A riveting, dramatic story that effectively repudiates the notion of lawbreakers as immoral or inhuman.
A poor villager assumes a dead woman’s identity and affluent life in Lagos, Nigeria, in Akpabio Umoren’s novel.
Inyene Okon couldn’t make ends meet in Lagos, where the cost of living was too high. But reuniting with a former boyfriend in her village doesn’t pan out; he rejects her, despite being pregnant with his child, because she’d had to work as a prostitute to cover expenses. Humiliated, she heads back to Lagos, but the bus in which she’s riding is in a serious accident that only a few passengers, including Inyene, survive. The injured woman’s taken to a hospital and later awakens to realize that she’s been mistaken for fellow passenger and look-alike, Etima. Inyene, with a bandaged face, figures that she can be Etima at least until she’s healed, but growing suspicions from Etima’s family don’t make it easy. Inyene’s attempt to pass herself off as Etima isn’t as implausible as it sounds: Bandages partially disguise her features, and head trauma as well as a doctor’s diagnosis of “a mild degree of amnesia” can explain anything she doesn’t know. However, Etima’s family quickly has doubts, especially her youngest sister, Ekemini, who immediately questions Inyene’s dialect—she speaks nearly incomprehensible pidgin English while Etima’s English was apparently impeccable. Shortlisted for the Nigeria Prize for Literature for her play Perfect Mother, Akpabio Umoren develops an abundance of sympathy for Inyene, whose decision to steal an identity comes not from vindictiveness but desperation. Her hero is also saddened to know that, since the fiery accident burned the bodies, her family back home will likely believe she’s dead. In a strange but fascinating turn, Etima’s family, though legally the victims, behave as villains: More than one member accuses Inyene’s family of collusion without any evidence while Ekemini tests Inyene with endless questions like an interrogator. The book’s final part is decidedly more intense, as an anxious Inyene goes on the run and her village friend and Lagos roommate, Elizabeth, on the hunt for a possibly-still-living Inyene, is unknowingly being trailed by a private investigator.
A riveting, dramatic story that effectively repudiates the notion of lawbreakers as immoral or inhuman.Pub Date: March 19, 2019
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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