Literary Fiction by People of Color discussion

If anyone would like to lead the discussion for May: The Death of Vivek Oji, please let me know. You can respond here or dm me directly. Thanks!

Akwaeke Emezi is a Nigerian fiction writer and video artist, best known for their novels Freshwater, Pet, and their New York Times bestselling novel The Death of Vivek Oji.[2] Emezi is a generalist who writes speculative fiction, romance, memoir and poetry for both young adults and adults with mostly LGBT themes. Their work has earned them several awards and nominations including the Otherwise Award and Commonwealth Short Story Prize. In 2021, Time featured them as a Next Generation Leader.[3]

Here’s their website if you like to check out more:

https://www.akwaeke.com/

The schedule for The Death of Vivek Oji:

Discuss chap 1-15 beginning May 4th

Entire book open May 13th

Looking forward to this discussion. I'm finishing up their first novel, Freshwater, now and look forward to starting this one next.

David wrote: "Looking forward to this discussion. I'm finishing up their first novel, Freshwater, now and look forward to starting this one next."

Completely coincidentally Freshwater is next on my TBR list. I'll start that tonight. I assume it's good since you still want to read their sophomore effort.

I finished Freshwater - very impressive. I don't see it as necessary background for The Death of Vivek Oji, but because it is so autobiographical it's nevertheless helpful to understand where the author is coming from.

What did you make of it, William (if you've gotten to it yet)?

David wrote: "I finished Freshwater - very impressive. I don't see it as necessary background for The Death of Vivek Oji, but because it is so autobiographical it's nevertheless helpful to unders..."

Pretty confusing at first, what with the large cast of characters and gods in the initial pages. But about half way through with the people, places, and gods in order, I'm intrigued and anxious to learn who will win out in the end.

Akwaeke Emezi is a fabulous writer and The Death of Vivek Oji is another beautifully written masterpiece

We will plan to start the discussion on May 4th. Anyone finished? Currently reading? Awaiting copy from library or store? What other books have you read by this author?

I’m 85% of the way through, looking forward to discussion

The discussion begins today for chap 1-15:

What’s your initial impression of Vivek & Osita?

What’s your thoughts on knowing up front that Vivek Oji is dead? Even though we know from the title that he does at some point. Does that alter in any way your reading experience?

Even though Death is in the title, I keep getting swept up in the stories of Vivek's life, only to be reminded again with every "after Vivek died" comment in the narrative. I think the writing is powerful.

Joelle.P.S wrote: "Even though Death is in the title, I keep getting swept up in the stories of Vivek's life, only to be reminded again with every "after Vivek died" comment in the narrative. I think the writing is p..."

Same here, Joelle. It’s actually why I asked the question. It’s like, “oh, that’s right, Vivek is dead.” I’m really enjoying this.

I always found Akwaeke Emezi very mysterious, unique, different in a good way. I think they were the first author I encountered that used they/them/their pronouns to describe themselves. I also never read or saw any interviews given by them which only increased my curiosity about them. I guess I only needed to look though. Here’s one from The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Vivek Oji isn’t discussed so no need to worry about spoilers.

https://youtu.be/KDncoRgU648

I finished this one last month and I really loved it. One of Emezi’s inspiration was Chronicle of a Death Foretold which uses the exact same unfolding of starting the story at the very end, and this book is exactly about reproducing what led to Vivek’s death, which enables a beautiful character development.

Ready to share my thoughts on Osita and Vivek whenever we kick it off 😎

Andrés wrote: "I finished this one last month and I really loved it. One of Emezi’s inspiration was Chronicle of a Death Foretold which uses the exact same unfolding of starting the story at the very end, and thi..."

Thanks for sharing that, Andrés. I’m not at all familiar with Chronicle of a Death Foretold. We are discussing chap 1-15 now so you can share your thoughts on Vivek & Osita now.

I'm not quite up to chapter 15 but I'll jump in with some initial thoughts. I read Freshwater right before this, and I've been surprised how different this one is. I loved Freshwater, in part because of how innovative and groundbreaking it is.

This one is much more in the vein of a traditional novel. I actually didn't care for it much until I got to the point where Vivek was subjected to an exorcism at Mary's church. I had such a visceral reaction to that, I had to set the book down for awhile. I don't know if I've ever been so angry while reading a book. It wasn't a comfortable feeling, but Emezi must be doing something right to provoke that reaction in me.

Even though this is set in Nigeria, there are so many parallels to the queer experience in the US.

David wrote: "I'm not quite up to chapter 15 but I'll jump in with some initial thoughts. I read Freshwater right before this, and I've been surprised how different this one is. I loved Freshwate..."

Same here, David. For me the book was super slow for the first 50-60 pages. The book picked up considerably at the point you mentioned and got the same reaction out of me. It felt like conversion therapy to “cure” Vivek of his ways. Crazy.

