Love’s Victim

Book Review

“Nothing cripples a human being more than unrequited love,” says the narrator of An Orchestra of Minorities, the new novel from Chigozie Obioma. Unrequited love is the central theme of the novel. Chinonso, the protagonist, is “a small, lonely man whose only sin [is] that he was hungry for companionship.”

Chinonso is a young chicken-farmer in a village in Nigeria. One night, as he is returning home with a few new chickens, he saves a young woman named Ndali from suicide. Ndali was ditched by the man whom she loved very much and helped to study. “Nothing, nothing should make someone fall inside the river and die. Nothing.” That’s what Chinonso tells Ndali.

He meets Ndali again some time later at a petrol pump. Eventually they fall in love. But Ndali is the daughter of a chief who lives in a palatial house. Ndali and her family belong to an entirely different social and economic class. Her father and brother oppose her affair with Chinonso. They insult him after inviting him to the father’s birthday party.

Chinonso decides to improve his class by attending the university and acquiring a degree which will help him secure a job that will elevate his social standing. He sells his entire property and goes to Cyprus to attend the university. But he is cheated by Jamike who promised to help him get admission to the university. Jamike vanishes with almost all the money.

In Cyprus, Chinonso is arrested for a crime he did not commit. He undergoes much tribulation as a prisoner. A few years later, his innocence becomes clear and he is released. Does Ndali wait for him still?

The novel draws to a tragic end as Chinonso is unable to deal with his inner emptiness. All the suffering has not taught him the necessary lessons of life. Jamike, in the meanwhile, has reformed himself. He is a pastor now. He returns most of the money he had stolen from Chinonso. It’s not money that will make life meaningful, however. Chinonso needs love. The love of Jesus Christ that Jamike offers is too abstract for Chinonso. He wants earthly love, palpable love.

The novel is written in the mythic style of the Igbo tradition to which the author and the characters belong. That adds a unique charm to it. This is a novel that will keep you engaged to the end.