In our very first guest blog post, we will be doing something special. We have a book review by writer Ameavhie Ella who is a lover of all things African fiction.
Enjoy her debut piece here on the blog; a review of Chimamanda Adichie's short story On Monday Of Last Week.
On Monday of Last Week is quite an interesting piece.
It is part of a collection of twelve dazzling short stories by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The story collection is titled The Thing around Your Neck.
This story, On Monday of Last Week is a sensual, direct and humorous one. The elements touched in this piece are race; racism is at play here in this story, as well as cultural constructs, love, anxieties and longing for love.
THE BACKGROUND OF THE STORY
The main character, Kamara, is a baby sitter, and the other characters are examined through her eyes.
She is a beautiful Nigerian woman who had just moved to America to be with her husband Tobechi, who only got his green card after six years of underpaid and undervalued work in the United States (he studied engineering back in Nigeria and now works as a manager at Burger King).
Kamara and Tobechi met in university where Kamara was a chemistry student, and the fire between them was lit in that time. They lived together and did almost everything together. After completing his degree, Tobechi moved to the United States.
Their plan was that after two years of Tobechi working to acquire his green card, he would send for Kamara. But it takes six years; in that time, Kamara was already working and had started her master’s program in Nigeria. Her family had also began to express doubts about Tobechi ever making good of his promises.
Still, Kamara waited for him, braving her family’s doubts, and her hopes were rewarded. Tobechi got his green card, and she moves to America to be with him.
It is in America that Chimamanda sets the beginning of Kamara’s complex feelings about the arrangement.
At the airport in Philadelphia, she sees Tobechi, and in their first meeting after such a long time, they are excited to see each other.
‘They clung to each other’. The story says.
But when they get home and reminisce on memories they had together back in Nigeria, Kamara notices that there is a stiffness in the atmosphere around them. She considers it may be due to the fact that they haven’t been together for a long time, but she worries it is something else; that perhaps he has changed.
She first noticed the changes in his appearance, his toes with sprouted hair, his changed accent with a new American twang to it; his dressing, even sex had changed. He was now trying to be a typical American fellow, he had blended in so much, and she was taken aback by this newness.
But Kamara decides to settle into her new life in America.
In order to apply for her green card, Kamara and Tobechi marry again because Tobechi had processed his papers as a single person. They had their wedding unceremoniously in a courthouse, and settled into their new American life; Tobechi would work while Kamara stayed at home.
Bored, Kamara took to overeating to fill her emptiness and dissatisfaction. The America she was seeing, was not what she had always dreamt of.
She tried to confide in her friend, Chinwe about her fate but Chinwe had her crosses to bear too. Her husband was cheating because Chinwe didn’t give birth to any sons, he had gotten another woman pregnant because the woman "came from a family of many sons"
This is a common cultural construct, it is discriminatory and devastating. It occurs in many Nigerian cultures and even other cultures around the world. Although the book is set in recent times, that notion of male children being more valuable than female children persists even now.
It is believed in some cultures that the girl would only grow up to be a wife, raise children, take up her husband’s name and identity. So it would not be profitable to spend money on her education. But a boy would grow up to be a man, the head of the home and since he is physically and intellectually ‘more sound’ than a woman, it is more profiting to pay more attention to his education and training.
Women are now breaking these barriers and are excelling in their chosen fields. Yet people continue to hold on to this mentality.
Because of Chinwe’s worries, Kamara is unable to confide in her friend with her own concerns about her new life in America. But Kamara begins to think about having children herself.
Tobechi didn’t want kids yet, he wanted to spend their first few years as a reunited couple alone. “Just the two of us”.
But Kamara had grown dissatisfied with her marriage to Tobechi, and needed a child as a way to have something to care about, something to distract her from the loneliness in her new life.
While considering other ways to overcome her boredom, a job as a babysitter to an American family. She starts babysitting Josh, a biracial kid who is partly African-American and partly Jewish.
MEETING THE AMERICANS
Josh’s dad Neil, is a lawyer and his mom, Tracy, is an artist.
Kamara mostly sees Josh’s father around, as Tracy is often busy painting in the basement. She is intrigued by the strangeness of Josh’s father, a man with many worries that Kamara thinks to be unfounded.
Neil is a certain kind of American parent. He is one that bears a collection of anxieties and fears about his kid. He worries that his kid will not get the right orientation to life as he grows up. He worries that his kid would grow up depressed, he worries about foods that cause cancer and gives Josh Spinach juice to drink every evening. He worries.
He also continuously changes his son’s diet to meet up with the latest pro-health food supplements and habits
‘…Cans of herbal tea had filled that space two weeks ago, when Neil was reading herbal drinks for children and before that it was soy beverages and before that, protein shakes for growing bones …’
Neil is a fragile and insecure person and it often reflects in his method of parenting.
Kamara is also warned that striking Josh is unacceptable, something his father considers to be a form of abuse.
There is some cultural ignorance here when Neil says that this method of discipline is abuse. From Kamara’s perspective, she believes that there’s a defined difference between abuse and using smacking/hitting as a form of discipline.
