BOOK REVIEW: THE JOYS OF MOTHERHOOD

BOOK TITLE: THE JOYS OF MOTHERHOOD

AUTHOR: BUCHI EMECHETA
GENRE: BILDUNGSROMAN, DOMESTIC FICTION

REVIEW BY: NAIJATALKATIVE @NIMETUA

Do you read contemporary African literature? If yes, this review is for you

When I read The Joys of Motherhood for my SSCE, I was expecting something very different from what the novel actually offered. I was thrown off by the title of the book which implies the book would be about “the joys” of being a mother. However, what I got was a story largely about the struggles of a Nigerian woman to become the mother that she dreamed of becoming and how she does not exactly get what she was expecting. 

The protagonist's view of motherhood is romanticized and In my opinion, she has unrealistic expectations in a changing world. The way the main character views motherhood is similar to the way the readers may view this book after simply reading the title. 

I still enjoyed her character though, even if she was delusional in her thinking. I don’t know who told her that once you have male children, automatically they will be important people in life even without proper education and exposure. I did feel bad watching her dreams crumble, all she had placed her hopes on only leading to disappointment (according to her); and it got harder to continue reading after a while because I knew there would be no relief in sight.

And how could you have relief with a husband like Nnaife, who doesn’t know what it means to lead a household but still wants to be regarded as a leader anyways ( This is typical Nigerian Mentality by the way) and only manages to take his family from one new low to another?

Nnu Ego, the main character in this novel dreams of being a mother. After growing up in rural Nigeria with lots of traditional values, she ends up moving to Lagos, a modernized city in Nigeria after her first marriage fails. In Lagos, Nnu Ego does become a mother; however, she struggles with numerous things regarding motherhood. One of the big issues Nnu Ego is having is maintaining traditional values she grew up within a rapidly changing modernized city.

Some of the big themes in The Joys of Motherhood are modern versus traditional values, motherhood and gender roles, death and life, and the influence of colonialism. The influence of colonialism in Nigeria is seen primarily during Nnu Ego’s time in Lagos. This also further complicates the issue of tradition versus modernity. Death and life are huge issues that are heavily addressed, however as I reader I did not pick up on these two right away. 

Throughout the novel, Nnu Ego is surrounded by death and even after certain characters die Nnu Ego is haunted by the consequences surrounded by their death. Even deaths that predated her birth are very influential in Nnu Ego’s life. 

Motherhood is the most obvious theme in the novel but as I said earlier it is not addressed in the way that readers may be led to believe. The things that Nnu Ego goes through makes the reader think about the expectation they have for their life and how ingrained those values and expectations are in them. Readers could possibly learn the importance of being able to adjust and change with the times that Nnu Ego is unable to do.

The tension between tradition and modernity is what has the most impact on Nnu Ego and it is also one of the most important themes in the novel. Nnu Ego’s obsession with becoming a mother and her fixation on maintaining the traditional values that she grew up with cause a lot of problems for her and even has an effect on her relationship with others. 

Overall this is a well-written novel and really gets readers to think and a lot can be learned from Nnu Ego. I really enjoyed this novel, even though it was definitely not what I was expecting.