BOOK REVIEW-PARENT VILLE

A beautiful family on the verge of ruin courtesy the infidelity of a husband. An intelligent young man, full of dreams of becoming a good husband, gets betrayed by the lady he truly loved. A child born with love with no mother to nurse her through the early stages of life. And a friend who has become more like a sister, whose wise counsel helped in saving a home.

All these dramatic whirlwinds blowing during the festive period of Christmas.

When Susan, a PhD holder in English- and married for over a decade discovered Manson was discretely  philandering, she saw herself in a dilemma-either to file for a divorce or endure the  grief and continue to contemplate ‘taking a knife and stabbing her husband for the pain he was putting her through’’

However, a wise counsel from her long time associate seemed to work to perfection.

ParentVille is a novel set in London and the United States of America between the Eve of Christmas and the New Year of 2011 and gyrates around the Winston and Sato families.

The story which is told in eleven (11) chapters exposes the often turbulent trials of especially the Winston’s and the unassailable soft-shoulder-to-lean-on support from Emi and Azuma.

ParentVille is a story about love, betrayal, greed, steadfastness, forgiveness caressed by religious didacticism (Christian values, God’s unabated favour) and a pint of karma.

ParentVille is a perfect, well planned, urban city for middle income earners with its own set of residential terms and conditions. Anyama Buabeng describes ParentVille in Chapter Three in such vivid terms:

‘’The street had been perfectly planned, linking to each other after every row of two houses, back to back. Before every two houses a tree sprung out of the grass and after every five houses was a public bin, to keep ParentVille tidy. The houses were ideal, with spaciously large windows; they were of a classical style with a modern Corbusier hint… There were shops at the western side of ParentVille, including five boutiques storing designer fashion and rest were high street shops’’

ParentVille is a ‘closed’ society with a ‘whatever-happens-here-stays-here rule. This means, none of her residents have the right to disclose to the ‘outside world’ what is happening or happens within her walls.

Anybody who wishes to talk to the ‘world’ must first inform a ‘committee’ which has to vet the content of that information. These among other set of conditions were to be agreed on by a potential resident, as Susan and Mason got to know when filling out their residential questionnaire. Despite these arrangements, the residents are warm and convivial towards one another.

Hinged within this society is a secret as Dr. Bass will later disclose to Mason during a medical prognosis. Any sex, man or woman can become pregnant in ParentVille – faithful or in infidelity. Men who indulge in extra/pre-marital affairs became pregnant as consequences for their ‘sin’. Dr. Bass explains to Mason that 

‘when you have sex with a woman, there are times when their eggs comes down into their cervix and as you are having sex, it goes through the tip of the penis through the urethra…sperms get fertilized and travels to the seminal vesicle’.

This was the web Akemi and Mason had themselves tangled in and the effect on both men, en route to them becoming good if not better persons is profound.

Though the concept of philandering men becoming pregnant (inconceivable in biological terms) was introduced by the author to remind readers of how horrible unfaithfulness is in God’s eye, it was not the best form of caution (as it is naturally unthinkable). It is a total phantasm and obnoxiously queer. It’s like an idea borrowed from a science fiction movie or book.

Anyama Buabeng’s style of writing coupled with her choice of simple language makes ‘Parent Ville’ a book written for all classes of people. Her writing is extremely relaxed. Reading through the eleven chapters of Parent Ville feels easy and smooth, though some of her sentences are long as seen in Uncle Miles’ lecture on the importance and sanctity of a marriage vow.

The novel has a poetic feel. At the end of the novel, the reader is taught the essence of patience as exemplified by Susan who, on the eve of the New Year, had to shred the divorce papers she had planned to serve her husband (whom she had had tailed) because the man has become the husband she married, had Arthur with and expecting a daughter for.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ANYAMA BUABENG is a historian professional writer from london whose writing spans arts, culture and fashion.

PARENT VILLE is her first novel. It is published as an e-book on www.smashwords.com.

www.smashwords.com.