₦airaland Forum

Play Dirty- Sandra Brown

I'm re-reading it. Finished 20 Fragments really quickly and so still trying to decide what to start next.

Myne White:
Tatase

Have you read A Heart to Mend by Myne Whitman

No not yet, but I've seen you promote it in another thread. It seems like something I'd like. I'll check it out and support. Well done and congrats to you!

Polando:
My problem with Nigerian writers is the lack of originality.

Since Chimamanda blew up, every one now wants to write like her.

Then there is the magical realism that the Europeans think that's all we are about, so the writers think they have to keep writing about animals that talk and evil spirits.

Because that's what most Nigerian writers feel they have to do these days to get recognition as "legitimate" authors of authentic African lit. I don't mind the metaphysical or the magic realism but when that's the only thing the book is relying on to have any value, then it doesn't make sense to me.

@ topic,

I feel that everyone is so busy trying to write one genre of these fantastical happenings and these psycho-cultural themes, that novels that our writers are becoming one-notes. And I understand it, because the only writers that seem to be celebrated are those that write that one genre.

20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth- Xiaolu Guo

netotse:
emma by jane austen

Ay, that's one of my favourites!!

It's very difficult for me to read many Nigerian authors. Everything is so heavy-hearted and metaphysical. I mean after some of the Nigerian books I've read recently, Things Fall Apart is like easy reading. Our new authors really know how to depress the soul!

-I read a Jude Dibia book (Walking With Shadows) about a gay Nigerian man who came out and had a wife and kids (it was unexpected since I didn't know what it was about before reading it, and I don't know if I was ready for it).
- Helen Oyeyemi- Icharus Girl (why must everything be so weird and metaphysical).
- Diana Evans- 26A (again with heroines with psychological problems)
- Chimamanda Adichie <sighs>
- Nigerian chick-lit author, Abidemi Sanusi (it's not excellent, but at least it's contemporary somewhat light, everyday life stuff that's relatable)
- Sefi Attah (Everything Good Will Come. This is the only one I've mentioned that I'd read again.)
- Ben Okri (though I wouldn't consider him "new")- I just can't do him. I've tried and  I can't and frankly I don't even want to.

A Lady of Secret Devotion- Tracie Peterson

A Lady of Hidden Intent- Tracie Peterson