Blessings

May 1, 2024
A young gay man navigates a family, school, and an entire country that holds him in contempt. Ibeh's potent debut novel centers on Obiefuna, who in 2006 is 15 years old and living with his family in the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt. His father, a tradesman, brings home a young male apprentice, Aboy. Obiefuna and the new houseguest share little more than flirtatious looks and smiles, but that's enough to prompt Obiefuna's father to evict Aboy and send his son to a religious boys' school. Obiefuna is bright, but the school is more like a physical and sexual proving ground; one classmate draws Obiefuna into a dominant relationship, complete with belt whippings, while another, more overtly gay classmate faces the abuse of his peers. Like any young gay man without a support group, Obiefuna is consumed by feelings of guilt that commingle with sexual desire; the distinction in Nigeria, as Ibeh makes clear, is that cultural homophobia is more acculturated and more pervasively dangerous. Ibeh ably captures Obiefuna's path from terror to a relatively more open feeling of sexual freedom in his mid-20s, but he's careful to make his story neither a tragedy nor a liberation tale. If Obiefuna can't shed a society's disdain, he can attempt to project kindness, an effort symbolized by his mother's quiet but consistent support for him. And he can attempt to see the bigotry clearly, symbolized by his choice to pursue a career in optometry. The book has its share of overly melodramatic moments, particularly when Obiefuna's mother is involved, and some of the protagonist's experiences are well worn in American gay fiction. But the latter chapters, focused on Nigeria's specific political, religious, and cultural bigotry--and its painful consequences in the 2010s--are striking and original. A sensitive, quietly powerful coming-of-age tale.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from May 15, 2024
Chukwuebuka Ibeh enters the literary world with a searing debut about self, family, and community. Obiefuna is his mother's miracle child, but an intimate moment with his father's apprentice lands him a ticket to seminary school, where violence is currency, and his sexuality a sin. Despite his best efforts, Obiefuna cannot change who he is, not for his father, his classmates, not even for the laws of his country. In the tradition of the great Nigerian writers who have come before him, such as Buchi Emecheta and Wole Soyinka, Ibeh expresses a quiet, transcendent truth. Although the prejudices towards the LGBTQ+ community in Nigerian culture and politics create a big part of the tension of the novel, the beauty of Obiefuna's journey is his challenge to accept himself. The same can be said of his mother, who failed to meet societal expectations of her gender during her 10-year struggle with infertility followed by her failure to protect her son. The parallels of mother and son speak to a deeper problem in societal biases that go beyond its persecution of LGBTQ+ people. Blessings is gripping, multifaceted, and poignant.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 8, 2024
In Ibeh’s engrossing debut, a gay Nigerian man is ostracized by his family and society as he struggles to be himself. As a boy, Obiefuna is close with his mother, Uzoamaka, but feels distant from his father, Anozie, who invites another young boy to live with their family and work in his building supply store. Obiefuna develops a crush on the boy, and when Anozie witnesses them acting on their shared feelings, he sends Obiefuna away to a religious boarding school, much to Uzoamaka’s dismay. Anozie continues to isolate Obiefuna from the family, banning him from returning for holidays, prompting Uzoamaka to vigorously object. As the years go by at school, Obiefuna carries on various sexual relationships despite the country’s prohibition of homosexuality, while his mother continues to protest his father’s choice to send him away (“It’s one thing to love a child, but it’s an entirely different thing for the same child to feel loved”). When Uzoamaka is diagnosed with cancer, she hides the news from Obiefuna, fearful of how he’ll be affected and hopeful she’ll be cured before they see each other again. Ibeh incisively portrays the family members’ conflicting emotions and strife, and offers a bracing depiction of queer life in Nigeria. Readers won’t want to miss this. Agent: Emma Leong, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc.