Three women from Nigeria, all of whom are friends, and one
woman from Guinea have stories to tell, but only the latter has sizzle. Chia is an aspiring travel writer with enough
family money to travel in style, whether she sells her story or not. She is hung up on two men—one who ditched her
and never treated her with respect and another who was married. Zikora’s boyfriend skedaddles when she
becomes pregnant, even though he agreed that she could stop taking birth
control pills. (He apparently didn’t
understand the possible consequences!) Omelogor
cooks the books for a corrupt Nigerian financial institution and uses some of
her ill-gotten gains to help struggling Nigerian women. She also has a website that is sort of an
advice column for men, which provides some much-needed humor. Chia and Zikora are somewhat obsessed with
finding “Mr. Right,” while Omelogor is not really interested in a long-term
committed relationship. In any case,
none of their stories and failed romantic relationships are really worth
reading about. The Guinea woman,
Kadiatou, however, is completely different.
She has legal asylum status in the U.S. and is working as a hotel maid
when her life unravels in a gut-wrenching way.
Her situation is a fictionalized version of an event that occurred in
2011, and her terror of being deported to some degree diminishes her desire to
seek justice. I loved Adichie’s insightful
Americanah,
but this book just does not measure up to that standard. The Nigerian women are smart and attractive
but have less substance than the women in
Sex
and the City. Kadiatou’s is a
heart-pounding story that doesn’t emerge until about 250 pages into the book. Until then, there is a lot of whining and
hand-wringing.
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