Having read the books back to back (Freshwater and The Death...), there is no denying the talent of this young writer. I preferred Vivek over Freshwater although They took more chances and had more surprises in their first novel, Freshwater. The story line in TDOVO was more traditional even if the content was not. I thought that presenting Vivek's death in the first pages made the reader anxious in the mystery "whodunnit" fiction style and it kept me turning the pages. I didn't find it a slow read at all. They even introduced a suspect in Vivek's cousin right away..but he couldn't have done it, could he? Kept reading to find out...

It's been a while since I read this one, and also Freshwater, but enjoyed them both.. I was particularly mesmerized by Freshwater, and I think it landed on my favorite's list. But also thought TDOVO was very well done and kept my interest throughout. Emezi is an amazing talent. I remember the sense of layers being pealed slowly back to reveal "truths", making my heart hurt with the growing realities.

I partook of the audio version of Death of Vivek Oji, and I feel it was very powerful to hear the voices in an African "brogue." Knowing the death ahead of time actually sharpened my curiosity: why? where? who? and invited me to vividly speculate on how the story of these characters would unfold. The novel also inspired a helpful bit of self-reflection as to why I was, on the one hand, so accepting and compassionate about these African kids with gender dysphoria and bisexual leanings but so averse to listening to descriptions of the actual activity. I felt very voyeuristic, and did fast forward through sections. I wonder if anyone else reacted in this way. I thought the author dealt with parental and other adult struggles very compassionately, for which I was grateful. There was nothing political, polemic, in their approach.

I’ve been reading a lot of Akwaeke Emezi’s books this year. Freshwater, Pet, You Made a Fool of Death With Her Beauty, now The Death of Vivek Oji.

At the beginning of this one up through the exorcism, I was feeling like something is off about the death and generally disoriented and unsettled. This kid experienced too much hate for queerness, for transness, for living free and whole. Akwaeke also has a way of portraying taboo relationships, in ways that are very humanizing. But I like the scenes that show Vivek grow in dignity and self expression. Each story adds a layer to give you characters with depth. I have more thoughts when we get to the book as a whole.

William wrote: "Having read the books back to back (Freshwater and The Death...), there is no denying the talent of this young writer. I preferred Vivek over Freshwater although They took more chances and had more..."

I didn't find a slow read either. I suspected almost everyone at some point.

I finished this last night. I loved this book - and didn't expect that I would.

The writing was very cinematographic, I love when an author can do that in their work.

The vulcanizer's chapter in particular really impressed me: not only did Ebenezer seem to be the only man in the book to realize how lucky he was to have his wife, — albeit only once he received a harsh wake-up call, after he was getting ready to cheat— he was the only other person to (inadvertently) witness Vivek's last few seconds of life. Amazing storytelling.

This is the first work by Akwaeke Emezi that I've read, but they've gained a new fan in me.

Entire book open for discussion

I am really surprised that half way into the month and no one has mentioned the Adichie versus Emezi feud. Especially since it seemed to have started with the publication of this book. In my opinion Adichie's reputation and standing took a serious blow.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/opinio...

William wrote: "I am really surprised that half way into the month and no one has mentioned the Adichie versus Emezi feud. Especially since it seemed to have started with the publication of this book. In my opinio..."

What! Maybe many didn’t know about it like myself. I must read this to find out what it’s all about.

Feud implies there are two sides, but I don't think Adichie has any mainstream supporters at this point. I don't see a major US publisher working with her again. It's a shame because I thought Americanah was important.

I loved all of her books I've read through to Americana. About 2 years ago my daughter told me she was transphobic. I was shocked. There was a lengthy article in the Atlantic about the feud and her views that I read which was truly disheartening. That was about a year ago and I've not heard much more about it other than that Adichie refuses to apologize or revise her thinking..

I couldn't open the link above, so I went looking for information on that feud. This was a very interesting take on the issue. I hope it opens.

https://theconversation.com/adichie-a...

Susan wrote: "I partook of the audio version of Death of Vivek Oji, and I feel it was very powerful to hear the voices in an African "brogue." Knowing the death ahead of time actually sharpened my curiosity: why..."

I also took the audiobook route for this one, and I'm so glad I did. Yetide Badaki and Chukwudi Iwuji did an amazing job bringing the characters to life.

The Death of Vivek Oji
I hope I am not too late for this discussion, I finished this book last night, what a lovely novel. I had to put it down several times to process what I had just read, because many times it was painful and deeply moving.
I couldn't believe that I was hooked to Vivek's story despite knowing that Vivek would die.

When I read this novel, knowing Vivek would die motivated me to discover why and how. This book was perfect, and I read this one so fast because I was deep in the story.

Very powerful. The narration won the 2021 Audie Award for Literary Fiction. For me, this was a 5-star read and I’ve added others of their books to my TBR list.