Reviewed
by Vandana Devi
Chika Unigwe from Enugu, Nigeria
currently stays in Atlanta, USA. She obtained an MA in English from the
Catholic University of Leuven and then her PhD from the University of Leiden.
In The Itinerary of Grief, Chika’s
narrator takes a trip to India after the death of her husband. The story
follows the narrator as she tries to escape the house she lived in with her
husband, to another country altogether so as to not have to talk about her
husband in past tense, and in the hushed manner their friends and family
now speak about him in.
The story features a couple who seem
out of the ordinary - they’re quite happy about the fact that it’s just the two
of them, though everyone around them seems to think differently. The idea that
no matter what, there is always a puzzle to solve on the front porch that will
bring them both together is also quite romantic. This leaves us feeling all the
more emotional when we think of the puzzle left on the porch that isn’t put
together.
Like the 19th century novels where
landscapes are important characters, Chika too writes a story where the
landscape of Delhi plays a central character with her places and people. Delhi
becomes the place where the narrator is able to remove herself from loneliness
by engaging with the people as well as the places, and finally come to terms
with her loss.
Reviewer Vandana Devi is an intern at Out of Print.
Gr8!
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