BOOK REVIEW
Title: Love, Lagos & Other Complications
Author: Zainab Uche Imam
Publishers: Narrative Landscape Press.
Zainab Uche Imam’s debut novel, Love, Lagos & Other Complications: A Lagos Love Story is an entertaining read about finding love despite past hurts, hang-ups, and the hell that is the Lagos dating scene.
The story begins with Oluwasemilore “Semi” Coker, whose dream is to become an art gallery owner. In the meantime, she is a project development manager. She arrives for a physical meeting on behalf of her organisation, but a condescending receptionist sweeps her appointment aside for a well-dressed, handsome man who swaggers in after her. Her meeting stolen, Semi bristles her way home, where her girlfriends later sweep her away for a night of dancing.
Semi can almost forget her horrible day – until she bumps into the gorgeous offender from earlier. Toluwalase “Lashe” Williams. Or, as Semi has christened him, “Arrogant Rich Boy”.
Lashe is intrigued by Semi, or, as he has christened her, Ms Independent. So much so, that he purposely bumps into her at the bar after sighting her from his VIP section. He showers her and her friends with food and drinks as an apology for making her drop her drink (and arresting her appointment)! Semi softens toward him, inviting him to join her group for the evening. Soon, the day’s earlier tension melts into palpable attraction. Then, at Lashe’s friend’s birthday party weeks later, Lashe makes his intentions known to a sceptical Semi.
Just shy of 200 pages, the novel is easy to sink into. The action progresses quickly, offences are addressed sharp and forgiveness is doled out over a few pages. Sometimes, it reads like a screenplay, the banter between friends easy to hear in my head.
Plus, there’s no traumatising ending! The main characters get their happily ever after. There’s no cheating, despair, or abuse. It was lovely to read a story with characters who laughed freely and lived without the albatross of angst on their necks.
Imam proves excellent at creating genuinely likeable characters. Lashe and his friends call each other “odogwu”; Zuli, the “warrior” of Semi’s band of Lagos babes, bemoans being “single to stupor”; and they hiss instead of kissing their teeth. Their banter is steeped in Nigerian lingua franca, making them easily relatable to me as a Nigerian reader. They are young, ambitious and effervescent in a way Nigerians ought to be when they are not carrying the world’s weight on their shoulders. Their friend group is as Nigeria should be: multi-ethnic, without the traces of tribalism threatening to tear our nation apart.
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However, I was left unsatisfied by the characterisation of some of the novel’s stars. How is Zuli so “unaffected” by the end of a five-year relationship? Is Ada really comfortable marrying a man who hides his troubles from her?
Ṣemi herself suffers from a lack of fleshing out. I learn more about Lashe and how close he is to his grandmother, a feminist who established an oil palm and cocoa empire and raised him, and why he dislikes his controlling father. So, when his grandmother dies, or he fights with his father, I know why Lashe lashes out the way he does.
But the surface of Ṣemi’s trust issues are barely scratched. I don’t learn enough about what it was like to grow up with a single mother, or how deep the wounds of her father’s betrayal go until the book is nearly over.
Imam’s strength also lies in her one-liners, delivering sentiments that sum up the highs and lows of falling for someone. Of her eventual beau, Zuri marvels that “being close to him was like breathing air.” While pondering on his pursuit of Ṣemi, Lashe wonders, “At what point does earnestness begin to seem like obsession?” Yes, the book might be light, but it also makes you think about this (sometimes, unfortunate) thing we call love.
If I could ask for one thing to be better, it would be the ending. It felt too quick. All of a sudden, Ṣemi was running away from Lashe. Then, she was in therapy and everything was fixed? Within what amount of time? I wanted to relish more sweet moments with the characters – watching Ṣemi and Lashe fall in love and name their favourite movies and the quirks they discovered.
Overall, the book reminded me of a sitcom: full of moments that make me burst into laughter or want to head-butt the characters, and mushy romantic lines from Lashe that almost made me swoon. Ṣemi and Lashe deserved to be together, despite their imperfections. #ShayLash forever!
Zainab Uche Imam is a Nigerian writer. Love, Lagos & Other Complications: A Lagos Love Story is published by Narrative Landscape Press. An early draft was a finalist in the prestigious 2023 Quramo Writers’ Prize.