Lagos, a city in Nigeria characterized as one of the cities with the craziest inhabitants both male and female has failed to go unnoticed by African Writers. I came across this book in my e-library while looking for a book with a touch of comedy and reality.
I chose this book because I have read 'Nearly all the men in Lagos are mad' and I absolutely loved it. Judging by my love for the first book, I decided that this will definitely satisfy my quest for a realistic book.
Nearly all the men in Lagos are mad is a book that consists of 12 different stories told by women who had gone through one ordeal or the other in the hands of the so called Lagos Men mostly in the relationship circle.
After reading this book, I found out that another author wrote a sequel to it 'Who drove nearly all men in Lagos mad?'. I was so excited to read this book because of how interesting I found the first book. I'll give a few insights to this as I'm not one for spoilers.
Who drove Nearly All Men in Lagos Mad is a compilation of eleven fictional stories by Ugochukwu Ugonna. Some of which were written from a narrator's perspective and the other's from the character's perspective (mostly male characters).
The first story tells the story of Bella who was fond of living a promiscuous lifestyle and ended up getting pregnant for a man who wasn't interested in the idea of marriage nor having kids. She ends up forcing the pregnancy on another of her partner. But trust mothers to always know. After successfully blaming the pregnancy on this partner of hers who was interested in marriage, his mother begins to suspect Bella's foul play and begins to request for a paternity test. This particular story had so much humour and will keep you engrossed because of Bella's wittiness.
The second story tells the story of Stella, a 35 years old lady based in Lagos and Emmanuel, a US based man who is approaching 40. They both attended a conference for singles titled Match-made-in-heaven conference where the pastor in charge sets up those present with each other for a blind date. Coincidentally, he sets up Stella and Emmanuel for a blind date. These duo have a very humourous and comical backstory which centers on the issue of love letters in schools (Lol). I found their story entertaining and emotional at the same time. I also felt for lover boy Emmanuel who was bent on rekindling his love for Stella after all the embarrassment he had gone through where Stella is concerned.
Now the third story which is one of the weirdest among the compilations tells the story of Wendy, the wife of an African Afrobeats legend. Wendy's husband Eric had an interest in crazy and wild sex. Wendy who has accomplished everything she has thanks to her husband's influence, feels tied to him and succumbs to all her husband's sexual desires which usually is a threesome. Even at times when Wendy herself wanted her husband to herself alone, she had to share him with another woman because of his interest in wild sex.
The book consists of other stories which I must say showed us different sides to many relationships that I wouldn't elaborate on for the purpose of avoiding spoilers.
Now, if I were to rate this book, I would rate it a 6 out of 10. I really liked how the writer made all the stories look so realistic. He did a good job there, I must say. One thing about the book I disliked is the fact that it seemed as if the writer was bent on countering the book 'Nearly all men in Lagos are mad' that he didn't really give much thoughts to some stories whether they went smoothly with the whole point of the book or not. He did well. But then, I feel he could have done better where the book is concerned. Another thing I really disliked about the book is the too-detailed smut included. I mean, the book would have flowed smoothly even without the smut scenes. The book really did not go well with me as I found the smut excessive. I was tempted so many times to abandon the book because of that but the humour still kept me going. But then, I must say the book really achieved it's sole purpose which is for entertainment. I'll recommend it for those looking for something short and comical to read.
All images are screenshots from my e-library.