⋆⋆⋆½
Content Warning: homophobia (including slurs), transphobia, death, murder, incest.
In southeastern Nigeria, a woman hears something on her front porch. When she steps out, she finds a body wrapped in a colorful cloth. It's her child, Vivek. But as she begs Vivek's friends to tell her the truth about how her son really died, she discovers that the Vivek she knows is only a tiny portion of who he truly is.
Heart-wrenching in its portrayal of family secrets and how sometimes those who love us best know us the least, The Death of Vivek Oji stands out both as a story full of love and full of hatred. Although Vivek is perhaps the protagonist, bringing together all of the many people surrounding them, it is just as much about their lives and identities. There's Osita, Vivek's cousin and by turns best friend, enemy, brother, and so much more; Kavita and Chika, Vivek's parents; and several others who make an impact on Vivek's life and, subsequently, death.
It's probably made rather clear just by the summary, but this book is full of heavy topics. I consumed it very quickly, as it's not long, but had to take several breaks throughout my bursts of reading. It left me feeling slightly overwhelmed, wondering why it is that the world hates people who want nothing more than to express themselves freely. In amongst those passages of dark, heavy feelings, there's also brightness and joy and light.
So, why only three and a half stars? The main issues I had with this was that Vivek felt almost a background character. The glimpses we have of them are wonderful and they often made me laugh or smile or sometimes even force back tears, but their actual character, their personality and feeling, was made surprisingly hard to connect with due to the method of storytelling. We'd get only the briefest moment inside their head, and then we would be back to looking at them through the lenses of all the other characters. The writing itself is beautiful, evocative, but I feel that we were a bit robbed of understanding Vivek through Vivek's eyes.
I think that the subject matter was perhaps a little too close to home for me at the moment. That could be one of the reasons I found it so difficult to stomach. But with all that being said, I would certainly recommend this to those interested. The ending is one of the most beautiful conclusions to a book I've ever read, and I think this could make many people feel not quite so alone.
So, why only three and a half stars? The main issues I had with this was that Vivek felt almost a background character. The glimpses we have of them are wonderful and they often made me laugh or smile or sometimes even force back tears, but their actual character, their personality and feeling, was made surprisingly hard to connect with due to the method of storytelling. We'd get only the briefest moment inside their head, and then we would be back to looking at them through the lenses of all the other characters. The writing itself is beautiful, evocative, but I feel that we were a bit robbed of understanding Vivek through Vivek's eyes.
I think that the subject matter was perhaps a little too close to home for me at the moment. That could be one of the reasons I found it so difficult to stomach. But with all that being said, I would certainly recommend this to those interested. The ending is one of the most beautiful conclusions to a book I've ever read, and I think this could make many people feel not quite so alone.
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