Easter vacation for a Nigerian Canadian extended family brings sorrow, togetherness and a social media circus. PRIDE AND JOY features Joy Okafor, who works as a life coach in the Toronto area, and ironically can’t switch off her work phone even when a needy client keeps calling.
I recently read about an Indian American family during The Night of The Storm and found several parallels with the Okafor family’s experience. There is a death in each one, but the current tale is a much lighter story, with no mystery. Mama Mary Okafor is about to celebrate her seventieth birthday. Joy will host a big family party, Joy – recently divorced and not sure if her head is in the right space – rented a fancy house and catering for Easter weekend. We meet the family members in stages, a good way to get to know everyone. But even as they are arriving, Mary lies down for a nap and never wakes. Disbelief and distress fill the family, and some senior members turn to spiritual comfort, however desperate.
I decided that the narrative is about the nature of grief. Good Friday has symbolism for the Christian family, some of whom barely talk to Joy due to her divorce. Joy is still processing her situation, and doesn’t seem sure why she and her Italian American husband David separated, only that they grew apart. Her son Jamil, aged twelve, gets equitable time with each parent and says he’s cool, but he doesn’t really want his parents to lead separate lives. Now Joy’s grieving her loss.
Mama Mary had a peaceful last day, talking about the Bible with her fine grandson and knowing she was loved. The family, though, were about to celebrate and now have to plan a funeral. Nnenna, daughter of Mary’s sister, and a senior auntie to be respected, declares she’s had a premonition that Mary will rise on the third day. This could be consideredblasphemous, or crazy, but she’s just misguided by her shock and grief. The story gets on social media, and the next thing there’s a crowd outside. Can’t be happening, thinks Joy.
Over the next couple of days, we learn more about the characters, and they learn about themselves. Louisa Onomé has penned a women’s fiction tale that’s more intended for the community portrayed, but I did get the gist of everything. The character I most liked was Jamil, a good-hearted and smart kid who’s starting to get a phone use obsession. He probably learns a valuable lesson about social media. Some readers will find PRIDE AND JOY funny, especially those with a similar community situation, and we definitely see that comedy and tragedy are closely allied.
Joy Okafor is overwhelmed. Recently divorced, a life coach whose phone won’t stop ringing, and ever the dutiful Nigerian daughter, Joy has planned every aspect of her mother’s seventieth birthday weekend on her own.
As the Okafors slowly begin to arrive, Mama Mary goes to take a nap. But when the grandkids go to wake her, they find that she isn’t sleeping after all. Refusing to believe that her sister is gone-gone, Auntie Nancy declares that she has had a premonition that Mama Mary will rise again like Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.
Desperate to believe that they’re about to witness a miracle, the family overhauls their birthday plans to welcome the Nigerian Canadian community, effectively spreading the word that Mama Mary is coming back. But skeptical Joy is struggling with the loss of her mother and not allowing herself to mourn just yet while going through the motions of planning a funeral that her aunt refuses to allow.
Filled with humor and flawed, deeply relatable characters that leap off the page, Pride and Joy will draw you in as the Okafors prepare for a miracle while coming apart at the seams, praying that they haven’t actually lost Mama Mary for good, and grappling with what losing her truly means for each of them.
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