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A review by 2treads
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin
challenging
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Shoneyin has complete control of her characters, prose, and dialogue. She keeps it tight. She knows exactly how she is approaching their relationships as well as their individual personalities and how each will propel the story.
Baba Segi is an obnoxious and entitled man who has placed each wife and child in specific squares in his life and home as if he was setting a chess board, each move is controlled by his whim or so he believes. It is satisfying and sadistically gratifying to see how Shoneyin uses her sharp prose to effect this.
The four wives are compelling and brilliantly unfailingly human, each having been molded by their upbringing and individual disappointments, hardships, and violation. So to see how they in turn have chosen to retaliate is no surprise, though one wishes it wasn't so.
The ending felt a bit curtailed considering the build-up and left me wanting more, whether more of a blow-up to add to the already present drama of the plot or being privy to the altered behaviour of the wives.
Baba Segi is an obnoxious and entitled man who has placed each wife and child in specific squares in his life and home as if he was setting a chess board, each move is controlled by his whim or so he believes. It is satisfying and sadistically gratifying to see how Shoneyin uses her sharp prose to effect this.
The four wives are compelling and brilliantly unfailingly human, each having been molded by their upbringing and individual disappointments, hardships, and violation. So to see how they in turn have chosen to retaliate is no surprise, though one wishes it wasn't so.
The ending felt a bit curtailed considering the build-up and left me wanting more, whether more of a blow-up to add to the already present drama of the plot or being privy to the altered behaviour of the wives.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse