His Only Wife

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About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”: The opening line, “Elikem married me in absentia; he did not come to our wedding” is gripping and immediately hooks the reader. The protagonist, Afi, is a beautiful woman but of little means and an unpromising. When she is offered an opportunity to marry a man of status and wealth, for her family, she accepts. I’m quite a fussy reader who doesn’t shy away from critique – especially when it comes to popular books – so I sat down to read 𝙃𝙞𝙨 𝙊𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙒𝙞𝙛𝙚 with little-no expectations, and I can admit that I was pleasantly surprised lol.

A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism. Bottom line: I could say something about the clear and straightforward writing style, or how this somehow felt both too long and too short, or probably a bunch of other stuff, but what it comes down to is I'm nosy. Afi ends up marrying Eli, moving to Accra to live in a fancy new apartment, having a driver to take her around, starting her apprenticeship as a fashion designer-all while waiting to meet her husband Eli for the first time. Afi is well aware that Eli has another “woman” and a child who he lives with close by, but she is married to him and there are some expectations for a marriage.

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I’ve never been this conflicted about a book. Feel free to thoroughly curse me out if I say anything in my review that is disrespectful to the culture in the book. I do understand that this book was portraying the reality for a lot of women in Ghana, but I was still very uncomfortable with many parts of the plot. Afi is in an impossible situation. Eli’s mother, Aunty, helped her family when they were struggling. And by her marrying Eli, it will help Afi’s mother financially. But she’s still forced to marry a man she hardly knows. What would you have done if you were Afi? Afi, don’t forget who you are. You are not an actress and this is not a romance film. This is not one of those telenovelas you and Mawusi have been watching. This is real life. This is our life. You will get to know him and like him. That is how it is.'

I mean, unless the only requirement is to show a wedding from another country/culture. I guess if that’s the criteria then good job, Kirkus, you really nailed it! The setting is fantastic. Especially now with everything going on in the pandemic, it’s nice to read a story that takes you to another place. The descriptions and customs of Ghana are quite vivid in this story. For book clubs My first book by Peace Adzo Medie but not the last. I bought this when it was on sale and am only just now getting around to reading it. Set in Ghana, this book is kind of a subtle take-down of patriarchal values through the medium of a domestic drama. Our heroine, Afi, is a poor girl with a widowed mother who relies on her selfish uncle for goodwill until she is married to a rich guy who doesn't even bother to show up to the wedding. As we see from the very first addictive sentence in the book, he marries her in absentia. I thought this was an easy read, and ended up reading it one sitting. The story is frustrating in so many ways—mainly Eli and Aunty’s treatment of Afi. They for sure underestimated Afi and thought that she would be easily swayed by living a life of luxury. But Afi could not let herself be caged in and I respected the fact she stood up to them.Afi selected to go to Sarah’s fashion school even though it wasn’t grand as she expected, and her driver drove her to and from school every day, waiting for her during the day. She used to send him off during the day until Richard told the driver should wait in case she wanted him to take her somewhere during the day. Let’s first talk about the beginning of the novel at Afi’s wedding where the groom is a no-show. What did that say about Eli’s interest in this marriage? It was two months before his next visit. In the meantime, Afi was given money every week and a driver and car to take her around. She didn’t have much money to spend things on and was able to send some to her family and to her mother to build her own home. Starting Fashion School

Upset with how her driver was treating her since she’d left her husband and returned to Ho, Afi decided to go to driving school. Even when Efi forbade her from doing it, using her pregnancy as an excuse, she continued and got her driver’s license. After some time, she got a new driver as well.

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In His Only Wife , Medie takes the idea of an arranged marriage and gives it a fresh twist. Instead of the usual scenario where the bride is forced to marry an older, gross, brute of a man (in the vein of The Girl With The Louding Voice), here we have a beautiful, but poor, young woman persuaded to marry the attractive, wealthy business man, Elikem Ganyo. Afi Tekple barely knows Elikem but the marriage will make her family financially secure and give her entry to the glitzy lifestyle she has dreamed of achieving.