Dangerous Love by Ben Okri

Dangerous Love is an African romance and I've decided to review it because it's one of those world books with 'mana' that are often overlooked in favour of English or American love stories. I don't normally enjoy romance novels so when I picked this book up I was half-hearted about it. It didn't take me long to be totally captivated and it's now one of my top-ten-best-ever reads.


Dangerous Love (Phoenix House, 1996)



   This is a tragic love story set in Nigeria in the 1970s just after the civil war. A young artist called Omovo falls in love with a woman who is trapped in a loveless arranged marriage. The husband's fury at her betrayl threatens their affair but poverty and illness impact upon their love too.

   The imagery in this novel is raw and tangible. The reader can hear and smell and taste the dusty city streets. I read this book more than ten years ago but I can still imagine the heroine in her yellow dress at the street party and the grime on the walls of the compound's communal bathroom.  I have since read other works by Ben Okri but this one remains my favourite.
    It isn't a book suitable for younger readers but I'm sure PSSC students could give it a try and enjoy it.

The Scottish Thread.

Last Christmas my daughter read a string of books that coincidently all had homosexual protagonists. Her friend had a similar reading experience; every book she read was written from the point of view of a nine-year-old boy. This year it was my turn. I accidently read three books in a row that were peppered with Scottish dialogue. It's actually made me say things to my family like, 'I think I'll have a wee cup of tea.'

   The first book in my string of coincidences was Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. Being a classic by the famous "Island" author himself, the revered Tusitala, I thought I ought to give it a go. It was hard work. Broad Scottish dialect does not come naturally to the Australian ear even though I have a drop of highland ancestoral blood in my veins.
   Although this story isn't a Pacific Island one it is certainly about the islands off the coast of Scotland. I learnt a great deal about clans and how loyalties work within them (a bit like the wantok system) and also the politics of the time when the story was set just after the Jacobean uprising. And I must admit I felt a kinship link to the lovable rogue Alan who was the main hero in the story as he was related to the same Stewart clan who were my ancestors.
   The second book I read was a Terry Pratchett novel filled with little wee men and although I have a love of Discworld novels there's really no space for them on this blog. They deserve a whole blog on their own.

   The third book was an autobiography written by British poet Jackie Kay called Red Dust Road. Jackie recounts her life as an adopted coloured girl growing up in a sometimes racist Scottish town. The reason why I mention it here is it's a story with 'mana'. Jackie's desire to find her natural parents lead her back to the dusty roads of Nigeria where she finds her ancestoral home and eventually a warm welcome from a brother she never knew before. There are hilarious and disturbing encounters with her Nigerian father who is a successful man and a born again Christian.



Red Dust Road (Picador, 2010)



   I found this book a bit annoying to begin with as it jumps around in no particular order detailing events and conversations in Jackie's life. However the result is like real life; snippets of character are revealed in layers, making you grow to love both Jackie's adoptive and birth family. Issues of racism recur throughout the book, many of which resonated with me raising so called 'coloured' children in Australia. It is a heart-warming book and a good one for adult readers but be warned...there is still a lot of Scottish dialogue and a smattering of politics.