4 Stars
The title of this book
kept me from reading it, but seeing so many rave reviews finally convinced me to
put aside my reservations.
Koreda and her sister
Ayoola live with their mother in Lagos, Nigeria. Koreda, the responsible one, is a nurse;
Ayoola, the beautiful, favourite child, has killed three men she dated. Koreda always comes to her sister’s rescue by
cleaning up the crime scene and helping dispose of the body. Koreda is infatuated with Tade, a handsome
doctor in the hospital where they both work, but her love is unrequited. Then when Tade meets Ayoola, he falls in love
with her, and Koreda is left wondering what she should do to prevent Tade from
becoming Ayoola’s next victim.
In many ways, the
sisters are foil characters. Koreda describes
herself as resembling a “voodoo figurine” while her sister is curvaceous and flawlessly
beautiful. Koreda has no real friends;
her only confidant is Muhtar, a comatose patient, and the man whose attention
she craves has no romantic interest in her.
People, especially men, are immediately attracted to Ayoola. Whereas Koreda is the responsible sibling, working
diligently at her job and both literally and figuratively cleaning up Ayoola’s
messes, Ayoola is lazy and self-absorbed, expecting others to do her bidding. As her obsession with cleanliness suggests, Koreda
always wants to be in total control of her environment; Ayoola is untidy and
careless, a risk-taker.
Koreda is well aware
of her sister’s moral failings. She
describes Ayoola as being “completely oblivious to all but her own needs” and “inconsiderate
and selfish and reckless” and as living “in a world where things must always go
her way.” Koreda even questions “how
much feeling Ayoola is even capable of” since she is totally remorseless. In fact, when Koreda chastises Ayoola for not
using social media to express sorrow about a boyfriend’s death, Ayoola accuses
Koreda of “victim shaming”. Though she
sees her differences between her and Ayoola, Koreda does worry that the violence
Ayoola has demonstrated was inherited.
There are flashbacks to their life with an abusive father: “He could do a bad thing and behave like a
model citizen right after. As though the
bad thing had never happened. Is it in
the blood? But his blood is my blood and
my blood is hers.”
The novel examines sibling
relationships. Koreda claims that Ayoola’s
“welfare is and always has been my responsibility”: “I am the older sister – I am responsible for
Ayoola. That’s how it has always
been. Ayoola would break a glass, and I
would receive the blame for giving her the drink. Ayoola would fail a class, and I would be
blamed for not coaching her. Ayoola
would take an apple and leave the store without paying for it, and I would be
blamed for letting her get hungry.” The
question is whether Koreda can continue remaining loyal to her sister. Can the bond with her sister survive?
The book also examines
the privilege of beauty. Because Ayoola
is such an exotic beauty, she always gets what she wants: “It’s a law as certain as the law of gravity.” Her beauty is equated with goodness so she is
not held accountable for her actions.
The shallowness of men is also emphasized. Koreda sees Tade as kind and sensitive, but
Ayoola disagrees: “’He isn’t deep. All he wants is a pretty face. That’s all they ever want.” And rich men use their money to seduce youth
and beauty: “When you have money, university girls are to men what
plankton is to a whale.”
A very positive element
is characterization. All the major
characters (Koreda, Ayoola, their mother, Tade) are shown in both a positive
and negative light. All receive the
reader’s sympathy at some time, though they also have flaws that make them less
than admirable. Achieving such
complexity in a succinct style is an accomplishment.
What is also
noteworthy is the humour, usually found in Koreda’s observations. She meets a man with “teeth so white he had
to have kept his dentist on speed dial.”
A woman meets Tade and is awe-struck by his handsomeness so Koreda
considers “passing her a tissue to catch the drool that threatens to spill from
her mouth.” Koreda’s father has been
dead for ten years and an anniversary party in honour of his life is expected,
so the family, though they do not mourn his passing, plan a grand celebration
because “we are nothing if not thorough in our deception of others.”
The book is a quick read. It is fast-paced with short chapters. Those chapters often consist of one brief
scene. Put together, however, these
scenes reveal a great deal. Koreda, for
example, is mystified by her sister’s motives in the killings, but the flashbacks
to life with father suggest a possible motivation and even explain Koreda’s
protectiveness.
This is an
entertaining book, both funny and suspenseful, but it is not just escapist
fiction. There is some thematic depth,
and the ending is downright chilling.
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