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Arts & Life
August 31, 2025 by Edozie Udeze
Title: Archive of Scars
Author: Olumide Adekanmi
Reviewer: Edozie Udeze
If the title of this book, Archive of Scars, sounds scary enough, the story itself is more emotional and touching. The story is basically on the plight of women. It is the story of Gracia, first and foremost. It is her story and by extension the story of other women involved in this sort of tale that touches on the soul of a society that looks down on women. Yet still, it is the story of a woman who chooses to marry out of selfishness.
It only takes a village dance of the Bogan Carnival for Gracia to forget herself. In the process of the dance, she throws herself at a man who is not really qualified to marry her nor any other lady for that matter. But here we are; Olamide Adekanmi, the author weaves a pathetic story around the issue of not all that glitters that is gold. Jerry, the man who marries Gracia because he is a clerk in a university in a city shows how young beautiful women love what is ephemeral. After the dance, the Prince of the town makes the foremost choice. After he has chosen the best lady for himself, the remaining ladies are free to choose or allow other young men in the crowd to marry them.
And so Gracia, eager to go to the city, where it glitters, where life is on the fast lane, agrees that Jerry becomes her husband. But Jerry ends up a beast, a poorly trained fellow who has all the vices of a brute. A loose fellow, Jerry turns this wonderful, beautiful lady a into dummy, wasting her life, making her almost a rag and a nonentity. So from trying or hoping to be a city wife, Gracia ends up a disgraced woman. Breeding children for Jerry in quick succession, Gracia suddenly runs into mud waters.
There is no money to shoulder the responsibility of a home. Jerry is reluctant to improve himself or even try to save money from his meager salary for the sake of the female children his woman has given to him. Gracia is totally pent up, frustrated. The anger is palpable. The frustration is in the home, spreading like a virus. Hunger tears at the fabric of the domestic stability as they become the scorn of others. Jerry turns to gambling. He finds peace in the midst of chaos. He resorts to drinking without break, involving himself deeper and deeper with boys of no serious future. Gracia complains, bears the brunt as she takes care of the children almost alone. Then she begins to muster the courage to look for an alternative means of livelihood.
As she begins to make money and reaching out to other people for help and succour, Jerry turns his hatred and envy towards her. Indeed the story turns scary henceforth. All pity and sympathy suddenly turns to Gracia. She cannot relax at home. She has no home or anyone to run to at all. Jerry begins to steal her business money rendering her capital useless and inadequate. Now the tension in the home builds to a point of suspicion, mistrust, rancour, hate and abuse. Husband and wife have gradually become cat and dog. And then the children begin to bear the consequences of a home where peace and trust have suddenly disappeared.
The story of Gracia is commonplace in Nigeria and in most other societies world-over. It takes the courage of a good story teller to build on it and make it as fresh as ever. The sub-title of the story or what can be termed alternative theme like the author noted which is: The Heavy Burdens of life shot at a Woman, truly justifies the intricate nature of this tale. The author states it like this: “Gracia had convinced herself that she could not change Jerry. He was not intentionally about life to confront its challenges or face the dictations life was bringing their way… Jerry was obviously complacent with his status and saw that he did not need to shoot for a better life”.
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Adekanmi is not done yet. He is disturbed that instead of the young university clerk, Jerry, to be ambitious by furthering his education like some other people of his ilk, he chooses to be laid back. Now here is the thinking of his wife, Gracia about the Jerry she married. “Whenever she thought about him, she wished to make him understand that life only favours the brave. She hoped he knew that if you do not gamble, you cannot win. It is pointless to confront him anymore. Every attempt to make him see reason with her failed woefully. It only degenerated into argument and rage. It did not resolve anything”.
It is clear that this marriage is not made to work. With four daughters, a set of twins, Jerry is not moved to show the necessary concerns for the welfare of his kids. But Gracia is bent on looking for a plausible way to better her fortunes. While her second daughter, Tonia, connives with her father Jerry to steal Gracia blind, Gracia is forced to escape from home. Now with three daughters, she is a bit relieved to seek ways to grow her bakery business and ensure her daughters get the best out of life. As she prepares to improve she is moved to study law. Then her first daughter Joyce mingles with one of the bad boys of the area and becomes pregnant. Joyce is just 18 years of age. And so the story takes a fresh twist.
But the author does not build the suspense so well. The flat way in which he introduces this dimension does not make it sound too good and convincing in the story. Anyhow, Gracia becomes a lawyer, nonetheless, Joyce also enrolls as an undergraduate. But the sequence of the story now becomes too ordinary, too familiar, more of an ordinary tale. The language is continuously boring. The style of the tale does not vary to give it more impetus. The narrative style is inconsistent, some portions told in past tense, and some in present tense.
There is this incoherence in the manner of dialogue. Dialogues in a prose fiction form their own paragraphs. The author does not follow or conform with this long established tradition. And so it gives the novel some sort of formless form. Yet it is gratifying that Gracia eventually rose to become a Judge. Yes, she did. But her zeal to teach women to rise up to become important is the core of this story. It is a story for women and for people who may be in dire need of encouragement. The greatest encouragement is the one you give to yourself.
Gracia sees all these. She says no to laziness, to the status of a second class citizen. Even though she rises to the height of her profession, and loses her life in the process she lived her life to the maximum. The book needs serious editing by professional book editors. This will help to get the book to the level it ought to be. The author also has to tinker with a more engrossing title to make the book more enticing and attractive.
Let him also re-order the narrative style to conform with the usual norm. Otherwise, this is a story most women aspiring to marry or intending to build a home, need to read to avoid all the avoidable misdeeds of a home where the man is the czar or a boss of no serious value.
English (US)