Tuesday, March 4th
Kabelo:
Hey! It's Kabelo.
I'm ~45 pages into the book. Have you read her work before?
Alejandro:
I have not!
I also have not started reading yet 😅
Kabelo:
Hahaha no pressure. Let me know when you start. I’m a less than 60 pgs a day person. Would that work for you?
Alejandro: Yeah for sure, I can catch up tomorrow and meet you at like 110 and talk about it
Kabelo:
Itching to talk about this because whew! Literature is so back!
Alejandro: Exciting!
Wednesday, March 5th
Alejandro:
Darnell is so cartoonishly irritating, yet so believable!
I love the framing from the space of self reflecting. It adds so much profundity and stirs a pain in me.
That kind of shame of being able to see your own faults in the rearview. Like she says on 54
(I’m currently at 57 at the start of Three)
Kabelo:
I’m obsessed with her characterization in this book. Darnell’s coldness jolted me. I recognized unsavory parts of myself and people I know. Chia, on the other hand, I need her to literally stand up!
Like, girl, this man hates you lmao
I just finished Chia’s first section and I’m lying down. I’m just knocked out by the elegance of her narration and retrospective narration. It feels like earned wisdom, profundity when needed and not to compensate for the lack of narrative.
Alejandro:
In my MFA I was in something very bad, just like this, with a member of my cohort. And the way Adichie characterizes that fear that we can mistake for need in these kinds of situations twists me up like a little tinfoil ball.
I’m on my way to the end of Chia’s first section. There’s such a momentum, it feels difficult to even nitpick.
Kabelo:
I think this is why this book is brilliant. The whiplash of meeting parts of yourself on the page as if someone was eavesdropping as life was happening to you.
And I’m sorry about MFA person. That sort of pain can stay with someone for a long time.
If anything, this book is a reminder there will always be love.
Alejandro:
It’s so true! Life keeps moving and you discover yourself in new ways as you meet new situations.
Even the work I’m doing right now with this review column reminds me of what Chia is trying with her travel work.
Kabelo:
I just keep on wondering: is the novel animated by the tension between what we aspire for in romance and in work, about the tragedy of neither being ever enough?
But I think the column is affirming you in some respect, right?
Alejandro:
Yes, it’s offering me something to look forward to in having an outlet where I can perpetually create, I think.
And, I think that’s true! Chia is extremely scrupulous and worries a lot about what others think. Combined I think that makes it hard for her to live in the moment when she’s with someone else. She’s picking everything apart instead.
But when she goes traveling for her writing, it seems to bring her so much happiness in the moment. Yet when she starts to dissect it she questions the quality of her own perception.
Like on 66 with Chuka.
Kabelo:
I think though this is why we do what we do and think about art. I think we’re all searching for ways of staying alive and engage. Your reviews are one part of it. Me thinks there’s a novella there for you to write with this framing device? 👀
Arg. Chia is so heartbreaking. Like, ma’am, let me hold your hand and tell you to breathe. Be present, it will be fine. If she were on TikTok people would say she has an anxious attachment style or whatever.
Chuka presents that steadiness she thinks she wants but when it presents itself she has to run. Who among us hasn’t desired to be loved and when love came they bolted?
Alejandro:
Perhaps its the kind of thing Omelogor tells her lol
So true!
Kabelo:
I can’t wait to read her section because she sounds like a riot!
Alejandro:
On 81 “Perhaps I fell in love that day; love happens long before we call it love.” Poignant yet brief.
Gosh! What an ending to that section! And we don't seem to return to her perspective for another 250 pages! I want her to have a happy ending!
Kabelo: You see why I haven’t moved lmao? It was a knockout.
Alejandro: Def!
Kabelo: Pg 107? I’m literally screaming!!!! Zikora stand up and fight, my sister!
Alejandro:
:000
My jaw
Kabelo: At what point do we categorize such behavior from these men as a kind of abuse? Because I don’t think anyone should be humiliated like this. I literally want to curl into a ball and sob. What the hell?!
Alejandro:
It should absolutely be frowned upon
It feels immature and against basic tenets of good communication and mutual respect!
