Greetings, once again! 👋🏽
I hope you are doing well and taking good care of yourself.
Welcome to another edition of The Reader’s Perspective newsletter.
Night Dancer tells the intriguing story of a young vibrant woman, Ezi, who dared to defy customs and traditions when she was betrayed by her husband. Ezi is now dead and has left some letters for her daughter, Mma, who has to connect the dots backwards. It’s the author’s third book, first published in 2011 and revised in 2017.
The book begins with Mma paying a visit to her mum’s best friend, Madam Gold, Ezi had just been buried. She hugs Mma then goes on to say it was only natural for Ezi’s father to do what he did, because “every man deserves a son.” With this, we have an idea of how Mma’s father betrayed Ezi from the beginning of the book.
“Those with buttocks do not know how to sit! That was your mother’s problem.”
Set in 3 different places at 3 different times, the moving story is in 3 parts, each one focusing on the lives of the women in the story—Ezi, Mma and Rapu. It explores themes such as duty, the complexities of mother-daughter relationships, customs and tradition, and familial and societal expectations of women, as well as double standards for men and women.
Mma and Ezi’s relationship is fraught with a lot of tension. Being raised by a single mother, Mma has a difficult childhood as a result of the society’s reaction to Ezi living alone and raising a child all by herself. Worse still, Ezi refuses to answer any of Mma’s questions about her father or the rest of her family.
When Mma starts reading the letters her mother left her, she goes to Madam Gold with all her questions. She believes that’s the only person who can have answers to fill in the gaps. Mma is convinced her life could have turned out differently if she was in contact with her father.
Madam Gold criticizes her late friend, telling Mma that she told Ezi that year that what is done is done and she should live with it, but her friend was too stubborn. With this, we see how women are advised to condone men’s excess and labelled all sorts of names when they refuse to.
When Ezi decided to leave her husband, her family cut ties with her. Ezi is now dead and in addition to inheriting her mother’s house and money, Mma also has to wear her mother’s bad name like a cloak that won’t come off, no matter how much you tug at it. She decides to embark on a journey to discover what it is about her mother’s past that she was so tight-lipped about.
Rapu was destined to be the one to lift her family out of poverty and that mantra was repeated to her countless times as a child. When the time came for her to move to the city to help Ezi and her husband around the house, she was convinced that was her chance.
In the end, there’s some reconciliation but did those relationships have to be strained in the first place?
Have you read this book? What did you think about it? Leave a comment, maybe?
If you read this book after reading this review, do come back and share 😊