When a friend first sent me the book and I saw the title, my persception about the book automatically was about rivalry among wives, very typical of books written with this title. Looking at the bigger picture, I discovered the book was about so much more than rivalry it was a well written drama novel also centring around polygamy, girl education, female reproduction, impotency, family orientation, sexual abuse, abortion and self esteem.
Lola Shoneyin is the author and I must acknowledge her unique writing style of writing. She captured everyone's unique story in such a way that everyone was the hero in their own stories.
The book started with Baba Segi opting to find solution for his newest wife, Bolanle's issue of having a hard time getting pregnant. This shows the ignorance of most uneducated Africans simply assuming a woman was at fault if a couple couldn't conceive.
Bolanle, the fourth wife on the other hand despite her high level of education decided to be married to a polygamous man that was uneducated because she had had to go through sexual abuse and abortion before in life and that left a dent in her self esteem, she chose the uneducated Baba Segi because he wouldn't and didn't judge her past life.
Iya Segi, is the first wife and she is described to be a very fierce woman whom Baba Segi married in her prime, she was a business woman and it was unveiled that Baba Segi's wealth all came from her.
Iya Tope, the second wife was a wife married to Baba Segi to settle a debt between her father and Baba Segi, she was described to be a timid and uneducated woman that had to submit to Iya Tope or else her life was going to remain miserable.
Iya Femi, the third wife was the most exposed in some sort, she had previously been a maid to a wealthy family, from whom she learnt how to be clean, hardworking and exposed to the upper class lifestyle. During her time serving as a maid, she was said to have been sexually abused by the wealthy woman's son and since she did not have family to stand up for her, she didn't seem to mind.
The secret the first three wives were keeping from Bolanle and their husband's was the fact that they all found out that their husband was impotent and they all found ways to get pregnant because they wanted to maintain their place in their husband's home.
It was later discovered through series of tests that Baba Segi and Bolanle had to go through that he had never fathered a child in his life.
The twists and turns in this book is phenomenal and it would be really worth anybody’s time to discover the ways the wives stepped out of their marriage and how their infidelity was later discovered.
For this book and the story telling method, I would glady rate it an 8 over 10. Yes, the book is that good!