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Dele Weds Destiny
Dele Weds Destiny: A novel | Tomi Obaro
6 posts | 6 read | 4 to read
The story of three once-inseparable college friends in Nigeria who reunite in Lagos for the first time in thirty yearsa sparkling debut novel about mothers and daughters, culture and class, sex and love, and the extraordinary resilience of female friendship. The bonds between womenas friends, and across the generationsare the jewels that make this story shine. Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage Funmi, Enitan, and Zainab first meet at university in Nigeria and become friends for life despite their differences. Funmi is beautiful, brash, and determined; Enitan is homely and eager, seeking escape from her single mother's smothering and needy love; Zainab is elegant and reserved, raised by her father's first two wives after her mother's death in childbirth. Their friendship is complicated but enduring, and over the course of the novel, the reader learns about their loves and losses. How Funmi stole Zainab's boyfriend and became pregnant, only to have an abortion and lose the boyfriend to police violence. How Enitan was seduced by an American Peace Corps volunteer, the only one who ever really saw her, but is culturally so different from hima Connecticut WASPthat raising their daughter together put them at odds. How Zainab fell in love with her teacher, a friend of her fathers, and ruptured her relationship with her father to have him. Now, some thirty years later, the three women are reunited for the first time, in Lagos. The occasion: Funmis daughter, Destiny, is getting married. Enitan brings her American daughter, Remi. Zainab travels by bus, nervously leaving her ailing husband in the care of their son. Funmi, hosting the weekend with her wealthy husband, wants everything to go perfectly. But as the big day approaches, it becomes clear that something is not right. As the novel builds powerfully, the complexities of the mothers friendshipand the private wisdom each has earnedcome to bear on a riveting, heartrending moment of decision. Dele Weds Destiny is a sensational debut from a dazzling new voice in contemporary fiction.
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emmaturi
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I loved this book, full of emotion, friendships and love. Set mostly in Nigeria it tells the story of three women who met in uni in northern Nigeria. They stay friends and one of them, her daughter is getting married. It goes back and forth from present time to when they met in their youth.

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Vansa
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I HATE,HATE it when non-white,non-American writers write this about elder care.You want to know what supposedly caring cultures do?They put the burden of elder care on the women of the house.Who,if they can afford it,underpay already poor people,to undertake work that they don't want to do.Caregiving in western cultures is actually a lot more advanced than it is in others.This one sentence reduces my rating of this book to 1 star

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Sophronisba
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“The poor died young & the rich lived long, healthy, evil lives—with shrines erected for them when they departed. The only solace was to believe in Hell—to really believe that there was a place these wicked people could go, that God would let them roast. Heaven [she] could take or leave, to be honest. The thought of worshipping God forever & ever scared her. . . But Hell. Please let there be Hell. Some people really deserved it.“

#SundaySentence

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Sophronisba
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“In the photo they are eating something out of frame, pounded yam, perhaps, or maybe eba. They hadn‘t bothered to take off their graduation robes; they were ravenous, tired from the heat; their bottoms sore from the plastic chairs they had sat in for hours; their feet swollen from the high-heeled shoes they had worn for the ceremony.“

#FridayReads #FirstLineFridays

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PNWBookseller85
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Mehso-so

This was an interesting read. I liked the middle section the best - about the three women at the center of the story during their college years - but the ending was abrupt and felt unearned. The story meandered a bit too much and not enough time was spent on the mother/daughter relationships. So just a so-so rating from me for this one.

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LatrelWhite
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🎧As I lay me down to sleep…book☺️

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