A review by rdrzjackie
Housegirl by Michael Donkor
2.0
This book almost became a DNF so many times, but I managed to struggle my way through to the end. As I first began reading this book, my immediate thought was that this book was simply not for me…as in I was not the intended audience for this book. The Twi and Ghanaian pidgin in this book made it really hard to follow, but I initially dismissed it as it being due to the fact that this book was not intended for American readers. I’m disappointed to read that many Ghanaians are offended by the poor/incorrect use of Ghanaian pidgin & Twi. The author does state that his mother helped to edit his Twi, but all of the other listed early readers appear to not be Ghanaian, based on their very English sounding names. Maybe having more Ghanaians read the book would have prevented this from becoming the author’s poor disaporic attempt to connect to his heritage culture? This is really neither here nor there though, because I’m not a part of that culture and my opinion is irrelevant.
With that being said, the writing style in this book was all over the place. I often found myself unsure of what was even happening due to the author’s poor story telling throughout this book. There were so many scenes that just happened without enough details to help the reader follow along. Then other scenes were excruciatingly boring because they were full of excessive unnecessary details. While I think the author intended to contrast Belinda’s life in Ghana with that in London, the move to London just felt like a sudden plot change. Mary all but disappears throughout the majority of the book, but then becomes vital at the end. There were also many loose ends with Amma’s story.
Ultimately, I think I get the idea that the author intended, but it was poorly executed. With better editing and guidance, this could have been a much better story. Would not recommend this book.
With that being said, the writing style in this book was all over the place. I often found myself unsure of what was even happening due to the author’s poor story telling throughout this book. There were so many scenes that just happened without enough details to help the reader follow along. Then other scenes were excruciatingly boring because they were full of excessive unnecessary details. While I think the author intended to contrast Belinda’s life in Ghana with that in London, the move to London just felt like a sudden plot change. Mary all but disappears throughout the majority of the book, but then becomes vital at the end. There were also many loose ends with Amma’s story.
Ultimately, I think I get the idea that the author intended, but it was poorly executed. With better editing and guidance, this could have been a much better story. Would not recommend this book.