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canaanmerchant's review against another edition
4.0
What happens when an immigrant returns home from the land of plenty and finds most of the people he left behind richer than he is?
What legacies of colonialism endure and what of the same for the old ways?
Those are a couple of the questions Foreign Gods brings up as it deftly works around typical tropes in diaspora and African literature and finds new ways to examine the familiar themes allowing to story to be fresh.
What legacies of colonialism endure and what of the same for the old ways?
Those are a couple of the questions Foreign Gods brings up as it deftly works around typical tropes in diaspora and African literature and finds new ways to examine the familiar themes allowing to story to be fresh.
jeankwemoi's review
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Ikechukwu Uzondu aka Ike is a cab driver in New York not by choice but because his accent failed him. His accent was not ‘right’ enough to get him a cooperate job despite his excellent credentials. Whenever he goes for an interview the interviewer’s response is “Your credentials are excellent, but the accent is crappy.”.
Ike settles for the next best thing to secure his stay in the States; marrying for papers but that doesn’t go well either because his contact makes it an extortion game. Long story short, he ends fleeing to New York because the extortion and the blackmail get out had but his woes don’t end there.
He then marries Queen Bee which is an aka given to her by Ike because of her appetite for the finery. Since his cab driving earnings can’t sustain Queen Bee’s appetite he gets into gambling.
Ike seems to be digging himself deeper into a desperate situation and it’s because of this he comes up with a brilliant idea that is not only promises to dig him out of his current woes but also to set him up a good one.
William things go as planned or he’ll just end up digging himself into a deeper hole?
I really like how Okey told Ike’s story. He writes with such clarity (you can see yourself in the places he describes), he also employs a lot of satire and humor.
I didn’t like the ending though, I feel like it was a bit rushed; something was missing. All in all despite that ending, it is such a good read!
Ike settles for the next best thing to secure his stay in the States; marrying for papers but that doesn’t go well either because his contact makes it an extortion game. Long story short, he ends fleeing to New York because the extortion and the blackmail get out had but his woes don’t end there.
He then marries Queen Bee which is an aka given to her by Ike because of her appetite for the finery. Since his cab driving earnings can’t sustain Queen Bee’s appetite he gets into gambling.
Ike seems to be digging himself deeper into a desperate situation and it’s because of this he comes up with a brilliant idea that is not only promises to dig him out of his current woes but also to set him up a good one.
William things go as planned or he’ll just end up digging himself into a deeper hole?
I really like how Okey told Ike’s story. He writes with such clarity (you can see yourself in the places he describes), he also employs a lot of satire and humor.
I didn’t like the ending though, I feel like it was a bit rushed; something was missing. All in all despite that ending, it is such a good read!
quinnhb's review
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
manaledi's review against another edition
2.0
I almost put this book down so many times because the protagonist and his choices regarding culture, materialism, family, money, and religion often offended my ethics. I understand it's satirical and thus presented many of these choices and people in stark terms, but still made for a rough read.
stevienlcf's review against another edition
4.0
Nigerian immigrant Ike, pronounced Ee-Kay (and if the hyphen is omitted the word becomes “buttocks” in Ike’s language ) has been driving a cab in NYC since he graduated from Amherst College, cum laude, in economics. After learning that he cannot obtain a coveted job in a bank without a green card, Ike begins a quest to obtain the “card that was the open sesame to a corporate job befitting his education.” A series of romantic failures leads to an ill-advised brief marriage to the sexually rapacious spendthrift Bernita, but Ike’s thick African accent proves an impediment to their prosperity. To pay down their debts and to appease his family in Nigeria who depend upon him for financial support, Ike is “led, helpless, into gambling’s firm, merciless grip.” Without options, Ike plots to steal an ancient relic, Ngene, from his homeland and sell it to a NY gallery, Foreign Gods, Inc., that specializes in tribal art. When he arrives in the Lagos airport, Ike is immediately besieged by custom agents who harass him for a bribe, and the graft continues at his village where a retinue of relatives and friends come to see him with “their pleas for cash prefaced by grim tales of woe.” Corruption is everywhere, including the village Pastor, who has pitted Ike’s family members against one another, and assures Ike that God wishes him to sow fifty thousand dollars to build a new church and, if he obeys, he will reap millions. Ndibe imbues Foreign Gods with fable-like qualities. He uses his fiction to shed light on the expectations, hopes, and frustrations of the immigrant in America, our global interconnectedness, and how far the distance between Manhattan and a village in Africa really is.
twilcox197805's review against another edition
4.0
overall, a solid effort. the meandering, neurotic, almost schizophrenic ways of the protagonist made the second half of the novel challenging.
crystal_reading's review against another edition
3.0
Review copy: An ARC won on a blog
It took me a while to get into this book. I kept laying it down and forgetting about it. Later though, I realized that this isn't a book one forgets. Ike is struggling. Everything seems to go wrong for him. He comes to America and gets a degree, but cannot get an upper level job. He's had marriage problems and has family in Africa that have expectations of monetary help since he is in America. He has a gambling problem that is causing trouble too.
He's frustrated but gets the idea to bring his hometown deity to sell at Foreign Gods Inc. Very wealthy people seem to love getting their hands on foreign gods and are willing to pay large sums of money to have them. What an idea - the buying, selling and potentially stealing of deities. It's something that has happened since the beginning of time, but it's hard to fathom what situations would compel people to buy or sell them.
This was not a comfortable book. It's not a curl up and escape and be comforted kind of book. It's a bit prickly. There is a lot of despair and frustration oozing from the pages. It's definitely unique though. This is a book that will stick in my mind for a long time to come.
It took me a while to get into this book. I kept laying it down and forgetting about it. Later though, I realized that this isn't a book one forgets. Ike is struggling. Everything seems to go wrong for him. He comes to America and gets a degree, but cannot get an upper level job. He's had marriage problems and has family in Africa that have expectations of monetary help since he is in America. He has a gambling problem that is causing trouble too.
He's frustrated but gets the idea to bring his hometown deity to sell at Foreign Gods Inc. Very wealthy people seem to love getting their hands on foreign gods and are willing to pay large sums of money to have them. What an idea - the buying, selling and potentially stealing of deities. It's something that has happened since the beginning of time, but it's hard to fathom what situations would compel people to buy or sell them.
This was not a comfortable book. It's not a curl up and escape and be comforted kind of book. It's a bit prickly. There is a lot of despair and frustration oozing from the pages. It's definitely unique though. This is a book that will stick in my mind for a long time to come.
lokenstein's review
I liked a lot of things in this book and found the story / plot quite interesting, but the main character depressed me so much, it was quite painful to read... Plus the way it was written felt very sexist (always commenting on the boobs of any women the character met etc) which added to my general frustration with this book. Too bad, because I was quite curious about the plot!