Adventures of a Reading Addict

Yeah, this good.  Really good.  Almost, are you sure this is your first novel good.  Myth, tradition and religion, are mixed in this dense messy novel.  It works as a family drama and as a parable for the country of Nigeria.  It is an odd mix of characters as constructs, which Obioma is open about, yet who you feel for them as flesh and blood characters.  The fact that this book is not perfect makes me love it even more, there is a roughness and experimentation that gives the whole thing an unusual taste that you want to linger over.  If a novel is working for you, the jarring moments just add to the character of the over all novel.  Even if the language doesn't always match the story, I am not sure what age younger brother Ben is recalling this story, but it's like 'To Kill a Mockingbird' a young child speaking with an adult vocabulary - but that is a nit pick and just adds to the slight off-kilterness to the novel.  The more I think about it the more I like it.