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Everything Good Will Come
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Atta: Everything Good will Come | (CL) first read: Apr 2012
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Marieke
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rated it 4 stars
Apr 02, 2012 07:08PM
Welcome to April!
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I just got the book last night and started into the first few pages. It seems really easy to get into. I'll be reading more tonight.
Unfortunately this one isn't available through our library system so I will catch you all on the next read :)
Melanie wrote: "Unfortunately this one isn't available through our library system so I will catch you all on the next read :)":(
Ready to go :) Looking forward to the discussion.
is this the April one that I have to read?
Haha David! You don't *have* to read it but we would love to have you join in. But yes, this is the contemporary fiction selection for April. :)
#check#: on my list to buy at waterstone's next week in London. Marieke, I love to join in and of course I don't have to read it! I know thatr; work stress is just piling up here and i'm ready for my 11-day retreat!!!
David, I hope you will join me, as it seems some people will not be able to get the book, so I don't want to be on my own:)
Andrea I'll hop in after london!
Andrea, i have the book and i'm hoping to read it or at least make good progress in it next weekend. i've got a couple of other things to clear off my reading plate first. GR really has made me into a crazy person with reading.
Oh, well, Marieke, that's a good kind of crazy person to be:) My daughter is visiting American University next week, by the way. If she decides to attend there next fall, I might get to meet you in person!
Andrea wrote: "Oh, well, Marieke, that's a good kind of crazy person to be:) My daughter is visiting American University next week, by the way. If she decides to attend there next fall, I might get to meet you ..."that would be awesome!
Melanie wrote: "Unfortunately this one isn't available through our library system so I will catch you all on the next read :)"Yeah, I have to miss out too... :( And this time I'm missing out without even having the book, which is what I normally accomplish.
Okay, now I feel silly because I didn't get this done in a timely fashion. I actually BOUGHT the book, which is a big commitment for a library fan like me, and it is sitting here staring at me. If anyone is still in for a discussion, I am planning to start on the book by Monday.
Andrea wrote: "Okay, now I feel silly because I didn't get this done in a timely fashion. I actually BOUGHT the book, which is a big commitment for a library fan like me, and it is sitting here staring at me. I..."i'm still in for a discussion. i started it last weekend and was really enjoying it--for a day. but then got sidetracked by something i needed to get read ASAP. i should also have it read by next weekend. :D
I'm also up for a discussion. I'll be done reading next week :)
Yejide wrote: "I'm also up for a discussion. I'll be done reading next week :)"wonderful!
i'll just say preliminarily that i really like it. I love the voices she gives the two girls...but i accidentally saw some reviews that indicate that this may not stay the case. so i'm curious to see if end up agreeing with those reviewers or not.
I've just picked it up again. I'm on page 51 in the hardcover edition. She is at boarding school and it's the end of the school year. She says "school hour rules no longer applicable, we wore mufti and spoke vernacular freely." what is mufti? When I think of mufti I think of middle eastern Muslim leaders...
Marieke wrote: "I've just picked it up again. I'm on page 51 in the hardcover edition. She is at boarding school and it's the end of the school year. She says "school hour rules no longer applicable, we wore mufti..."Hi Marieke :)
I went to boarding school too so the lingo is very familiar to me. Mufti just refers regular clothes. Since we wore uniforms all day (during school hours and in my case even after school hours)it was always a treat to wear your jeans and tops from home :) The vernacular piece meant no speaking of any Nigerian language. Since the school were made of children from all ethnic groups, they insisted on English being the primary language spoken.
I'm about 25% through and I'm really enjoying it. It is one of those books that I make time for, instead of picking it up when I actually have time. I'm really interested in how clearly the author presents the idea of being a "good" girl being a privilege of circumstances rather than merit.
SPOILER: Something funny happens at the point in the book where Enitan moves in with Sheri. There is a long section where she describes Sheri with a lot of ironic distance and re-covering material that seems like it belongs earlier in the book. She says Sheri takes after her grandmother Alhaja and then she describes what the grandmother did to the boys who raped Sheri. But up until that point, we had been given the impression that no one but Enitan knew what had happened. Why does the narrator do this? I find is a very distracting from what is happening in the story at that point, her growing interest in the man at the swimming pool. Are the two things linked somehow? Maybe in Enitan's passivity in her relationships with men? Any ideas?
I'm loving this book, but the style and content seem sort of "old style" somehow. I think it would have to be set pretty far back in the past (which it is) for the narrator to be so confused about basic roles. Her conflicts (with her parents, with her guilt over what happened to her friend, with her boyfriends and husband) seem like they could easily be happening today, but her lack of any intellectual framework for examining those conflicts seems kind of outdated. Didn't she hear about or discuss feminism or women's roles with anybody while she was in England?
Andrea wrote: "SPOILER: Something funny happens at the point in the book where Enitan moves in with Sheri. There is a long section where she describes Sheri with a lot of ironic distance and re-covering materi..."
Andrea, actually I think others found out when Sheri was hospitalized. That is why Enitan had to go to England for school.
I also really enjoyed the book. But I'm super dooper curious to hear from Yejide!
As for women's issues...I wonder if because she was so alone she never got a framework? No siblings, no aunties, a strange relationship with her mother, dysfuntion and mixed messages from her parents, and then Sheri's family was very different and sh observed that lifestyle as an outsider, sort of...because she was from a Christian family. As for england....that was one of the weaker points of the book for me because it was so short yet covered a rather important time period in a girl's life...she more or less grew up there, but we didn't learn much about that. So your question is a really interesting one. :)
I was really struck by how Sheri dealt with the complicated identity issues. I really admired her.
Hi Marieke and Andrea. I am sorry for not checking in earlier :) My book launch is next weekend so I've been stretched thin. Andrea,
In regards to the women's issues/feminism and the "lack of any intellectual framework", I've often felt that there is a gap between the concept of feminism in the west and Nigeria. The expectations/wants of women in both societies differ greatly. And in Nigeria, I would say there's way less emphasis on explaining/understanding things through a theoretical lens. It's almost a luxury.
Life is happening so fast, with immediate needs that can't wait, and you have to move with it. Sheri's journey is a perfect example. She kept re-inventing herself while living on her terms.
Marieke, you are right that Enitan's limited female network definitely impacted her "framework"
I found her character very reactive and I was not convinced that she had actually achieved that "AHA moment" What exactly did she leave her husband for?
The irony to me what that in the end, she was more like her mother.
Just finished the book and I think it gets quite a bit better as it goes on. I agree, Yejide, that while I sort of understood why should would eventually feel the need to leave her husband, the timing of it seemed more theatrical than based on a true sense of understanding. Why during the naming ceremony? Just because her mother in law asked if the food was ready? I feel like her husband's attempts to restrict her political activities seem like the much more interesting conflict than her constant comments about how they always expected her to serve the food. I didn't really expect her to have a complex theoretical view of feminism; it just seemed odd that she never connected her questions about women's roles to her time spent in Britain. She came back and said it was hard to re-adapt, but I guess that was not the focus of the book. As I said, this seemed less inexplicable to me as I got past the first half of the book. Maybe because I had more time to concentrate on my reading while I read the first half pretty fast with lots of interruptions.
