Half Open Lid tells a story of ruffled Ameze, a community whose values and cultural heritage collide with westernisation, a word often used interchangeably with modernisation, albeit wrongly. The narrative attempts to paint the negative effects that often come with westernisation in both its socio-cultural and ethno-religious dimensions.
Written by Uzoamaka J. Eze, Half Open Lid runs through 149 pages across 7 chapters. Presented in a third-person point of view, the book has multiple major characters, as there seems to be no single character from whose point of view the story is told.
Half Open Lid tackles themes that are so important and that have since assumed the status of an emergency; western cultural and religious dominance over that of African peoples, loss of, or confused identity, a degradation of African moral values by her peoples, both positive and negative resistance, and the tragedy that come along with such problems.
The book rightly puts it that, while some positive gains come with westernisation, there is an ever-increasing need for the people of Africa to protect their history, identity, and cultural heritage. This book couldn’t have come at a better time than now that most of our socio-cultural and ethno-religious heritages are drowning in the ocean of ignominy, and even death.
I enjoyed the prose because, in several places, it is so embellished with fresh and beautiful metaphors, other figures of speech, and some African proverbs in many parts of the narrative. For instance, on page 1, we have: “The sun smiled through the morning, but by afternoon, the sky unleashed fire on the earth.” On page 2, we have: “… but she had vanished like mist in the sun.” On page 28, we have: “… and with that, Ayaka left, his head bowed under the weight of his nephew’s misdemeanour.” Numerous such expressions enrich the literary quality of the book, highlighting the author’s keen observation, sense of beauty, and literary depth and dynamism.
However, there are a few metaphors that I consider over-flogged, lacking in colour, and/or lacking in sensual appeal. One of the over-flogged metaphors I mentioned is on page 29: “…leopard cannot change its skin.” When a literary expression becomes too common, it becomes a cliche, and clichés almost always douse literary depth and/or vibrancy.
The copy editing of the book is so well done that I noticed only one typo on page 124, where “thank you” is written as “thanks you…”
Many readers would appreciate fast-paced stories in this time of social media, but I think the narrative is so fast-paced that it can do with more character development. The characters’ arcs could benefit from more depth. For instance, Ifeatu, who defiantly tells her mother that she wants to marry another girl on page 106, is already “denouncing her woman-to-woman marriage” on page 130. And, it is not about the simple physical distance between pages 106 and 130. There is hardly any emotional, psychological, and spiritual buildup for someone who is so deep into the feminist ideals (to the point of accepting to marry another woman) to make such a sharp u-turn. Her sudden change begs for much more motivation and time to be convincing enough.
Talking about characterization, for a story that runs so fast and has so many characters crisscrossing, the author should have given each character a very distinct name that can easily be pronounced and recalled. After closing the last page, I am not sure I can recall, vividly, the role of Agbakaudo from that of Ekwenugo. While I appreciate the idea of using our indigenous names that might not be so common, in literature, a character name that endears itself to easy recollection has some advantage.
I can draw an example from one of my favourite books of all time, Born on a Tuesday by Elnathan John. I read that book since 2016, but I still remember the character, Dantala, because the name is simple, unique, and easy to remember. One book that can be described as a very fast-paced book is Chika Unigwe‘s The Middle Daughter. The central character, Nani, is not only unique from the rest of the characters, but Chika uses the names of the characters as titles of each chapter and that helps me in keeping pace with the story, especially judging that the story is told from a multiple point of view, if I recall correctly.
Half 0pen Lid is an idea whose time has come long before now, but it is very relevant today and will still be relevant for many years to come.
Several beautiful details help the world-building of the novel. Such detail add colour to the historical and cultural relevance of the book such as it can be seen on page 22: “…with the back of his right thumb nail, he scooped up some of the brown powder and emptied it into…”, on page 23: “Titles are given by the Igwe or through the Ozo fraternity to worthy men in recognition for one feat or the other.”, on page 46: “The masquerades dealt with the criminals who would not let the community have peace.” (These are many things that the Gbagyi people of north central Nigeria, and many other African peoples, also share in common with the people of Amaze).
However, the setting leaves me a bit confused as to its historical accuracy and that of the plot. If we are in the times where and when our ladies have started dressing almost half naked in public, and can openly talk about or identify with same sex marriage, can we have a situation where “Obieze sent the town crier out to summon the town to…”?
I am tempted to think that an accurate setting where African ladies began these things was in the late 80s or early 90s (?) I don’t remember ever seeing or hearing anything like a town crier, both in Jos, where I grew up, and even in my village, Gurku, where we used to visit during holidays in the 80s and 90s.
Imagine if the sentence “The women had expressed surprise at Ugonwa’s stance and told her that she must teach Akwaugo how to dress properly in the community… ” (page 19) had been written or presented with each of the characters speaking in their distinctive dialogue and their actions and reactions described!
There is a lot of telling in the novel. Although the author has missed several opportunities to show her characters and their world, and not only tell about them, Half Open Lid is a beautiful story with relevant and inspiring themes.
For anyone who understands the importance of preserving our history, culture, and traditions, Half Open Lid will call out your guts and challenge your passion. This is more than enough milk to satisfy your thirst for literary relevance.
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