BLESSINGS
by Chukwuebuka Ibeh
Doubleday. 288 pages, $28.
BOOKSTORES AND LIBRARIES are full of coming-of-age books by gay men, but Blessings isn’t your usual novel in that genre—an aspect that’s both appealing and aggravating. Initially set in Nigeria—a country that’s notoriously anti-gay—in a relatively well-off household, the story opens with the arrival of a new member of the family, a young man whom the patriarch, a reticent, almost bullying adult named Anozie, brings home at the behest of an acquaintance who wanted the boy to learn a trade—or possibly, to just go away, as the story lightly hints.
Almost immediately, the fifteen-year-old Obiefuna (sometimes called “Obi”) becomes obsessed with this newcomer, Aboy, who sleeps on a mattress in a room shared with Obiefuna and his younger brother, who is Anozie’s favorite—a fact that Obiefuna grudgingly accepts. When Aboy squeezes into bed with Obiefuna and his brother one night, Obiefuna kisses the slumbering Aboy; later, the two share an intimate moment in the kitchen. Anozie observes the lingering act, grows angry, banishes Aboy, and sends Obiefuna to a “seminary,” which is best described as a secondary school.
At this point, the story subtly shifts from a feeling of warm but shaky safety to one of discovery and danger. Adrift and missing his mother, Obiefuna understands that he is at the school for the duration and is denied a chance to explain things to her. His father even disallows Obi a chance to go home for the holidays, instead sending him to stay with an aunt. Grieving the loss of watching her son mature, Obiefuna’s mother, Uzoamaka, knows that her son has always been gentle and creative, but she doesn’t seem to have the words to describe his sexuality. For his part, Obi never dared to tell her his truth. Instead, as his mother knows and to his father’s everlasting dismay, Obiefuna is constantly, quietly compliant and obedient. Only Anozie knew his son’s truth for sure, and Uzoamaka is powerless to confront or question her husband for most of the story.
These things happen in the first few chapters of Blessings. The rest is about Obiefuna’s quest to understand himself and his gayness: learning how to get along with the all-powerful Seniors at the seminary, and discovering that he doesn’t want to be with women at all but that he’ll do almost anything for another boy. The story picks up briefly when he’s befriended by the cruelest boy, Senior Papilo, who manipulates Obiefuna psychologically, getting Obi to do his chores in exchange for protection and food and an awkward sexual encounter with a girl off school grounds. And then Senior Papilo, in a passage that feels so very abrupt, passes his final exams and moves on, leaving Obiefuna to continue exploring his sexuality on his own and to finally understand that he is still in love with Aboy, whom he hasn’t seen in a few years and whom Obi longingly wonders what if, as he moves on with his life.
It’s here, toward the end of the book that the plot deals with Obi as a wiser, seasoned young man, but the story is told breathlessly, as if our reading time is running out. And that’s too bad: author Chukwuebuka Ibeh, who was born and raised in Nigeria but now resides in the U.S., offers readers a truly great character in Obiefuna, who floats through a life that happens to him, mostly letting others call the shots. This aspect of Obiefuna, the main subject of this tale, seems to ask readers to be sympathetic to the character, which seems highly appropriate because Obiefuna is someone you’ll want to protect. Still, while the tale is interesting and the characters stellar, the plot development is alternately quite fast and snail’s-pace slow, like a driver with a learner’s permit on an open road. A little more fuel to this story would have helped.
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Terri Schlichenmeyer is a freelance writer based in Wisconsin.
