand) Growing up in the dusty streets of Manyetseng, Ladybrand in the then Orange Free State Province (South Africa) wasn't easy. As expected, we grew up without electricity and other basic necessities, and initially without the library and other recreational facilities, just a few open fields where we would hone our football skills late in the afternoon. (That's all we could do as there were no other facilities) As Africans, storytelling has always been part of our culture, during the night; we would sit outside around the cackling woodfire and listen to our maternal grandmother narrating folktales to us. This became a norm to us as there was nothing else to do, as households with Television sets were so few in those days. When I grew older, my mother managed to buy a small radio that worked on batteries. We would sit around the table in a dim candle lit room and listen to the stories on t...
Read more