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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
I struggled to get a proper sense of this book, especially at the beginning; but it got more cohesive as it progressed, and was quite funny in parts.
Edit: maybe 3.5 stars. It keeps coming back to me.
Edit: maybe 3.5 stars. It keeps coming back to me.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Interesting story, but it became more about the chief and the journalism than I wanted. I wish it was more focused on Chike, Oma, and the kids.
This is definitely the best book I have read this year. A book filled with tenderness, surprises, human connection, humour and so much insight into Nigeria. Could not recommend it more highly!
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Definitely a book I could not put down, and a book to be judged by its cover if there ever was one. Portraying a range of colourful characters in a bustling city, it sheds light on a country, a city, its people. I found it easy to read, the short chapters making me want to read more and more and more; as much as I could possibly go through in a day. Full of quotes and ideas that will stay with me for long, this book discussed important topics. Corruption, colonialism, poverty, a system rotten from the inside out, with change hard to be achieved. And yet, the ending was bittersweet. A ray of hope was still shining.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Although the premise that drew these characters together isn't overly believable, they are a lovely group of humans, for the most part, with stories that need telling.
Originally written for my newsletter The Cardigan Dispatch, tinyurl.com/cardigandispatch
TL;DR: This novel is an interesting and entertaining portrait of Lagos, but is slightly awkward and not terribly profound in its conclusion. Would recommend if you’re specifically looking for novels by African authors about the continent and not diaspora.
Chibundu Onuzo is a Nigerian author who lives in London and writes for BBC and The Guardian. Her second novel, Welcome to Lagos, is both a portrait of a city and a piece questioning the governance of Nigeria. It features a diverse group of characters—two army deserters (one a leader, the other a follower), a formal rebel fighter who wants to work in radio, an orphaned young girl who’s faced extreme violence, a wealthy woman escaping her abusive husband, a struggling but kind-hearted journalist, and a minister of education accused of corruption—forced together by circumstance in the continent’s largest city.
Welcome to Lagos’s strengths lie in its ability to paint a vivid picture of Lagos and to question politics and morality as one. The disgraced minister of education becomes, in turn, a criminal, a grieving husband, an anonymous philanthropist, and an international hero. Onuzo expertly blends the lines between “good” and “evil,” in which no character lands squarely on either side—they all commit crimes, but all stand by each other regardless. The descriptions of Lagos, however, its inequality, its vibrancy, its lack of order, are truly the reason to pick up this novel:
“It was the Lagos delusion. Every morning he watched workers clamber into danfos, pushing, shoving...he envied their energy, the illusion of progress as they kicked and struck out, vigorously treading water. He was too smart and too foolish for Lagos” (81)
Sadly, as the novel continues, we get more plot and character development and far less of the city itself. This results in a strange pace, in which I was begging Onuzo to either slow down or speed up; the Times reviewer called it “frustratingly frenetic.” Some of the plot points defy reasonable belief, but in a way that feels unintentional. The ending, likewise, feels oddly paced, and I was left wanting either 50 pages more or 50 pages less.
Even though there were some awkward, young-novelist-syndrome aspects, I found Welcome to Lagos endearing. The middle section’s chapters opening with clippings from the fictional “Nigerian Journal,” which added a lovely flavor. It was refreshing to read a novel that’s not either a) a philosophical meditation, b) a multigenerational epic, or c) primarily a love story.
TL;DR: This novel is an interesting and entertaining portrait of Lagos, but is slightly awkward and not terribly profound in its conclusion. Would recommend if you’re specifically looking for novels by African authors about the continent and not diaspora.
Chibundu Onuzo is a Nigerian author who lives in London and writes for BBC and The Guardian. Her second novel, Welcome to Lagos, is both a portrait of a city and a piece questioning the governance of Nigeria. It features a diverse group of characters—two army deserters (one a leader, the other a follower), a formal rebel fighter who wants to work in radio, an orphaned young girl who’s faced extreme violence, a wealthy woman escaping her abusive husband, a struggling but kind-hearted journalist, and a minister of education accused of corruption—forced together by circumstance in the continent’s largest city.
Welcome to Lagos’s strengths lie in its ability to paint a vivid picture of Lagos and to question politics and morality as one. The disgraced minister of education becomes, in turn, a criminal, a grieving husband, an anonymous philanthropist, and an international hero. Onuzo expertly blends the lines between “good” and “evil,” in which no character lands squarely on either side—they all commit crimes, but all stand by each other regardless. The descriptions of Lagos, however, its inequality, its vibrancy, its lack of order, are truly the reason to pick up this novel:
“It was the Lagos delusion. Every morning he watched workers clamber into danfos, pushing, shoving...he envied their energy, the illusion of progress as they kicked and struck out, vigorously treading water. He was too smart and too foolish for Lagos” (81)
Sadly, as the novel continues, we get more plot and character development and far less of the city itself. This results in a strange pace, in which I was begging Onuzo to either slow down or speed up; the Times reviewer called it “frustratingly frenetic.” Some of the plot points defy reasonable belief, but in a way that feels unintentional. The ending, likewise, feels oddly paced, and I was left wanting either 50 pages more or 50 pages less.
Even though there were some awkward, young-novelist-syndrome aspects, I found Welcome to Lagos endearing. The middle section’s chapters opening with clippings from the fictional “Nigerian Journal,” which added a lovely flavor. It was refreshing to read a novel that’s not either a) a philosophical meditation, b) a multigenerational epic, or c) primarily a love story.
Strong sense of place. Did not find the story or the characters particularly engaging.
adventurous
funny
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No