29 Jul / Black Sunday by Tola Rotimi Abraham [in Booklist]
Nigerian-born, Iowa Writers’ Workshop-MFA-ed Tola Rotimi Abraham’s devastating debut covers almost two decades of a Lagos family navigating dysfunction and trauma. The comfortable lives of twin sisters Bibike and Ariyike and younger brothers Andrew and Peter disintegrate when their father falls victim to a financial scam, their mother runs off to the U.S., and their impatient grandmother becomes their ineffective guardian.
Entrusting most of the narrative to Bibike and Ariyike – inseparable in childhood, sharply diverging in adulthood – Abraham never glosses over the manipulation, abuse, and religious hypocrisy she adroitly exposes. The aural adaptation features an unbalanced quartet – powerful performers alone, a disparate ensemble here. Three are newbies – Liz Femi as Bibike, Dele Ogundiran as Ariyike, Miebaka Opuiyo-Yohannes as Andrew; the fourth, Ron Butler as Peter, has ample credits, but ironically is the least compelling with his fluctuating Nigerian English.
Femi’s narration tends toward American English, while Ogundiran’s has mellifluous Nigerian rhythms – adding questionable distance between the twin sisters. The inconsistent characterizations of the twins cause unnecessary confusion as points of view shift between chapters. Though the flaws aren’t enough to discount the audio, Abraham surely deserved a more meticulous production.
Review: “Media,” Booklist Online, June 19, 2020
Readers: Adult
Published: 2020