Dream Count

★★★★★★★★½☆ 8.5/10

352 pages

What’s it about?

This novel intertwines the stories of four Nigerian women.

What did it make me think about?

“Where have all the years gone, and have I made the most of life? But what is the final measure for making the most of life, and how would I know if I have?”

Should I read it?

I really admire Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's writing. This book is a character study of four different women. Two are told in first-person narrative, and two are told in third-person. All the women are in their forties and looking back at the choices that have brought them to their present circumstances. They are very different women, but each illuminates some facet of being a woman.  I do not believe this book will be for everyone.  If you like a lot of plot, then skip this.  If you are interested in character development and women's studies, then this novel was written for you.

A passage I marked

"They are talking about the Brazilian butt surgery deaths in Lagos.  They do not question the longing for big buttocks that makes you agree to go under anesthesia in a darkish room with peeling paint.  They know irony and hyperbole and sass, but self-love is strange to them.  I think of myself at sixteen.  It was a slower-paced time and our troubles were different, of course, but we weren't so willing to believe the worst of ourselves.  If our daughters do not know how beautiful they are, just as they are, then surely we have failed."