Maame - Jessica George - ★★★.½

AUTHOR: Jessica George

NARRATOR: Heather Agyepong

GENRE: Coming-of-Age

RATING: 3.5 Stars.

In a Nutshell: An interesting debut work focussing on the titular ‘Maame’, who is caught between her duty and her life. As an OwnVoices coming-of-age work, the novel delivers to a great extent on its promise, though it did have certain flaws.

Story Synopsis:

Maddie, a British-Ghanaian girl in her mid-twenties, is the ‘Maame’ of her family, Maame meaning ‘woman’ in their native Twi. With an absent mum and an irresponsible elder brother, Maddie is the one taking care of her ailing father as well as their financial requirements. She barely has any personal life beyond this. When her mum promises to return from Ghana, Maddie finally decides to take charge of her own life and do everything she couldn’t or hadn’t. Will it really be as easy as that?

The story comes to us in the first person perspective of Maddie.

Unlike my usual headings of what I liked and what I disliked, I will have only one category this time, because the entire book left me with mixed feelings. The only exception was the title, for which I have only positive feelings. Not only does it serve as an interesting first point of appeal, but it is also justified in almost every chapter.

Mixed feelings all the way:

⚠ This is the first book I have read with a Ghanaian character (and by an author of Ghanaian origin.) I liked the insight the author showed us into the beliefs and behaviour of the Ghanaian people. She also depicts the struggles of second-generation immigrants nicely. At the same time, there is hardly anything positive about Ghanaian culture. The first-gen people are depicted as selfish pests.

⚠ Maddie is overly dependent on Google for even tiny things, and these online searches add a lot of fun to the plot. This could go either way, of course. Some of her online queries are ridiculous. But I found it hilarious how she googled even the stupidest of things and took the advice seriously. On a related note, Maddie’s first-person inner rambling also has some good bits of humour.

⚠ Maddie does justice to the title role. She is not portrayed as the perfect girl. She is dutiful, loyal, and intelligent, but she is also easy to push over, gullible, and impulsive. This realistic portrayal appealed to me. At the same time, I felt like she was too naïve and closeted to be believable. She was a 25-year-old Londoner for goodness’ sake! How could she not be aware of certain basics, especially considering her reliance on Google? Her blatant lies and her judgemental behaviour, especially in the second half, didn’t endear her to me. Also, her transformation from homebody to a free bird living on her own terms is too instant to be convincing.

⚠ As is common with many debut authors’ works, Maame too includes a whole range of themes within its plot: death of a family member, grief, corporate/professional conflicts, peer pressure, mental health issues, familial troubles, micro-aggressions, racism, sexual identity crises, romantic problems, Parkinson’s and the sadness it brings, extra-marital affairs, online dating,… Many of these were relevant and well-written, but some of the issues felt shoehorned. A few of the scenes felt like they were added only for the potential for social commentary though they had no direct impact on Maddie’s life.

⚠ Other than Maddie, none of her family members are written as likeable. One scene with Maddie’s roommate felt really silly and out of character. Her work colleagues are idiotic most of the times, and her friends, while having great roles, come in the main scenes just a few times. As such, if you like Maddie, you will like the book. But if you find her irritating, you might hate the content because there is no other character to fall back upon.

⚠ The writing is a too simplistic. This work has been marked as ‘New Adult’ (which is nothing but YA with Sex Scenes IMHO) by the publishers, and the book does fit the NA genre well. But I wish the writing had been more nuanced.

⚠ The book tries to be gender-inclusive with the presence of lesbian and bi characters. However, a certain subplot is highly biphobic.

The audiobook experience:

The audiobook, clocking at a little over 10 hours, is narrated by Heather Agyepong. She does a fabulous job of voicing Maddie and her insecurities as well as newfound confidence. If you are an avid audiobook listener, you will certainly enjoy her nuanced narration. If you are an audiobook newbie, this would be a good book to begin your audio journey with as there are no multiple timelines or varying perspectives to confuse you. The narration is easy-going on the ears.

When I looked at the author’s profile, I realised that she has quite a few things in common with Maddie. So is this partially autobiographical? I would have preferred an author’s note about this aspect. (It is quite possible that such a note exists in the digital/paper copies, but my audio version didn’t have it.)

All in all, this book has appeal as the coming-of-age story from a British-Ghanaian perspective. It has plenty of emotions, good and bad and ugly. The main character is what will make or break the book for you, so if you do pick it up, I hope you like her so that you can connect better with the book.

3.5 stars, rounding up for the excellent narration in the audio version.

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton Audio and NetGalley for the ALC of “Maame”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.