A review by oceanlistener
An Orchestra of Minorities, by Chigozie Obioma
2.0
When a romantic relationship starts with a man calling a woman "Mommy" when they've just met, you know it's going to be a very sick sort of thing. I thought that might be a cultural difference I wasn't familiar with, but no, it turned out to be exactly what I expected.
A toddler expects unconditional love from its mother. It does not expect consequences for its actions. It expects to be able to do whatever it wants, and for its mother to be on call to answer any and all whims. It wants to be thanked, if not worshiped, for everything it does. Which is exactly how our protagonist treats the love interest. I assume that's why he calls her Mommy instead of by her name.
The plot:
Man falls in love with woman, woman falls in love with man
Man comes up with plan to "win" the woman, she tells him in no uncertain terms his plan is terrible, unnecessary, and not to do it
He does it anyway
I'm going to hide the rest under "spoilers", but I'm pretty sure all the ladies already know where this is going:
Things go badly
He suffers
He blames her for his suffering
He kills her because he blames her for his bad decisions (although we're supposed to forgive him, because he wasn't trying to kill her, he just felt entitled to ruin her life)
All of this is wrapped up in some really great narrative technique and nice writing (the second star), but it's ultimately yet another story of why we should forgive fragile-man-babies. The many ways men feel entitled to women has already been explored in literature, and personally I'm so tired of those explorations making excuses and asking us to forgive them.
Also, Chinonso is unforgivably stupid. I'm 100x more likely to believe in the spirit world of this novel than the premise that Ndali falls in love with him.
A toddler expects unconditional love from its mother. It does not expect consequences for its actions. It expects to be able to do whatever it wants, and for its mother to be on call to answer any and all whims. It wants to be thanked, if not worshiped, for everything it does. Which is exactly how our protagonist treats the love interest. I assume that's why he calls her Mommy instead of by her name.
The plot:
Man falls in love with woman, woman falls in love with man
Man comes up with plan to "win" the woman, she tells him in no uncertain terms his plan is terrible, unnecessary, and not to do it
He does it anyway
I'm going to hide the rest under "spoilers", but I'm pretty sure all the ladies already know where this is going:
Spoiler
Things go badly
He suffers
He blames her for his suffering
He kills her because he blames her for his bad decisions (although we're supposed to forgive him, because he wasn't trying to kill her, he just felt entitled to ruin her life)
All of this is wrapped up in some really great narrative technique and nice writing (the second star), but it's ultimately yet another story of why we should forgive fragile-man-babies. The many ways men feel entitled to women has already been explored in literature, and personally I'm so tired of those explorations making excuses and asking us to forgive them.
Also, Chinonso is unforgivably stupid. I'm 100x more likely to believe in the spirit world of this novel than the premise that Ndali falls in love with him.