Bad marriage and heartbreak

Title: Archive of Scar

author: Olumide Adekanmi

year : 2024

pagination: 194

Reviewer: Henry Akubuiro

Literature does not sidestep from the realities of life. These realities may be as rosy as butter spread over hot bread, riding on a camel across Arabian sand dunes, cowering in fear as drones drop bombs on a crowded  neighbourhood, scribbling epitaphs on tombstones of those cut in their prime. Life offers abundant smiles, laughter and keening with equal measure. Mixing all these emotional ingredients together could create a fictional touchstone.

Olumide Adekanmi’s novel, Archive of Scars, leaves so many cicatrices on benumbed souls. The roller coaster ride doesn’t get any better in this read as the novelist cleverly weaves a cruel story while leaving spaces for moments of mirth. Adekanmi’s mastery of the confluence of human emotions and the tendency to overflow and rebound is top notch. The protagonist, Gracia Abbey, was eighteen years when she married her bellicose husband, Jerry Skola. But it turned out to be a toxic relationship, where one partner is the blunderbuss. Jerry was given to shirking his responsibilities at will and showed no remorse like a bambino.

The signs of an incompatible marriage showed early in the day. Providing money for the family’s upkeep was a problem and taking care of the newborn baby was a harder task. Gracia could not help but play the role of a man. “Gracia noticed her husband snapped each time she demanded funds to purchase the baby’s essentials. He would remind her that their young daughter was her responsibility, as well as his. While he responded to the demand, what he pulled out of his pocket was a far cry from what his wife needed to meet the toddler’s basic amenities,” writes the author. This novel echoes marital dysfunction, the conspiracy of silence against the persecuted partner, and the fickleness of love, which fades away rapidly.

The author also uses Gracia’s story to justify the notion that adversities bring out the best in us. Gracia, who, since childhood, had not engaged in any business to earn money, suddenly found herself fending for herself and her daughter, Joyce, in this marriage; yet she continued with the marriage and even delivered of another child, Tonia. But the euphoria of a second baby soon magicked away and the economic reality of having one more mouth to feed set in. However, Gracia found a goldmine in pastries at the nadir of hope. Surprisingly, “While Gracia enjoyed the added comfort he financial contributions brought to her family, her husband had started to feel slightly uncomfortable at the thought that ‘if his wife continued growing her business in leaps and bounds, he might son lose control of his home to her’,” writes the author. This captures the portrait of an insecure man who can’t be the goose that lays the golden egg yet hates the grit of the goose that does the hard labour. If many Nigerian men look in the mirror today, they would probably see themselves in the veil of Jerry.

Adekanmi‘s novel is like a crash course on how to parent children by a heartbroken but dogged woman, as symbolised by Gracia. As you turn the pages, you see her doing everything possible to protect her marriage as her docile man, the father of two, remain indifferent, adding gambling addition to his vice, surrounded by gambling bees, and perpetually hoping on riches through the coupon paper. The novel decries the obsession with quick gain by contemporary men. Perhaps, if you are looking for a character with a carefree attitude to growth and personal development, Jerry is a fitting archetype. He embodies what every ambitious men wouldn’t like to be. Gracia typifies that woman who believes tomorrow will be better. Little wonder, she took in for the third time for Jerry, and birthed a set of twins, making it four young girls. It turned out to be more misery for her, sadly. The novel recounts: “His wife wanted a little of his time, a show of his love, and at least some recognition that they were working on a project together. He was treating her as if it were only her decision to get pregnant, and she should suffer the consequences all alone.” It was hard for her to understand whom she married, a direct opposite to her own dad. A blissful six months when they set out had nosedived into a distant experience in the province of wishful thinking. Aside not performing her responsibilities as the man of the house, her husband abused her at will. Now imagine children brought up in such a home without love!

The author weaves courage and strength into the Gracia persona all through the narratives. A go-getter, she grew to become a successful entrepreneur from the loan facility she secured years after, yet resentment kept coming from her idle hubby. Gracia also influenced her first daughter, Joice, to be a supportive woman. She, however, felt betrayed along the line by her daughters, who accused her of hoarding money and not helping out their dad. The workaholic woman gave her children good education, training them up to university level. She was to become a single mother after the couple parted ways. She, unfortunately, suffered more emotional trauma when she lost the first two of her precious daughters, the last being the medical doctor, Janet.

Gracia enjoys the role of a super woman created by Adekanmi n this fiction. Her quest for education led her to study law, graduating to become a judge. Her never-die spirit is an enduring legacy of a woman of substance. The contrast between her and her estranged hubby is too wide to reconcile. This fiction would probably have been hailed as a feminist novel if written by a woman, but the author is a man who isn’t weened by male chauvinism. Judge Gracia made a name for herself in landmark cases, to add to her many plus. When she died eventual, albeit in a painful circumstance, it dawns on us that Adekanmi has woven a touching story that bothers on love, injustice, domestic violence, and the cruelty of fate.