[Hello, just a reminder that the Mquzama Book Review Blog has moved to substack. This blog post can be found on the Mquzama substack page here. New book reviews are being posted exclusively on Substack and this Medium Page will be discontinued soon]
Somehow, I have managed to stitch together my Fiction Fever reviews for April and May. For those that are new to the blog, my Fiction Fever series is simply my review of all the works of fiction I read in a given period, usually two months, in this case, April and May.
I took way longer to finish the books in these months, which is unsurprising because I was on vacation (I miss it already). The less we talk about my hilariously ambitious vacation reading plans, the better.
Anyways, I read two lovely books in the last two months, which are This Hostel Life and This One Sky Day.
This Hostel Life by Melatu Uche Okorie
It was Aunty Muna who told you not long after you arrived that people in the Western world liked Africans the way you enjoyed animals in a zoo; you could visit them, feed them, play with them, but they must not be allowed outside their environment.
I am obsessed with stories that are seemingly incomplete and complete at the same time. Stories that leave you fulfilled with the plot but don’t offer definite finality. “This Hostel Life” does precisely this. A compilation of three short stories and an essay, this book is informed by Melatu’s experience as an asylum seeker in Ireland.
Before reading the first story, “This Hostel Life”, I thought it was going to be a sad read, considering it is centred on the Direct Provision system (Ireland’s infamous reception institution for asylum seekers). However, Melatu uses defined accents in her writing to suck the reader into the flurry of conversations, carefully highlighting how invasive the system is. She doesn’t just put a voice behind words, she puts a life behind a social movement, humanising the ongoing End Direct Provision campaign.
The second piece in the collection is a literal story within a story. It is about an author writing about the migrant experience, and the said writer is presenting her story to a group of editors. Melatu was showing off her writing prowess on this one, because she plunges you into the protagonist’s writing, pulls you out and lets you observe both stories as they unfold.
It is hard to come up with a favourite, but “The Egg Broke” is probably the one I enjoyed the most. Set in pre-colonial rural Nigeria ( I am assuming), the story follows a mother expecting twins in a community where they are considered a bad omen. Reading this felt like watching a Nollywood movie (with a better storyline of course). Again, what Melatu can do with conversations is insane!
It would be extremely insincere to claim I had a critique of this book that is not simply a personal preference on the story type and themes. I am more into complex characters, their decisions, their indecisiveness, their insights, their chaos. Unsurprisingly, this can rarely be developed in short stories. On that note, I would absolutely love to read a lengthy novel by Melatu. Hopefully set in pre-colonial Africa.
Rating: 3.75/5
This One Sky Day by Leone Ross
In the damp of his neck, where she’d been so many times, she caught new love. It had changed the texture of his hands and the way he smelled, in ways only a lover could know.
What is love? What is desire? How long does it take for desire to morph into “love”? Fewer novels have shown how absurd, unforgiving, rabid and merciless love can be than “This One Sky Day”. How love can and often reeks damage to its surroundings as it blossoms, withers and blossoms again.
Set on the islands of Popisho where every person develops cors (a magical gift), this astonishing story walks you through the lives of mainly four characters as they navigate their past and contend with their present internal conflicts in the midst of imminent political upheaval.
What sets this book apart is that, unlike other works of fantasy, it is overtly enmeshed with contemporary social issues. The setting is not beyond the manifestations of homophobia, sexism, classism, corruption, abuse of power and all that comes with it. Even more interestingly, the church makes an appearance, and it is not at all supportive of the native gods, which confer the cors that are the evident lifeblood of the island. There wasn’t much time devoted to this tension, but I would have to see it unfold.
Despite this in-depth social commentary and its length (about 460 pages), the book is surprisingly an easy read. It is one of those books that feels like a TV show. The closest that I could think of was Fleabag, but that is probably because I have not watched the widest range of shows. Adding to this, the book also raises fascinating questions about grief, forgiveness, parenthood, sexuality and addiction to touch on a few.
Ultimately, it is an evocative tale of love and everything it is mistaken for. Definitely worth all the time I spent on it.
Rating 4.5/5
Until next time!
PS: The links to buy the books are embedded in their respective titles! You can also look for them in your local library.