There’s a really high-flying argument to be made about how much importance marriage should have to hold over a woman’s life or her body
But when both members of the relationship know what’s expected of them culturally, this kind of game is cruel to play
Kabelo:
I think I’m jarred by the cruelty. I’m impressed with Adichie’s attention to the abrupt casualness of it. Homegirl is literally looking for fertility vitamins at CVS and then her life changes? Man!
Alejandro: Heartbreaking!
Thursday, March 6th
Kabelo: Just got done with Zikora’s section. Phew, some hope at last! But dreading the next one – from the reviews it seems intense and devastating.
Alejandro:
Ooh, let me catch up
Kabelo:
Lit!
Alejandro: There’s something strong and hopeful in the mother-daughter relationship at the end of Zikora’s section
The characterization offered within Zikora’s spinning thoughts makes everything feel so vivid and urgent
Kabelo:
In the backdrop of that is Zikora’s serious but flawed Catholicism, and I’m impressed with how it seems to puncture through numerous of her relationships.
The mother-daughter relationship has more resonance since Adichie lost her mom before she wrote this book. It’s moving to find this strength and hope.
Alejandro: Wow! I didn’t know that. I can only imagine the thinking she put into these scenes!
Kabelo:
Same!
To even write conflict into their dynamic?! Wow.
Alejandro:
I was also really interested by her attention to the pope
When the previous pope abdicated I remember it was a really strange time. It’s clever to set things within it
Kabelo:
It reminded me of that part in Anna Karenina where Tolstoy just goes on about agriculture, and I was like, yes, please, more!
The Catholicism is so precise! Like, she’s not dumping info about the pope but telling us what the pope means to Zikora. That feels technically difficult though – she must have worked to get it right.
Alejandro: Perhaps there were interviews(?) that she used to flesh out the characters
Kabelo: That’s dedication!
Alejandro: Very true
Friday, March 7th
Kabelo: How’s reading going on your end? Still affected by the first two sections, so I’ll pick up the book tomorrow.
Alejandro:
I was just about to pick it up, but I can wait a day
Lets just take today to reflect on what we’ve read so far
Kabelo: Yes please and thank you!
Alejandro: 👍
Saturday, March 8th
Kabelo:
Kadiatou’s section has cool quietness but it is so brutal. I was questioning the craft choice tbh, then I understood the necessity of the tonal shift. It’s so clear, so attentive to the cultural and political terrors against women.
Alejandro: That’s a really good way of putting it!
Everything has like 3+ layers of complication
From religion to grief to her own personal superstitions to cultural complications
She’s like a pinball getting thrown around everywhere without any control of her own :(
Kabelo: Loved “That’s a really good way of putting it!” ♥️
Alejandro: It’s like there’s a final situation of being married with children that she has accepted as her fate
And then we as the audience know how things more or less turn out for the most part
Very nerve wracking waiting for things to go wrong
Kabelo:
This book is a thriller, if we’re being honest!
I think it’s worse because we know something is going to go wrong, soon.
Alejandro:
And so much has already gone so wrong for her
What a life
Kabelo:
I just got done with the section. How could someone go through so much? The immediate reaction that she’s lying even when she bears all the marks of an assault? This is so heartbreaking. OMG.
Alejandro:
Awful Awful
Kabelo: That present tense switch nearly broke me. It was so visceral.
Alejandro:
There is still so much of this book left, I am already falling apart
Kabelo: I’m a mess right now lol. I haven’t been this shook up by a book in literal years. To think Kadi’s assault is based on a real life case? 😭😭
Alejandro:
It shows so much care in its handling too
Kabelo:
Absolutely.
Alejandro:
Do you think the fictionalization offers something new to story? I think so, but I can't name it, I just feel it rn
Actually I don't know what that means
Nvm lol
Kabelo: No, I think I understand the question lol
Alejandro:
Typos are one of the quirks of the medium, part of why I agreed to do this honestly
Kabelo:
I think the fictionalization reminds us that she was someone who made a life and it was disrupted by someone more powerful. And to remind us that this wasn’t the first time she’d been violated in her place of work. I think Adichie wants us to see the full humanity of this woman and fully assess this heinous crime.
lol praise be to typos
Alejandro: Ooh, that’s a good answer
Kabelo:
I’m literally so devastated right now.
Alejandro:
Yeah, no words tbh
Just ouch
Kabelo: We’re almost at the end tho. So yay us!
