Literary Wives Club: His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie

(My fourth read with the Literary Wives online book club; see also Kay’s review and Naomi’s review.)

{SPOILERS IN THIS ONE}

Peace Adzo Medie’s 2020 debut novel was the first disappointment I’ve had from Reese Witherspoon’s book club. The Kirkus review excerpt inside the paperback’s front cover should have given me an idea of what to expect: “A Cinderella story set in Ghana … A Crazy Rich Asians for West Africa.” While both slightly reductive, those comparisons do give some sense of the book’s tone and superficiality.

Afi Tekple is a seamstress whose family arranges for her to marry Elikem Ganyo, a rich international businessman who has properties all over Ghana. In a neat bit of symmetry, I read a novel earlier this year that opened with a traditional Ghanaian divorce ceremony where the husband was in absentia (What Napoleon Could Not Do); this opens with a traditional wedding ceremony where, again, the groom isn’t there. The giving of schnapps as part of a dowry is a customary element of both.

The first half of the novel was agonizingly slow. Afi and her mother do little but sit in an opulent Accra flat, waiting for Eli to grace them with his presence. When he does appear, what luck! (eye roll) he and Afi have a magical sexual connection, described in romance novel language. But he’s only there part time, dividing his attentions between households. Afi enrols in fashion school, cooks and keeps house for Eli, and falls pregnant with his son, Selorm. (In another instance of poor pacing, we then jump to a year after the birth.) It should be a perfect life, yet she’s not happy because there is a rival for her husband’s affections.

You see, Eli’s family chose Afi in the hope that she’d get him to give up the Liberian woman who gave birth to his sickly daughter. They despise Muna for her independent spirit and transgressive behaviour. Although Afi knew about Muna, she doesn’t realize the extent to which she was the Ganyos’ pawn until late on. Meanwhile, Afi has gone from a timid country girl to a confident, high-class boutique owner accustomed to modern conveniences. She won’t ignore her longing to move into Eli’s house and get their marriage legally recognized. She issues an ultimatum: either she’s the only, official wife or she’s out of there.

I kept expecting a showdown between Afi and Muna; then, the further I got, the more I feared Muna wouldn’t appear at all. She does have a scene, 20 pages from the end, and instantly takes on more contours than the evil stereotype the Ganyos have spread, yet it doesn’t change Afi’s jealousy and determination to live independently. I hoped for more of a message of understanding and sisterhood. Initially, the arranged marriage plot reminded me of a particular Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie short story, but Afi’s narration was only so-so and there were more grammar and vocabulary errors than I’m used to encountering in conventionally published work. This might appeal to readers of Ayobami Adebayo’s Stay with Me. (Public library)

The main question we ask about the books we read for Literary Wives is:

What does this book say about wives or about the experience of being a wife?

My main takeaway from His Only Wife is that a marriage doesn’t work if there’s someone interfering – and that refers to Afi’s mother-in-law probably more so than it does to Muna.

Eli just wants to have his cake and eat it. He thinks he should be free to accumulate as many cars and houses and women as he wants. He never intended to leave that woman and you all knew it … I want him to be mine only. Is that too much to ask? I’m sorry that I’m not like other wives who are able to happily share their husbands with co-wives and mistresses and girlfriends. That’s just not me. I’m not built like that.

I was a little uncomfortable that Medie presents legal marriage and monogamy as the only viable option, with Afi coming to disparage the village ceremony she had and wanting the fairy tale proposal in Paris and church wedding instead. Polygamy has a long tradition in countries including Ghana and Nigeria; it might have been interesting for Medie to explore contrasting attitudes toward it. Instead, this feels like pandering to Western tastes.

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Next book: The Harpy by Megan Hunter in June