Muchemi-Ndiritu’s
analysis of the experience of an African immigrant in the United States, and
the situation in that country is absolutely fascinating and not something often
met with in fiction. She is a talent to be reckoned with. (Review by Margaret
von Klemperer, courtesy of The Witness)
Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu, whose debut novel this is (Lucky Girl), was born and raised in Kenya, and then, like the protagonist in her book, went to university in the United States. She now lives in Cape Town. Lucky Girl is a coming-of-age story about Soila, an only child growing up in a fatherless household, with a cold, forbidding, but very successful mother, a loving grandmother and a collection of lively aunts.
She can’t remember her father, who died when she was very young, and for many years, the subject of his death is taboo in her mother’s strict Catholic household, and is shrouded in mystery. Soila becomes desperate for a means of escape, only heightened by abuse from someone she trusts. And then she gets to America, and a very different life.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the book is Soila’s growing awareness and eventual understanding of racism as it happens in America in the time leading up to and following 9/11. She slowly comes to comprehend a very different culture.
As an African immigrant, her experience is not the same as that of African Americans, and Muchemi-Ndiritu describes what is a shattering culture clash with empathy and skill as Soila moves from a conservative and relatively homogenous society in Kenya to an America where anything goes on the one hand but is deeply racist on the other. She also comes face to face with white privilege and white fragility which she has never encountered before.
Soila’s private life is also often fraught, as she battles with her mother’s desire for her to enter the corporate world, which she does, and her own wish to become a photographer, getting to grips with the world around her through the lens of her camera. Her changing relationship with her mother is an important part of her development and the discovery of her own identity, particularly as her mother descends into dementia.
When it comes to Soila’s romantic life, we are on less solid ground. The men she falls for are not entirely believable as they are presented, being somewhat predictable and stereotypical – and in one case, a little too good to be true. However, that is not enough to detract from the very real positives in this novel.
Muchemi-Ndiritu’s analysis of the experience of an African immigrant in the United States, and the situation in that country is absolutely fascinating and not something often met with in fiction. She is a talent to be reckoned with. - Margaret von Klemperer
Lucky Girl is published by The Dial Press ISBN 978-0-593-13390-3.
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