This Motherless Land - Nikki May

This Motherless Land - Nikki May - ★★★★

- July 18, 2024

AUTHOR: Nikki May

GENRE: Literary Fiction, Retelling.

PUBLICATION DATE: July 18, 2024

RATING: 4 stars.

In a Nutshell: A loose retelling of Jane Austen’s ‘Mansfield Park’. A decolonised narrative spanning two decades in Nigeria and England. Interesting characters, amazing writing, dark and light themes interspersed. You don’t need to read the original as this one can be appreciated much better as an independent novel. Recommended!

Plot Preview:

1978. When ten-year-old Funke loses her mom in a car accident in Lagos, she is sent to live with her mom’s estranged family in England. Her mother’s sister isn’t so receptive to the idea of raising a mixed-race child, but Funke finds a friend in her cousin Liv. As the years pass by, Funke and Liv go through varied ups and downs, both haunted by the words and deeds of their mothers – one from the past and one in the present. Can the two girls learn to stand for themselves in a world where they are first judged by gender and skin and size?

The story comes to us from the third person perspectives of Funke and Liv, beginning in 1978 and jumping a few years over four sections until it reaches 1998.

Bookish Yays:

💐 Having complicated lead characters such as Funke and Liv always works in a character-oriented storyline. The two girls are not similar in any way except by virtue of being blood relations, so it is interesting to see how they handle the trials coming their way. Each of them grows differently over the course of the book.

💐 For a book with the word ‘motherless’ in the title, there are a surprisingly high number of mother-daughter relationships in the plot, ranging from toxic to supportive. This also includes grandmothers, close family friends who play mother-substitutes, and well-meaning but unrelated elders. The variety of the connections and their impact on the characters comes out excellently. Quite a few of these relationships bring to mind the nature vs. nurture debate, with no clear answer on which is stronger.

💐 Another dominant connection in the book is that of siblings, whether direct or cousins. The bonding, the bantering, and the bickering all get a prominent (and accurate) portrayal.

💐 Love the questions the book raises about identity. Who you are, where you belong, what is your home – all are pertinent in this increasingly global environment. It also highlights the role of choices and challenges in altering the trajectory of our life.

💐 The travails of being mixed-race or Black in the UK AND similar struggles of being mixed-race in Nigeria come out realistically without seeming over the top.

💐 The details about Nigeria, covering both the positive aspects (such as food, culture, beliefs, the friendliness of the people, and even the fabulous Afro hair styles) and the negative traits (such as the gender bias, the class divide, the corruption, the rash driving, and the infrastructure issues.) I love how we get a real taste of de-colonial Nigeria, both good and bad.

💐 Usually, books that are based in two distinct types of countries end up showing negatives of the home nation and the positives of the adopted motherland, especially if this new country of residence happens to be a white-dominant developed country (USA/UK/Australia/…). However, the author is balanced and fair in her portrayal of both countries, showing us the positive and negative side of the UK as well. I appreciate how the book portrays a well-rounded truth and also pokes fun when needed. The author’s OwnVoices credentials (she was born in Bristol and raised in Lagos) sure helped. Many Indian authors settled abroad could learn a lot from Nikki May on how to represent the truth about your country of origin without resorting to a one-sided, stereotypical depiction.

💐 The writing is powerful and thought-provoking, tackling several relevant contemporary issues such as gender discrimination, racism, white privilege, parental death, parental abuse, mental health, drug abuse, and many more. The hard-hitting points are sometimes covered in a sugary coating, but this doesn’t reduce their impact. Despite the darkish storyline, the author still manages to insert humour and light-hearted scenes into the narrative. The book isn’t exactly satirical but comes close to it in tone.

💐 As Mansfield Park had an omniscient narrator, we don't get to see how the young Fanny struggles to settle in her new abode that's so different to the one she knew before. In this aspect, the current book excels. Funke's struggle to fit into England seems true to life, with the focus not just being on the reaction of the whites to her skin colour, but also on her troubles with British food, the variation in the weather, and the maintaining of her Afro hair.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

🌹 This book is supposed to be a de-colonial retelling of Jane Austen’s novel, Mansfield Park. Being the good girl and sincere reviewer that I am 😉, I reread the Austen classic before picking this up so that I could appreciate its subtler points better. (No complaints about this, as I am a Jane Austen superfan!) But this turned out to be a very loose retelling, with barely any similarity between the two works. Other than the fact that a ten-year-old child is compelled to move into a different home and lifestyle, and that there’s an eight-year time jump after some chapters, there’s nothing else that reminded me of Mansfield Park. Thankfully, this novel has enough merit to stand on its own.

🌹 This novel has four sections, each coming from a distinct year. The first section is brilliant. Had the entire book been to that level, I would have given this a 4.5 and happily rounded up. However, the second section turned out to be too bleak for my liking, with the tragedies piling up and no sight of any hope. When every event is dismal, the story feels stuck in an overly disheartening quagmire. This section was really tough for me to get through, partly because some of the events aren’t what I enjoy reading. The remaining two sections mostly redeem the experience. (In other words, don’t give up during section two.)

🌹 A few of the characters are too stereotypical and fall in neat good/bad categories. Thankfully, the minor characters are more realistic, but I wish the secondary characters had been more layered, especially Liv’s mother.

🌹 The page count is much less than that of Austen’s novel, but a lot happens over the course of these 330-odd pages. This means that the pacing is obviously faster than the classic, but the depth is somewhat shallow. We cover a lot in brief rather than explore a few topics in detail.

Bookish Nays:

🌵 The climax feels rushed. After all that build-up, I was hoping for a more satisfying finish. But the confrontation scene is barely there before we move into the HEA.

All in all, I mostly enjoyed this story. If I were to strictly evaluate it as a retelling, it would not fare so well as there are not more than a couple of points in common with Mansfield Park. But evaluated as an independent story, the book performs excellently.

This is the author’s sophomore novel. I haven’t read her debut work yet, but based on my experience with this one, I am definitely adding ‘Wahala’ to my list, as well as keeping an eye out for her future books.

Definitely recommended, not necessarily to Austen fans, but to readers who enjoy literary family sagas and want a culturally inclusive experience.

My thanks to Random Things Tours and author Nikki May for a complimentary copy of 'This Motherless Land', and for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blurb:

From the prize-winning author of WAHALA, a powerful de-colonial retelling of MANSFIELD PARK, exploring identity, culture, race and love

When Funke’s mother dies in an accident in Lagos, she’s sent to live with her maternal family in England. Against a backdrop of condescension and mild neglect, sensible Funke strives to fit in, determined to become one of them.

Free-spirited Liv has always wanted to break free of her joyless family, to be nothing like them. Fiercely protective of Funke, she at last has an ally. The two cousins give each other what they need love.

But the past casts long shadows and the choices made by their mothers haunt them, shaping the trajectory of their adult lives. Can they escape their legacy?

Witty, warm, hugely entertaining, This Motherless Land bridges three decades and two continents, delving into the thorny territories of race and culture and belonging. At its heart is a story about love and how it can make the difference between surviving and thriving.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author Nikki May:

Born in Bristol and raised in Lagos, Nikki May is Anglo-Nigerian. Her critically acclaimed debut novel WAHALA won the Comedy Women In Print New Voice Prize, was longlisted for the Goldsboro Glass Bell Award and the Diverse Books Award, and is being turned into a major BBC TV drama series. THIS MOTHERLESS LAND is her second novel.

Nikki lives in Dorset with her husband, two standard Schnauzers and way too many books. She should be working on her third book but is probably reading.

Connect with her on:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikkimaywriter

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NikkiOMay

Website: https://www.nikki-may.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~