Dele Weds Destiny

January 1, 2022

Three Nigerian women bond at university despite different backgrounds and ultimately take different paths. Boldly beautiful Funmi steals reserved Zainab's boyfriend, then loses him to police violence, while Zainab creates a family rift by marrying a teacher friend of her father, and plain, overeager Enitan marries a Peace Corps volunteer and moves to WASPy Connecticut. After three decades, the women meet again at the wedding of Funmi's in Lago. From an editor at BuzzFeed News.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2022
After 30 years, three college friends from Nigeria reunite for a daughter's wedding. As different as they are from each other, Enitan, Zainab, and Funmi were so closely entwined during their turbulent university years that it's hard to believe they haven't been together as a threesome since graduation. But Enitan married a redheaded Peace Corps volunteer from Connecticut and immigrated to the United States, where she's raised a very American daughter. Zainab, the tall, elegant offspring of a Hausa academic, married one of her father's friends and had four sons. Her husband has now suffered an incapacitating series of strokes, and she, the only one of the friends who didn't study nursing, has become a full-time caretaker. Funmi, the man-killer of the group, is rich, "as in she-has-an-apartment-in-London, shops-at-Harrods rich, as in she-also-has-a-house-in-Lekki-and-a-sprawling-compound-in-her-husband's-village rich. As in...what-her-husband-does-is-ill-defined-and-definitely-involves-bribery, but-she-prefers-not-to-think-about-it rich" The occasion of her daughter Destiny's marriage has roused her from a midlife coma of boredom, eager to reassemble her friends, invite hundreds of people, and put on the show of the decade. The fact that Destiny shares not a whit of her enthusiasm for this event? Well, maybe if she ignores it, it will go away. Obaro's debut is a portrait of female friendship that will feel familiar to women everywhere, but it is also infused with Nigerian cultural specificity: food, clothing, religion, music, and ambient threat. "Nigeria unleashed constant reminders of one's mortality: death via traffic accident, a bridge collapse, a plane crash, an especially bad case of malaria, a sloppy blood transfusion, a kidnapping gone wrong, robbery, stress-induced heart attack, food poisoning, an act of black magic, poverty. The ways to die were endless. That's why you had to live, and live ferociously, and often selfishly and exploitatively, but Funmi did not worry herself about these details....It was best to count your blessings and keep it moving." Perhaps an epilogue could have remedied the abruptness of the ending, which leaves an awful lot up in the air. An engrossing read with strong characters and a clear portrait of Nigeria then and now.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 15, 2022
Funmi, Enitan, and Zainab were inseparable friends at university despite their vastly different upbringings and temperaments. While their friendship remains strong, it has been more than 30 years since the three were in the same room together. When the trio reunites to celebrate the wedding of Funmi's daughter in Lagos, it soon becomes clear that all is not well, and the three friends must revisit their pasts to protect their children's futures. Obaro's debut novel immerses the reader in the highs and lows of being a Nigerian. She skillfully provides enough context for readers outside of the culture while also writing for Nigerian readers who will see themselves, their mothers, and their aunties in the three protagonists. The three women are complex characters with satisfying arcs, and each displays a different aspect of the diverse groups that make up Nigerian society. But the beauty of the novel lies in their friendship and the complexities of the mother-daughter relationships. A perfect choice for fans of Tayari Jones and Bernardine Evaristo.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 18, 2022
Three Nigerian college friends reunite after decades in this lush if busy debut. In 2015, wealthy Funmi Akingbola invites her best friends to the wedding of her medical student daughter, Destiny, in Lagos. Enitan, who eloped to America with a white man she is now divorcing, arrives with her own college-age daughter, Remi. Zainab, a Muslim caring for her husband after a series of strokes, survives a violent robbery on the bus to Lagos. Together, the friends tiptoe around memories of past struggles, which Obaro explores more fully in flashbacks to 1983, when all three met at a Nigerian university. As a freshman, Funmi draws attraction from dreamy literature student Zainab’s politically active boyfriend, while helping Enitan with her coursework. Meanwhile, Zainab enlists her friends to help convince her father to allow her to marry his protégé, and Funmi conscripts Enitan for support during her illegal abortion. Back in 2015, not a lot happens until the end, with a big surprise involving the bride. Obaro offers plenty of sumptuous depictions of Nigerian culture via Destiny’s wedding, as well as perceptive observations about the characters, though the dual timeline makes this feel at once rushed and overstuffed, and leaves the characters underdeveloped. The result is pleasant if not entirely memorable.

May 1, 2022

DEBUT In the mid-1980s, three young Nigerian women from disparate backgrounds meet in school and become inseparable. On their vibrant college campus, Funmi, Enitan, and Zainab relish their freedom to study, argue, and question religion, culture, politics, and sexuality, forging bonds and secrets that will be long held. Three decades later, Funmi's daughter Destiny, a medical student who would rather pursue a career in photography, appears to be rushing into marriage, and the friends are reuniting at Funmi's palatial compound in Lagos for the joyous occasion. Soon each spots the cracks behind the others' well-honed facades. Enitan, who left Nigeria for married life in New York City, is filing for divorce, to her daughter Remy's dismay. Meanwhile, Zainab struggles to care for her husband, Ahmed, felled by a stroke, and Funmi, though wealthy beyond imagining, is saddled with an aloof man more enthralled by his cell phone than by his wife. Descriptions of the over-the-top wedding festivities would be a pure delight but for the underlying question: Will these women ultimately love and support their daughters as they once did each other? VERDICT The intricacies of female friendships and the complex nature of mother/daughter relationships are at the heart of this absorbing novel from BuzzFeed culture editor Obaro, a sharp new voice on the literary scene.--Sally Bissell

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.