Book Review
Oseloka Obaze*
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
The Plunge
The Fate of a Paragon
Fidelia Agwumezie
(ISBN: 10: 1424171725: PublishAmerica, Baltimore, MD, USA, 2007; 124pp; Price, $$17.95)
Available at: http://www.publishamerica.com & http://www.amazon.com
The Plunge – The Fate of a Paragon, is exactly what it is; a fateful plunge into the contrived lunacy called marriage, between Eze a struggling and narcissistic Nigerian and his imported-from-home bride, Nma. However, the story is also one of personal fortitude, tolerance and resiliency. When Eze proclaimed, “Look, this is America” (p.45); that singular and well-known refrain, which has dogged many African immigrants, Nigerians included, went on to underpin Fidelia Agwumezie’s rather painful and vexing rendition of culture shock and human foible. Then, of course, she writes also about transformative culture shock as well as various dimensions human nature.
This novel is about Nma, a young Nigerian woman who immigrates to the United States to join Eze, her soon-to-be husband. Unexpectedly, she beholds in Eze a changed person, an alien and a living but soulless monster, who seemed so totally transformed, that he was oblivious of their Igbo norms and culture and his place as a husband, companion, father and protector. Eze is not just acting bizarre, his indignity, odium and violent behavior worsened as the days went by.
Ms. Agwumezie tells an all-too-common and often-told Nigerian immigrants’ story. Nma an impressionable, genial and well-groomed woman arrives in America to join her lover and husband to be, all exuberant and full of hope, yet clueless of the challenges awaiting her. From the set go, Eze renders useless whatever idealism she harboured about love and marriage, despite Nma spending an inordinate amount of time waiting to formalize her immigration papers and entry visa into America. What she got, in her words, was a “weird welcome”.
This novel underlines the aphorism that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. Exuding love, hope, affection and the best of intentions, Nma encounters her former lover, now a distant persona from the Eze she once knew and fallen in love with. From the get go to the very end, “Nma couldn’t help wondering why Eze’s behaviour was so out of character.” Throw in Chichi, the other woman in Eze’s life and the envisaged marriage between the two, soon becomes crowded with the third party. Eze, as it turns out, is hardly bashful about his proclivities and adulterous liaison with Chichi. In addition, after many years in America, he had hardly advanced himself, his dreams and purpose of coming to America.
Eze was a cruel, nonchalant, conniving and pathetic individual. His unrelenting cruelty was only matched by his rampant, verbal and physical abusiveness. If Eze was suffocating and brutal to Nma, life in the good, old America was lonely, unforgiving and perennially challenging. Eze’s attitude coupled with a new, unfamiliar, impersonal, and cheerless environment, which Nma found herself, wreaked havoc on Nma and her lofty hopes. As she found out, flipping buggers was not the hallmark of living well in America, but it was the redemptive part of an unscripted survival kit. As is always the case, succour for Nma was hard to come by, as those who would normally help engaged in their own everyday struggles, while evidently drawing some quirky joy from the fate that had befallen Nma, making her the butt of their jokes and dispiriting gossips. The worst culprit was Okwudili, her loquacious, uncouth and irascible home girl.
Nma epitomized that song which went thus: “If loving is wrong, I don’t wanna be right”, except that dealing or being with Eze was consistently detrimental to her wellbeing. With the odds stacked against Nma, it was little wonder that her world and idyllic expectations all come crashing down around her. Survival for Nma becomes a matter of will and the ability to draw from the deep preserve of her family values and the love she had known and enjoyed. Skilfully, she must navigate around Eze, going through as it were, the challenge of pregnancy, motherhood, homelessness and single parenthood. Occasionally, she found compassion and mainly from the most unusual sources. Despite her debacle, Nma trudged on, surviving solely through her uncanny ability to shut out Eze’s execrable behaviour, but more, through her resilience, fortitude and intuition. She does eventually triumph.
Although Ms. Agwumezie sets out to probe into the sociological factors that weigh down many Nigerian marriages that fit the pattern of Eze and Nma’s, she succeeded in unveiling the profile of a near psychotic Eze, thus presenting a correct but unflattering image of some Nigerian men in America. Think of this: “To her utter surprise Eze stood and watched his own child, his own blood, and innocent child slip and fall before his eyes. That was unheard of.” Certainly, a man so mindless to allow his baby to fall just to spite a spouse is contemptible.
Undoubtedly, Ms. Agwumezie wrote The Plunge from insider’s perspective, and from both the Nigerian and the social worker’s angles. The language is simple and the plots convincing. The reader cannot help but get involved in the rollercoaster emotions and pains visited on Nma. In that vein, it is easy, if not enticing to despise Eze. As a character, Eze is consistent, yet his every action is harrowingly surprising. Convincingly bequeathing Eze with such despicable and schizophrenic character is a credit to Agwumezie storytelling gift.
I enjoyed reading The Plunge. However, I do have a couple of gripes with Agwumezie. Books, even novels of this kind should educate, especially from a cultural and historical perspective. Therefore, spellings, language and overall editing warrant keen attention. This book could have used a closer editorial scrutiny, to avoid silly slip ups, such as writing “Housa” instead of Hausa; “Ibo” instead of Igbo and “Odumeqwu” in place of Odumegwu. There is also the issue of sequencing; writing about Nma’s baby being six months (p.94) only follow up with events that happened when the was five months old (p.95). Otherwise, The Plunge is an easy and enjoyable read.
With The Plunge, Fidelia Agwumezie adds her voice powerfully to a topical human issue and the existing body of work on spousal abuse. She does so in an authentic and convincing manner. Without making light of it, she also unveils the triumph of the human spirit in time of adversity and in the face of evil, deceit and tragedy. Her effort is noteworthy and honorable.
------------
Mr. Oseloka Obaze is a founding member of the Kwenu.com Book Review Forum, which is dedicated to the promotion of books with Igbo and Afrocentric themes. He is also a supporting Member of the African Writers Endowment (AWE). From 1999 to 2005, he served on the editorial board of INYEAKA, the journal of Songhai Charities, Inc., a New Jersey community-based charity founded and run by Nigerians based in New York Tri-state area in the United States, first as its founding Publisher and later as the Editor-At-Large. He is also on the editorial board of The Amaka Gazette, the journal of the Christ the King College, Onitsha Alumni Association in America. His collection of poems, “Regarscent Past: A Collection of Poems” was second among the top three finalists in the poetry category in the African Writers Endowment Publishing Grant Program for 2004. He is working on a novel titled “Happy Eulogy”. He reviews books and arts strictly as a hobby. © Copyright 22 September 2009.