An Orchestra Of Minorities By Chigozie Obioma Book Review — Bobolawal Olateru
I enjoyed reading this magnificent book. Although the style followed the footsteps of classical African writers like Achebe, it is still in a class of its own. Aside from the multiple layers to the story, what enchanted me the most is how the author incorporated the observation of minute details. On the surface, these details seem not to have any noticeable contribution to the narrative flow but gives more substance to the story.
For example; how everything seemed to be against him at the barbershop, when Nonso was grooming up for his first date. Or how after telling Ndali what he had done in the effort to go to school, she told him that he has destroyed his life and he responded: “I did not destroy my life anything”. It felt like I was right here with them in that fast food restaurant. The part where Nonso was talking to himself in the middle of the night and suddenly realized that he was shouting. He startled himself at his ‘sudden leap to insanity’. The vehement utterance of the GSM phone card seller; “God punish you,” after their anticlimactic sexual experience. These and so much more are what makes the story very immersive for me. I find myself thinking about it when I am away from it.
Even though the end of the story left us hanging about the fate of Ndali, I think it is safe to deduce that she finally died. Maybe not immediately, perhaps at the hospital. But she did die given that that was what happened to the gosling- a clear allegory of Nonso’s life. Also, there is this undertone of his Fate running through the length of the pages only to become pronounced at the end as “something that has happened a long time ago that he is just noticing”. This I take to be the death of the gosling by the stone hurled from the bitterness of his heart.
Also, I enjoyed the description of the spirit realm and how the ethereal is teeming with them.
In all, I think it is a brilliant work of genius and it deserves not just multiple rereads but prestigious Awards.
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