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The Joys of Motherhood
As seen:
By Buchi Emecheta
avg rating
2 reviews
The Joys of Motherhood is by Buchi Emecheta, one of Africa’s greatest writers and one of the first commercially successful black women writers in the UK, described by Bernardine Evaristo as ‘our literary foremother’ and one of her five favourite books.
Powerful, moving and profound, The Joys of Motherhood paints a rich, nuanced portrait of life in colonial Nigeria and dramatizes the changing role of women in the twentieth century.
About the author
Buchi Emecheta (1944-2017) was born in Lagos in Nigeria. At the age of ten she won a scholarship to the Methodist Girls’ High School, but by the time she was seventeen she had left school, married and had a child. She accompanied her husband to London where he was a student. Aged 22, she left him, and took an honours degree in Sociology while supporting her five children and writing in the early morning. She went on to write sixteen novels, three children’s stories and numerous articles and television plays.
“Buchi Emecheta re-ignited the rich place of women at the heart of African literature,” Ben Okri
“Emecheta writes with subtlety, power, and abundant compassion,’ New York Times
TweetReviews
Thank you to Penguin and The Reading Agency for copies for our group.
What did you like about the book?
The insight historically and culturally into Nigeria in that time. The juxtaposition between educated colonial white rile and tribal communities was fascinating.
Which themes from the book did you enjoy?
The place for childless women in society was emotive and thought provoking. The suggested limited relevance of men/husbands. The loyalty of a mother. The questionable blessings of children
Did you have a favourite character. If so, who and why?
I loved Nnu ego. I found her complex and yet equally naive. She was so relatable as any woman really. Not just a Nigerian woman.
How did this book make you feel?
It made me feel heard. Understood and validated. None of which I even vaguely imagined to start with. It was slushy or romanticised but piercings honest and insightful. I absolutely adored it and feel grateful to have been able to even read it
Who would you recommend this book to?
It’s a great book for young women at the start of life but also older women whose child bearing time is over. I think I wouldn’t have loved it so much in the middle of my child rearing years. It would also suit people who are interested in travel and geography as well as recent colonial historical information
Review 1 - Insightful read
A really good read
A fascinating and thought provoking book
The story weaves together the lives and times of people finding their way in a rapidly changing country.
Seeking comfort from traditional ways while trying to embrace the new
Motherhood is key to the story but all human life is here.
Review 2
A fascinating and thorough provoking book that opened up a world largely unknown to our book group Ruby Readers.
The story weaves together the lives and times of people finding their way in a rapidly changing country. The characters seek comfort in the familiarity of the old traditional ways whilst trying to embrace the new.
Motherhood is essential to how the story unfolds but this book is about so much more.
All human life is here.
Highly recommended
