Very few books have ever moved to tears and this was one of them. The Falodun family as at the center of this novel. All of the women in this novel share some things in common: heartbreak, sadness and the inability to hold across a man. These things are shared across generations. In 1994, 19 year old Monife meets Kalu, who is known as "Golden Boy," a man that she believes is perfect. We know that the relationship doesn't end well because in the first chapters, Monife has committed suicide by drowning herself. Their love story is rolled out over the course of approximately 350 pages. Monife's death is perhaps the biggest character in the novel because it follows her cousin, Ebun, around and her daughter, Eniiyi, looks eerily like her (she's also born on the day of Monife's death). Eniiyi falls in love with Zubby, who she saves from drowning and, during the relationship, has visions of Monife.
This was, surprisingly, a quick read for me, given the length of the novel. Braithwaite's graceful writing touched upon topics that were visceral to me - the relationship between mothers and daughters, our relationship to the past, familial relationships and the ability to learn from major and tragic mistakes. The characters were interesting and fairly well developed, although one or two were pretty predictable (Golden Boy's mother for one). I won't lie - Ebun's relationship to her daughter reminded me of my relationship to Eniiyi in that I got it on an almost cellular level.
I definitely enjoyed it.
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