Imagine This: a story of hardship and family

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Hmmmmmmmmmm?. Hello booklovers, I'm Abeegail and welcome to my blog. Well today I would like to share this book with you guys. Sometimes you read a book and it still crosses your mind because you can't understand some of the events that happen and why they happened, that's the current predicament I'm in with this book, I read this book a few days back and it still crosses my mind from time to time.

Plot Summary
The story starts with Lola a nine year old girl, living in London. Her time in London is short lived as her father moves her and her brother back to Nigeria. In Nigeria, she is met with the unfamiliar cultural expectations, poverty, language differences and separation loss. The story is told through Lola diary entries was she addresses the story to a Imaginary addressee "Jupiter". From the entries we can see how she grows, how she adapts to changes, how she perceives herself and how she interacts with her family members. Lola struggles with her sense of self and identity, At first she seems to be in two worlds; the posh and westernized London and the rural and traditional. Both worlds clash, as she struggles with customs she doesn’t understand or accept, there is also a sense of displacement with conflicting cultural values. Finds herself at a loss because her sense of self is being threatened by cultural expectations.

What broke me heart was the treatment Lola had endure in the hands of so called family members. Her father actions really shocked me why leave your child in the hands of other people. The novel really explores what family means. Her relationship with her father, mother, brother and extended family are on strain and sometimes painful. The abandonment of her mother, her father who just leaves her in the hands of family who are reluctant to take care of a child whose father is still alive and her expectation from family members twist her sense of family.

Lola faces hardship untold of. She has to wake up very early in the to fetch water from the stream so that she can meet up with school, this is something she is not used to, coming from London. She is subjected to material scarcity, no access to water, poor healthcare, and low grade schooling. The novel doesn't romanticize hardship, it is raw not hiding behind literary devices. It also shows how the lack of this amenities affect her relationship, self esteem, and opportunities.

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What i loved
The epistolary style was on thing I loved about the novel. It not only gives the story a strong narrative but an emotional and relatable feel. It show how she thinks, how she writes, how she see changes. It also shows her flaws naivety, fear, fanciful imagination which made it more intimate and empathetic. The way the writer depict Nigeria, the extended family, interaction, extended family, humor and cultural expectations is spot on, but what seem to elude me is why Lola's father leaves Lola and her brother in the hands of family members when they could have just stayed together and manage. The novel shows what it's like for someone to move into an environment different from what one is used to with different views and ways of living. The loss and adaptation gives the book depth. It's not just a story of being back home, it shows that being "home" and "away" can hold different claims.

What didn't work for me
The story might be slow especially in the middle, mainly because of the diary style, as it shows routine, mundane actions, so it can feel long. Also other characters are less developed than Lola, characters come and go but are just mostly there to relieve tension in the story. The story can also be heavy and the accumulation of loss pain and suffering can be too much and overwhelming. At the end there was growth and liberalization but not all threads were resolved though.

Conclusion
In all Imagine This is not an "easy" read. It's a strong emotional coming of age story that doesn't hide the pain, suffering, and hardship. It makes one think deep about family and relationships, what happens to identity when expectations and displacement kicks in, and how children cope with abandonment of the adults. It also relatable to children who are sent back home to stay with family members. It show what adaptation and belonging can look like when you come from a different place.
If you like tales of African life, childhood narratives, identity, and people living in diaspora, then this book is for you.

It's still Abeegail ✨😊
Still flipping pages.