The House My Father Built

by Adewale Maja-Pearce

In this memoir, about a house his father built, Adewale Maja-Pearce captures the essence of the last decade of the 20th Century. He paints, in the minutest of detail, the sense of transition, of inevitable change, of frustration at its slow pace. The reader, while focused on the small details, is coerced to lean back, and take in the big picture.

"But all that was a long time ago now, longer than the time it took me to dislodge the Alhaji and Ngozi and Pepsi, and longer again since my father died, the man who had willed me the house he built that made it all possible. I have written about him elsewhere. I had my problems with him; he had his problems with me. One of them was that I wanted to be a writer, not a physician, an incomprehensible decision which kept us estranged for years. The irony was that Nigeria was all that engaged me as a writer, which was why his gift was so apt, even if he hadn't imagined it that way."

107 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 5, 2016

Reviews

[Dayo Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

That I had met the author a few times before made this page an interesting read. I think I will read a few more of his books. One thing that needs to be said though, he was accurate about Lagos then, it has changed for the better now, not the best, better.

[Literary Everything · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a saner environment it would be easier to evict tenants at the end of their lease but not in Nigeria in the pre-democracy era as Adewale finds out. He writes about the dysfunction in Nigeria as a whole and Lagos; corruption in the judicial system (the police force and the court system). Read the full review here http://literaryeverything.com/2019/05...

[Ijeoma Wogu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was hilarious and succinct in its poetic portrayal of life in Lagos, Nigeria. It echoed snippets of my growing up years in that city. Adewale Maja-Pearce is a treasure to the African Continent.