You could say that 2010 was the year I rediscovered the joy of short story reading, and November’s release of E.C. Osondu’s Voice of America added another fabulous title to the list of collections I’ve enjoyed.
With stories set in both the United States and Nigeria, Osondu creates tiny snapshots of characters struggling in their native land, in refugee camps and in a country that has become their new home. Some characters have imaginings of the U.S. that are idealized and hopeful, while others know realities that continue to vex them as they attempt to straddle two cultural worlds. Osondu has a sharp writing style- not many words are used to convey a personality of a character and his or her cultural perspectives, yet the characters come to life immediately. Oftentimes, I found his manner of storytelling to be jarring, as a plot would be unfolding gradually and suddenly a major event would be presented in just one very point-blank sentence, leaving me shaken for a moment before I could continue reading.
My favorite story, “Welcome to America,” presents a more assimilated character looking back upon his early years in the U.S. with a chuckle in his voice as he describes how the level of his innocence and trusting nature caused him to perceive the community around him. Not knowing that he and his wife lived next to a halfway house, they had always assumed the oddly-formed group of residents were part of some type of religious group or perhaps simply extended relations living together, never knowing that their young daughter often spent time in the company of recovering addicts. The tone in which the character looks back on this time is actually reverent and wistful, perhaps longing for a time when his perceptions were naively innocent.
Eighteen stories are packed into this slim book that’s just over 200 pages, but the images, characters and feelings within those pages pack quite a punch. Voice of America provides an intriguing peek into the possible experiences and perspectives of Nigerian people abroad and here in the U.S.
Dawn’s lack of traveling the world is tempered the only way it can be right now through the act of reading. Her own life’s story is told on her blog, my thoughts exactly.