Greetings, once again dear reader! 👋🏽
I hope you are doing well and taking good care of yourself.
Welcome to another edition of this spectacular newsletter.
Dele Weds Destiny is a warm story about the friendship between 3 women from university until about 3 decades later, when they are meeting again for one of their children’s wedding. It is the author’s debut novel, published in 2022. In this book, the author takes readers on a journey between Lagos, where the women are reuniting for the wedding, and Kaduna, where they first met in university.
This is one of those books I almost didn’t read because of the title so here’s yet another reminder not to judge a book by its cover because it was such a great read. Deftly moving between the present and the past, the story explores the highs and lows of the friendship between the three women over the years.
Zainab and Enitan were roommates in the first year of university and easily became friends. Funmi was Enitan’s coursemate and became part of the band a while later. While Zainab was pretty much a stone-throw from home, Enitan and Funmi were far away from home but each young woman was discovering themselves in the new environment, and despite their differences, they had each other to rely on until they graduated. After which, life changed for them.
Not too long after graduation, Zainab gets married to her father’s mentee, Enitan elopes with her lover to his country and Funmi marries someone she met at the hospital she worked during her youth service. The women somehow navigated their complex friendship and kept in touch over the years but they are reunited for the first time in 3 decades when Funmi’s daughter, Destiny is getting married.
The book starts slowly with the author gradually revealing each woman’s family dynamics and their defining experiences, but it picks up and the reader can easily piece together how they came to be as they are. Funmi with her brashness, thanks to growing up in a toxic family and having to stand up and make a way for herself, Enitan’s eagerness as a result of her mother’s smothering love, and Zainab’s reserved nature, thanks to her Professor-father.
We also see their upbringing reflected in how they have raised their children, from the strained mother-daughter dynamics between Funmi and Destiny to the topsy-turvy relationship between Enitan and Remi. Zainab has only sons so she’s somewhat spared theatrics. She however has a close relationship with Funmi’s daughter and is seemingly the only person who understands her.
At the time of the reunion, each woman was a different version of herself from when they had last been together, and their friendship has grown with them. Told from the perspectives of the three main characters, the book largely portrays a friendship that has weathered the storms of life to evolve into a sisterhood such that they understand each other without the need for so many words.
This heart-warming story is a nod to thriving female friendships, regardless of distance and the issues of life, which are increasingly difficult to navigate these days. Although I have a lot of questions about the end of the book, I enjoyed reading it and I’m excited to see what more the author has in store.
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 😊