Flowers and Shadows

This is about the ruin of one tough rags-to-riches businessman of brutal and secret methods and how this affected his son and wife. In particular it’s about how the son Jeffia came out of the experience a more matured young adult. Jonan is the business man who started from nothing setting up a paint business with Sowho his half-brother. In other to get to the top he eliminated Sowho by having him jailed. When Sowho got out of jail he secretly began planning his revenge. Now the time has come for his revenge.

Jonan is worried that Sowho should telegram him about his planned visit. His business wasn’t going well and Sowho made secret deals with his co-directors in order to undermine him. When Gbenga resigned Jonan wanted to teach him a lesson so he sent thugs to beat him up and this led to his death. Jeffia got involved with Cynthia, the daughter of one of his father’s former staff whom his father framed and jailed when he posed a threat. When Jonan and Sowho finally met, a fight resulted, later to turn into a car chase, during which Jonan had a heart attack, rammed into Sowho’s car, and they were both killed. Jeffia and his mother were left to pick up the broken pieces, with Cynthia leading Jeffia on.

The book is full of teenage thoughts about life and corrupt society, and the style is rather long-winded. Sometimes the voice sounds unrealistic, for example in describing a black person as going “pale,” in that many of the women had “distinct” or “pointed” noses, in saying that an Igbo character ”prostrated” for his boss. Igbo people don’t prostrate like Yorubas do.

April 28, 2015. Review initially written in 1992. Novel first published in 1989. Picture source: Yahoo (Images).