Starlight Book Review: "Seven Wily Women" by I.T. Emor

Immensely Entertaining, Inspiring and Informative!

I decided to review this book because aside from the fact that I completely enjoyed it, it was also written by someone who has been a personal friend of mine since childhood. The author writes as I. T. Emor, a most intriguing nom de plume if you ask me and quite reminiscent of other greats like J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling. Sensational!

Okay, back to the book. As the name implies, "Seven Wily Women” is an anthology of seven short stories told against the backdrop of a variety of ethnic and socioeconomic settings within West Africa’s most vibrant country, Nigeria. Each story has a crafty heroine as its main character and describes the sheer ingenuity and cunning which each woman is forced to employ in order to overcome the challenges she faces in a culture that in many ways is still very much extremely patriarchal. A word on this, the renowned Nigerian authoress, ChimamandaNgozi Adichie gave a talk at TEDxEuston titled, “We Should All Be Feminists” in which she did a phenomenal job of bringing to light some of the notions and attitudes still prevalent in many African societies, which make it difficult for women to live freely and aspire to self-actualization. I highly recommend watching this if you haven’t already because it will help explain why the women in I. T. Emor’s book are forced to resort to extreme measures to save themselves and/or their families from cruel fates.

One of the stories is titled, “Nigeria to America, by Chile”, and it tells of the trials of Amaka, a young lady in her twenties who abandons her own dreams and relocates to South America to be with the man she believes to be the love of her life. The object of her affections, Chike, is a brand new diplomat who was posted to the Nigerian Consulate in Chile as his first assignment. Not long after she arrives, the proverbial honeymoon is over before it even begins and Amaka finds herself having to deal with Chike’s increasingly disrespectful behavior. Despite the challenges she is facing, Amaka decides to better herself by learning about the people among whom she now lives, she becomes fluent in the language and even enrolls in university. As would be expected her knowledge soon surpasses Chike’s and this, combined with her great beauty and poise soon make her a favorite at diplomatic functions. Unfortunately, as is often the case with “typical” traditional African men, instead of being proud of the progress she has made, Chike becomes jealous and acts out in ways that are increasingly aggressive and manipulative. Here is an excerpt of a part of this story which really struck me:

“Amaka would sense in the car returning home that Chike was madder at her for not falling flat on her face; a parody of the sophisticated and erudite woman. Instead she had been interesting, engaging and was listened to. Something that was sometimes hard to do with Chike, what with his chauvinistic ideas about his race and culture and brash statements about that of others;

‘We Africans are very much family oriented and believe in decent families, but what do you see when you come to the Americas? Women have children all over the place with different men like animals!” (Emphasis, mine).

That’s not even entirely true, Amaka had thought to herself after hearing him. Had he ever travelled to Warri (a bustling town in Eastern Nigeria) and seen how the women there behaved. After that the Chilean businessman standing across from Chike had staged a walk out of his own from the group gathered around.” (Emor, 2013).

Sadly, this sort of attitude is only too common when dealing with African men of Chike’s ilk. The chauvinism, the false sense of masculine superiority that our society does such a good job of instilling in men from the time that they are boys, all help to ensure that many of them are unable to adopt new attitudes about gender. Therefore, it is no surprise that many are unable to converse with people of other cultures without coming off as ignorant or offensive. I suppose people like this are not entirely to blame but they simply have never taken the time to unlearn wrong patterns of thinking or question the prevailing attitudes. Most do not see the need to challenge the status quo of societal rules that favor them to the detriment of women. This reminds of a memorable line I once heard on the hit sit-com Frasier. Following a conversation on societal gender roles Dr. Krane comically remarks to his female producer, “I don’t make the rules Roz, I just enjoy them!” A very funny comment indeed but sadly, it also seems to be the position that a lot of men choose to take in reality.

(Image courtesy of I.T. Emor , G.A. P and amazon.com)

I have often heard authors and literary critics say that the short story is one of the most difficult genres for and author to master for various reasons. After reading “Seven Wily Women” I have to say that I.T. Emor has succeeded in telling these women’s stories in a very compelling and engaging manner. As part of the book's preview on amazon.com, you can read the very first short story, "A bus ride in Benin", which is about how a wily female passenger on a mass transit bus gets revenge on a "handsy" bus-conductor who as they say, tried to 'cop a feel'. After this preview, you will certainly want to purchase the book and read the other stories. Here are a few things you might learn as you read the rest of the book:

•  you will read about a delightfully devious way to get out of an arranged marriage that is not to your liking inthe story, "Ameena Rasheed", 
• you will learn how to stand-off and set-up a gang of dangerous armed robbers who force their way into the homes of hardworking citizens in the middle of the night in the story "Visitors in the night",
•  you will also learn how to teach a driver who has grown to big for his breaches a lesson and put him back firmly in his place in the story, "A flogging at Tinunbu" ... and much more!

But mostly, you will be intrigued by the way these heroic women all handled various challenges (for which the men in their lives were directly or indirectly responsible...lol...isn't that always the case..) all without smudging their lipsticks and while remaining every bit the very image of ladylike reserve and sophistication. Each story keeps you guessing right up until the very last sentence and the conclusions are shocking and completely unexpected. You never see it coming.

I highly recommend this book, at 58 pages it is a short, entertaining read which can be completed in one sitting. However, despite the small number of pages, each of I.T. Emor’s short stories in “Seven Wily Women” will transport you to a foreign locale; you will learn about history, cultural and religious mores all while being immensely entertained. This ebook is widely available and can be purchased on amazon.com as well as on Smashwords and Kobo. I certainly cannot wait to read more from this author as this book is immensely entertaining, inspiring and informative!

XOXO,

Starlight.