Alejandro: True
Sunday, March 9th
Kabelo:
This section is hilarious. Much needed respite tbh.
Alejandro: I haven’t cracked into it yet, but glad to hear
Sunday, March 23rd
Kabelo:
Finally done with Dream Count. My girl Chia needs a break, and I think she makes a great candidate for one of those dating shows.
Alejandro:
So true!
She needs a matchmaker for sure
I love how it ends with Kadiatou’s relief
It obviously sucks that the case is dismissed, but still, idk
Kabelo:
There’s that surprising hope at the end, right?
Also, it was great to read a novel where a helper was more than her work identity but a full person.
Alejandro:
Yeah! Ikr!
There’s a kind of beautiful sensitivity that lets you understand where her motivations might diverge from what we might think is the right or wrong thing to do in such a complicated mess of a situation
Kabelo:
It also feels like the kind of book I won't reread. It destroyed me.
Alejandro: Would you recommend it to someone though?
Kabelo: 100%
I have recommended it to several people
Alejandro:
That’s awesome!
What’s your elevator pitch for it?
Kabelo:
“Looking for a book that will consume you and destroy you? Boy do I have one for you!”
😂
Alejandro: Do you have a feel for what makes it so consuming in your opinion?
Kabelo:
Characterization is part of it, but maybe the clarity of the book’s vision. It’s relentless!
What do you think?
Alejandro:
I would agree and lean similarly towards characterization
The characters and their worlds are what draw me in the most. I might say I’m more interested in each individual world than what they form as a whole
Monday, March 24th
Kabelo:
I’m curious about what actually holds this whole book together. To some extent Kadi’s story seems to do a lot of heavy lifting, which then makes me wonder what is this whole book without that story.
Alejandro:
That's an interesting thought
What do you imagine?
Kabelo:
I don’t think there’s a book without Kadi
A thought–a reach, really–that gave me a headache: is this class commentary? Form as a class critique?
Alejandro:
Yes! I dont think thats too much to say
There’s a lot to support that idea
Each woman comes from a different background and therefore sees class differently
Maybe that’s part of why we switch to 1st person with Omelogor, since she’s so in the depths of finance
^for posterity my source for this is, I made it up
Kabelo:
Okay, I thought I was reaching.
I don’t know if the third person narration turns us into voyuers of a woman’s suffering?
Alejandro:
Ooh okay
I have thoughts on that
Kabelo: Go off!
Alejandro:
Again, this is sourced from nothing, but
I think the third person is putting us in the position of a viewer. At the same time, the third person feels so close to the glass that its almost a little bracing
There’s also a lack of ironic distance, we get a good sense of the characters feelings and their wounds. On top of that third person perspective
I’m thinking of the way to say this lol
Places things in the position from which we might hear them out of a newspaper, etc
So maybe it could be something as complex as a test of which perspective gives more believability(?)
Kabelo:
Omg! Because she’s discredited, third person becomes the novel's allegiance with Kadi, rendering her more reliable–or her perspective–than any other character.
Alejandro:
I think very possibly
Kabelo:
There’s also something intriguing about this approach. Adichie in some way refuses to conscript us into easy sympathy, but relays Kadi with enough closeness and distance to ensure that we make up our own mind about who she is.
Idk about you, but the third person section — Kadi’s and Zikora’s — felt like Adichie’s most confident writing. She seemed settled in her movement through time and scene and character.
I’m a first person POV hater, obvs
Alejandro:
I don't know enough about her earlier work to say
I would agree that the first three sections flew by in a way the last two didn't
Kabelo:
Thank you for reading with me ♥️
Alejandro:
No problem, this was cool!
It was a good book
Kabelo:
Ditto
Don’t be a stranger lol
Alejandro:
👍
FIN
Further Reading
Kabelo Sandile Motsoeneng graduated with an M.F.A. in Fiction/Creative Writing from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan, where he’s currently a doctoral student in English Language & Literature. He studies 20c. South African history and literature, memory studies and material cultures, and the pastoral novel. Motsoeneng’s stories and literary journalism appear in such publications as Joyland Magazine, Prairie Schooner, and Kinfolk (Denmark). He’s at work on a novel about madness, grief, and precarity set in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he was born and raised.
Alejandro Derieux is the editor of Tableware Magazine. He lives in Ann Arbor, MI.
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