One of my favorite Naija books of all times is Icarius Girl written by Helen Opeyemi. I was going to enter into the Naija Stories competition and talk about my absolute love for this great book, but somehow i had so many things on my plate and ended up missing the deadline. Nonetheless, i promised myself I’d do the review on my site one of these days. So, here it is. I don’t know if this review will do justice to my thoughts about this book, but I’d let you guys be the judge:
BOOK REVIEW
- Title: The Icarius Girl
- Author: Helen Oyeyemi
- Publishers: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc London
- ISBN: 0747581487
- Date: 2005
- Page Count: 322
- Rating: 4/5
The story is about a little, very imaginative girl, Jessamy but popularly Jess. It takes us through her time in Cranbrook, England, as an oddball only child of her over-protective writer mother, a Nigerian woman married to an English man; and her journey with her mother to Nigeria. It is in Nigeria that things really kick off. Jess is introduced to a new culture she tries to make sense of, and then, to a little more. A strange fascinating creature, Titilola, later nicknamed TillyTilly. TillyTilly draws Jess into herself and her world, and she is so completely hooked that back in England, TillyTilly unexplained appearance in her life does not at all strike her as out of place. It was a while before she and anyone else for that matter begins to take notice that something was not right somewhere. In the end, it is Jess who fights her friend, who had at that point turned in something pretty ugly – her dead twin intent on being her. It is battle that she wins in the end – at least that is the impression I got at the end of the story.
It was a good read; the language is simple. The mind of an eight year old child, caught up in her own world, is also very beautifully captured; the innocence, the curiosity, the desire to rebel once in a while. It was not in any way your everyday book. It must have taken the author some mental work to get the story together. Details was good, all the characters well developed, from Sarah (who, if I may say, sounded a bit westernized, which is quite expected), to Sarah’s relatives (her Aunty Funke especially), to Dulcie, Jess’s cousin, to TillyTilly, who nearly gave me the chills, grown up as I am.
On the down side, however (or maybe not, just my personal opinion), she may have tried to catch a better image of Nigeria. If she was painting a picture of the Nigeria of 2005, it sure didn’t read like that to me. The impression I got was that of a pre- or early post-colonial Nigeria. Another thing, I felt some conversations could have been done in Yoruba in its original form, and then translated.
All in all, it was a very interesting book, though very creepy. This supernatural business sounded too much like the horror films (The Exorcist) and TV shows (Aduku) of my childhood. Just like the experience i had with reading Stephen King’s IT, i made a point not to read this novel at night. I mean, i was that completely spooked. If Ms. Oyeyemi had aimed to scare, she did so wonderfully and in more ways than she knows. Believe it or not, I was ill for a week after reading her book. And just reviewing the book now, brought back unsettling memories.
Filed under: Reviews
