Sprouting Again – A Review
The book passionately tells the story of not just a girl who later turned woman, but of lineages and how such lineages turned out to be “Lineages of grace”. Romoke Bayetiri’s lineage had not really been one with much favour (in the traditional African construct) since she was a girl and the only child, while her father’s only brother could not even birth a child. Romoke at the beginning of the novel appeared to be the only hope of her lineage, a hope that seemed to be on the part of destruction. It wasn’t until later in the novel that all of her family’s misfortunes turned around for the best and even when they didn’t deserve it, grace was bestowed on them.
When I first picked up the book and got introduced to the character Romoke, I thought “Well, so I’ll be reading Romoke’s story now: OK.” Not that Romoke had a bad boring or dull story: on the contrary, hers was a tale of unexpectancy, where you expect the unexpected! But as the novel progressed. I (as well as anyone who has read the book would) got introduced mildly to ‘minor’ characters that later turned out to be characters that sustained the story.
The book is carefully divided into two parts One and Two. Each of the parts is composed of 5 chapters. Part One focuses mainly on Romoke; her mistakes, rejuvenation and triumph, only in the second instalment would you learn that her triumph was far from over, but so also was her troubles.
Romoke’s story and future are carefully intertwined with that of some of the characters in the book. These are characters that when they were introduced the reader would probably have thought of them to be minor characters that would soon outlive their existence, but the startling fact about these characters is that they proved to be stubborn thorns that would later turn out to be staples in the story. Francis and Felicia are two of those characters, those characters whose “past” would not have been without Romoke, and Romoke’s without theirs, and little wonder that their destinies were also intertwined just as they were intertwined with Romoke’s destiny.
Picking up the book, the reader would be immediately introduced to the conflict of the book. This is something that is unusual and uncommon in most Nigerian-authored books. This directness may be seen as a deviation from the normal literary norm of building up the suspense by building the conflict carefully. Instead, the writer delved straight into the conflict thereby creating instantaneous suspense that was sustained throughout the course of the novel. I must confess when the end of the novel was imminent. I wish that the writer had elongated and prolonged the story more needless to say. I was enthralled. The message is simple and straight forward. Hope has always been reoccurring from the first line till the last punctuation of the book. For a first novel, this is outstanding and I can’t help but congratulate the writer who happens to be a dear friend. Nice work, Kay.
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