The Middle Daughter

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a b Edoro, Ainehi (3 April 2023). "When a Character Really Needs a Happy Ending | Review of The Middle Daughter by Chika Unigwe". Brittle Paper . Retrieved 25 August 2023. The first line of the novel, “I fear the man who is my husband,” is bench-pressing so many thematic weights. It layers a sense of foreboding by piquing the reader’s curiosity and foreshadowing events connected to abuse. The story opens with news of Udodi’s death, the first daughter, who pursued higher education in the United States and crashed in an accident a week before her return to Enugu. After her death, the family is thrown into irreconcilable grief that feels impossible to escape. Unigwe writes, “Udodi’s death was the beginning of the raging storm but at that moment, we thought that the worst had already happened, and that life would treat us with more kindness.” This was such an emotionally strenuous, intense, and powerful read. In her book, Unigwe explores family, social class, religion, grief, and motherhood through the lens of Nani, and sometimes Ugo, her younger sister. The blame culture is strong here, whilst religion reverence supersedes respectful worship and transcends into a dangerous weapon, one that Nani is beaten with many times.

When a Character Really Needs a Happy Ending | Review of The

Final notes: The only thing that confused me a bit was the shift in perspectives. The chapters already clarify who’s view we’re seeing, but only Nani was told in the ‘I’ perspective. Nevertheless, the story was phenomenal, painful, but one everyone should try. Glad I got the arc :). I'm very grateful that Nani's story ended well. These stories sometimes don't. I'm grateful to the author for giving us that. I honestly tried to understand her, but I just couldn't; as a Nigerian neither as someone who has read a lot of broken characters. I'm not going to lie, I blamed Nani for marrying him. For deciding that marrying her abuser was better than facing her family. Their relationship had deteriorated, but it had not gotten that bad. The consequences of her decision to go to Ephraim made my skin crawl. The book is in three parts and alternates between the past and present. Nani is the middle daughter of a loving, progressive and elite family in Nigeria. Then life happened - she first lost her elder sister in a motor accident and then her father to cancer.Udodi’s death was the beginning of the raging storm but at that moment we thought that the worst had already happened, and that life would treat us with more kindness. I have to admit right off that this book was a hard read for me. But first, let’s start with the good. I could not stop reading Chika Unigwe's enchanting novel, The Middle Daughter. Her tender exploration of family blessings and woes is magical!’ UWEM AKPAN

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I really wanted to like it, but was sadly disappointed. In the words of Sidney Sheldon, “The pain of disappointment is the price we pay for hope.” Nani, the protagonist and middle child, is othered in so many subtle ways. The names of the first and last daughters start with a U: Udodi and Ugo. Both names signify peace and abundance, respectively. However, the middle child’s name starts with an N: Nani. Aside from being othered by the lettering of her name, Nani means “scarcity,” a direct contrast to the abundance and goodwill of her sisters’ names. The otherness that was prophesied in her name manifests consistently and drives her into exile for several years. When Nani is only seventeen, she loses her beloved sister and father. Misunderstood by the rest of her family, she is beguiled by an itinerant preacher, a handsome self-proclaimed ‘man of God’ who seems to offer all the answers. But instead of building a better future with him, Nani is forced too soon into a challenging womanhood with an oppressive husband.Throughout The Middle Daughter, readers wait for Nani to take a stand and fight for her freedom. Sadly, when the moment finally comes, the payoff is unsatisfying. The issue of poor character development sadly extends to the story’s climax.