What Kamara considers to be abuse is
“Abuse was the sort of thing Americans on the news did, putting out cigarettes on their children’s skin. But she said what Tobechi wanted her to say… [and agreed with Neil] “
Another thing that is noticeable is the subtle racism that Neil shows.
He is surprised hearing Kamara speak good English, as he thinks that Africans can’t speak proper English. He was also surprised to find she has a master’s degree. Despite this, Kamara develops a pitying affection for Neil because of the many anxieties he is unable to overcome due to his affection for his child.
Tracy, Josh’s mother on the other hand, has a more compact and firmer spirit. The book depicts her as a vibrant and free–willed woman. Apparently Josh adores her. She had a painting commission to meet up with so she basically lived in the basement, and Kamara didn’t see her for the first few months of her job.
Kamara was curious about Tracy, and is confounded when Tracy walks into the kitchen unannounced one Monday morning.
Tracy is dreadlocked and curvy and their eyes held for a moment. It is a strange moment and ever after meeting Tracy, Kamara changed. Kamara describes what she felts as ‘a flowering of extravagant hope’.
She felt appreciated at that moment, something she hadn’t and had been wishing to feel in a long time. Tracy asks her if she wants to be painted nude. Kamara is a bit surprised but she says to think about it, she longs to see her Tracy again.
Kamara begins to care more about her appearance after the encounter. She began to braid her hair, she changed her food habits and went to the beauty store to learn how to apply make-up.
But days pass before Tracy comes up again.
This time around, they have company.
Neil had invited Josh’s French teacher, Maren. A violet-eyed young woman, and Tracy is immediately drawn to say hello to Maren.
Tracy says only a friendly hi to Neil when introduces her to Maren. Tracy looks Maren over, and Kamara notices that Tracy says the exact same thing she had told Kamara when they first met.
She praises Maren’s eyes and asks her if she had ever modelled. It is although awkward for Tracy to say such things in front of her husband but Neil only gives her an ‘indulgent smile’, as though he is used to his artist wife’s antics.
The book points clearly that Neil is not all comfortable with Tracy’s actions but has no say because she seems to exact an influence on everyone and everything. Kamara on the other hand is appalled. She sees Tracy is a seasoned flirt, and she should have known!
Hurt, Kamara turns back to playing with Josh, unable to reconcile how she feels with Tracy’s actions.
WHAT IS THE STORY REALLY ABOUT?
On Monday of Last Week is a really intriguing piece. The fact that I could relate with this story was one of the reasons I picked it to write a review on.
The language is simple and direct yet it points to a deeper meaning.
Here are some highlights of the things I found interesting in this story, and that I would like you to munch on.
Major themes in this story as I mentioned earlier are - love :), racism :(, anxieties :\ , and the cultural constructs that guide life and that longing for love.
The other thing I found interesting was how well and openly the subject of ‘’race’’ was illustrated and played out. It turns out the characters in the book have experience with racism either dishing it out or receiving it. Neil, josh’s Jewish American father had thought Africans didn’t speak good English.
It however was condescending to Kamara and made her feel like an illiterate. ‘’you speak such good English, he said, and it annoyed her, his surprise, his assumption that it was something she was unable to do. On the other hand, he had also resented the use of ‘half caste’ instead of ‘biracial’ to describe his son’s ethnicity. In America the word ‘half caste’ is seen as offensive and racist but the word biracial is more befitting because it relates the two races together more cordially. This illustrates Neil’s own duplicitous relationship to the idea of race.
One thing the story also shows is that every character in it has worries or they are anxious about something.
Kamara’s family are worried that Kamara would not marry early and end up lonely.
Kamara now starting a new life in America is anxious and worried about her love life with Tobechi, she is worried about child bearing, her appearance and she is anxious to know more about Tracy and her feelings for Tracy. Coming to America was a big thing for Kamara. It also meant that she had to forgo some of her practices or mind set and adapt to a new environment and meet new people.
Tobechi, who I feel is insensitive, is indifferent to Kamara and her changed attitude although I don’t blame him because they had been apart for too long. Tobechi’s main worries are about finances, materialistic things and how to build a good financial life for his marriage and family.
While I loved this piece, I wished to know more about Tracy. I was itching to know more about her. I felt Chimamanda should have told us more about her character and how she flowed with other people, how she lived her life. I also wished there were more scenarios about the cultural constructs mentioned in the story specifically the ones that are more relevant to Nigeria’s culture.
But it touched quite well on life as a Nigerian immigrant living in America. It detailed the experience of moving abroad and the difference it creates. How Nigerians would have to cope with the weather, food, new people and their ways of life. How Nigerians in the diaspora have to cope with racism and racist people, there will always be good and understanding people anyways.
Chimamanda’s piece ‘On Monday of Last Week’ is quite interesting, it isn’t a very long story. So you can read it and tell me your thoughts.
I hope you are also able to explore this piece, and enjoy it as much as I did.
THE END!