An educated wife means trouble.
The three wives of Baba Segi are managing their seven children just fine when he takes it into his head to marry again. To make matters worse, his fourth wife is a graduate from the university, an uppity young woman who knows too much for her own good. To make matters even worse yet, in two years she has not produced a child.
Baba Segi is a plump, flatulent, 42-year-old Nigerian polygamist, whose bladder control is not particularly good. Calm, intelligent, patient Bolanle has entered a household where she is not wanted, where the other wives will try anything to drive her out. And to everyone's amazement, Bolanle peacefully continues loving the other wives and their children, treating everyone in the household kindly, convinced that her love will win them over.
Author Lola Shoneyin was born in Idaban, Nigeria, where this story takes place, and she plunges you into a culture where a woman's worth is measured by her children. She creates situations straight out of classic farce, but plays them for their real-world values, so her comedy always has teeth and realistic, tragic consequences spring from light-hearted contrivances in the plot.
As the story circles around the four fascinating, feuding women, the reader constantly discovers new sides of them. Secrets emerge, surprises erupt and alliances shift from wife to wife, with Baba Segi often none the wiser. Baba Segi has only one real concern other than money: offspring. He needs children to make him happy. To find out what's wrong with Bolanle, he hauls her to the hospital to have her barrenness cured. In doing so, he opens a Pandora's box of deception and lies, including a dangerous secret that threatens the security of all his other wives.
Shoneyin handles the multiple points of view skillfully, each voice recognizably its own, and knows exactly where she's weaving her plot threads, so that the alternating voices have an actual narrative purpose. This frequently hilarious novel develops moral depth, and everything wraps realistically and satisfyingly, with some sadness, some loss and some hard lessons learned.--Nick DiMartino
Shelf Talker: A frequently hilarious novel, with moral depth, about a Nigerian polygamist, his three wives and seven children and the arrival of his fourth, and university-educated, wife.