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A review by bookishrealm
The Secret Lives of the Four Wives by Lola Shoneyin
4.0
WILD...yes that's exactly how I need to start this review. I don't know if I've quite read anything like this book before
The Secret Lives of the Four Wives is fascinating in more ways than one. I'm treading very carefully in how I talk about this book because knowing as little as possible is probably the thrill of it all. Baba Segi is a polygamist with four wives. In the beginning, I was disgusted with him. He had some interesting and honestly tactless views of women and marriage. In fact, I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to be able to make it through this book for Blackathon. However, when readers begin to get the narratives of Baba Segi's wives things get interesting and messy. Shoneyin does such an excellent job characterizing each of the wives and even Baba Segi. We not only get their current feelings, ideas, and motives while in their marriage and having to share a household with other women, but also their past lives that led them to Baba Segi. It is when Bolanle enters the household as the youngest and most educated wife that things really start to unravel and those past narratives become vital to how present events will take place. And when I tell ya'll that I didn't see the big reveal coming, I truly mean that I had no idea that 1) a big reveal was even going to happen and 2) that it was that huge of a reveal.
One of the things that Shoneyin does really well is the way that she paces the novel. It's so fluid that when things begin to pick up you feel shocked at how past decisions led characters to their current position. There is also a sense of morally grey behavior that occurs as the novel progresses. I was disgusted with Baba Segi in the beginning and while he annoyed me in the second half of the book, seeing more of his back story made him read less "bad" and less as a man trying to utilize polygamy for his own selfish reasons. And any questions that I had regarding why these women would even want to be married to a man like Baba Segi were answered as I progressed more through the text.
The Secret Lives of the Four Wives is a quick read especially once a reader is pulled into the story. As many reviewers have stated, it's both tragic and humorous and it will amaze you on how much Shoneyin is able to accomplish in such a short amount of pages. There are discussions about culture, the relationship of men and women in terms of how women are treated in a patriarchal society, desire, free will, familial expectations. It packs a punch in ways that are unexpected. And I know I've said it already, but that ending!!! I just can't seem to get over how everything unraveled. I haven't quite read a book like this and I appreciate Shoneyin for the story that she created surrounding some extremely interesting topics. She is truly a gifted storyteller.
The Secret Lives of the Four Wives is fascinating in more ways than one. I'm treading very carefully in how I talk about this book because knowing as little as possible is probably the thrill of it all. Baba Segi is a polygamist with four wives. In the beginning, I was disgusted with him. He had some interesting and honestly tactless views of women and marriage. In fact, I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to be able to make it through this book for Blackathon. However, when readers begin to get the narratives of Baba Segi's wives things get interesting and messy. Shoneyin does such an excellent job characterizing each of the wives and even Baba Segi. We not only get their current feelings, ideas, and motives while in their marriage and having to share a household with other women, but also their past lives that led them to Baba Segi. It is when Bolanle enters the household as the youngest and most educated wife that things really start to unravel and those past narratives become vital to how present events will take place. And when I tell ya'll that I didn't see the big reveal coming, I truly mean that I had no idea that 1) a big reveal was even going to happen and 2) that it was that huge of a reveal.
One of the things that Shoneyin does really well is the way that she paces the novel. It's so fluid that when things begin to pick up you feel shocked at how past decisions led characters to their current position. There is also a sense of morally grey behavior that occurs as the novel progresses. I was disgusted with Baba Segi in the beginning and while he annoyed me in the second half of the book, seeing more of his back story made him read less "bad" and less as a man trying to utilize polygamy for his own selfish reasons. And any questions that I had regarding why these women would even want to be married to a man like Baba Segi were answered as I progressed more through the text.
The Secret Lives of the Four Wives is a quick read especially once a reader is pulled into the story. As many reviewers have stated, it's both tragic and humorous and it will amaze you on how much Shoneyin is able to accomplish in such a short amount of pages. There are discussions about culture, the relationship of men and women in terms of how women are treated in a patriarchal society, desire, free will, familial expectations. It packs a punch in ways that are unexpected. And I know I've said it already, but that ending!!! I just can't seem to get over how everything unraveled. I haven't quite read a book like this and I appreciate Shoneyin for the story that she created surrounding some extremely interesting topics. She is truly a gifted storyteller.