There are things even love can’t do. If the burden is too much and stays too long, even love bends, cracks, comes close to breaking and sometimes does break. But even when it’s in a thousand pieces around your feet, that doesn’t mean it’s no longer love …
Title – Stay with Me
Author: Ayobami Adebayo
Genre: Fiction, Romance
Publisher: Canongate Books
Pages: 300
Rating: 5/5
Frankly speaking
I celebrated reading with STAY WITH ME. With her debut, Ayobami Adebayo hooked me at the first
page, in fact first lines that say “I must leave this city today and
come to you. My bags are packed and the empty rooms remind me that I should
have left a week ago.”
After exploring few more pages, I
stopped for a bit, took a deep breath, and silently thanked to the Author for
weaving such beauty.
When it comes to story, I would say it is an intense tale of love, care, grief and loss. Plot sets in Nigeria mainly 80’s. When country had been suffering from some political issues as well, that was all in backdrop. Basically Story revolves around a couple named Yejida and Akin, who were struggling and finding a way to conceive, somewhat same scene we find here in Indian families, How dramatic Mother-in-law and her tantrums turns the story, In a way after introduction of second wife gives pace to the story. I have to confess here, I could hardly put down the book. Author explored the beauty and drew attention towards respective culture, customs esp the bitter truth of Polygamy and some health related issues as well. She crafted them so sensibly, I am just left in awe.
"I became known as ‘the pregnant woman
with the ripped dress’, even after the baby was born. But I did not care that
people pointed and smiled behind their hands during a hymn or the Nicene Creed
at the church. I had become immortal, part of a never-ending chain of life. New
life kicked within me and soon I would have someone that I could call my own.
Not a stepmother or half-brother. Not a father shared with two dozen other
children or a husband shared with Funmi, but a child, my child."
With crisp narration and well
developed dialogues. Author wins the reader’s heart and time too.
Heart breaking scenes of Yedija, that
internal struggle just makes you fall in love with the protagonist. You feel
her pain, her anger, her suffocation. I don’t say it is some depressing read.
In fact author put those emotions in such way; I was smiling at a time with
teary eyed.
If I could summarize this beauty STAY WITH ME, I would say, It simply explores the depth of human
relationship. And truly deserves recognition It is long-listed for the Bailey Women’s Prize for fiction 2017.
"I had expected them to talk about my
childlessness. I was armed with millions of smiles. Apologetic smiles, pity-me smiles,
I-look-unto-God smiles name all the fake smiles needed to get through an
afternoon with a group of people who claim to want the best for you while
poking at your open sore with a stick and I had them ready. I was ready to
listen to them tell me I must do something about my situation. I expected to
hear about a new pastor I could visit a new mountain where I could go to pray;
or an old herbalist in a remote village or town whom I could consult. I was
armed with smiles for my lips, an appropriate sheen of tears for my eyes and
sniffles for my nose. I was prepared to lock up my hairdressing salon
throughout the coming week to go in search of a miracle with my mother-in-law
in tow. What I was not expecting was another smiling woman in the room, a
yellow woman with a blood-red mouth who grinned like a new bride."
About The Author
Ayobami Adebayo's stories have
appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies, and one was highly commended
in the 2009 Commonwealth short story competition. She also has an MA in
creative writing from the University of East Anglia where she was awarded an
international bursary for Creative Writing. Stay With Me is her Debut Novel.