Imagine This
By Sade Adeniran
SW Books
May 31, 2007
Genre: Fiction/Diary
Rating: Ten out of Five Diaries
Imagine this: being taken away from all that you cherish, all that you love and being thrust into a landscape that is frightening, bizarre and so incredibly different from all that you know.
This is exactly what happens to nine year old Lola Ogunwole. Born in London to Nigerian parents, her world is torn apart when her mother abandons Lola and her brother Adebola. They find themselves in a foster home until their father comes to claim them. Lola thinks that her troubles are over; but they have just begun.
Rather than lose both his children, he takes them from London to Nigeria to live with family members. Lola and Adebola are separated from each other for the first time in their lives. Adebola goes to live with an uncle in the small town of Lagos and Lola finds herself living with an aunt in Idogun.
Idogun is unlike anywhere that Lola has lived before. Poverty is rampant in the village and there is no electricity, no indoor toilets, and no conveniences. Only a hard life and a world so removed from civilization that Lola feels like an outcast. Her one constant, her brother Adebola, removed from her, Lola feels more alone than ever.
Her family does not make it easy for her either. For no reason that Lola can think of, her aunt hates her. She is made to walk miles and miles every morning for water. She has to learn to adapt herself to a life of hardship; a life of difficulty and a father that seems to be cutting himself off from her.
But like all things, time passes and hardships increase. Lola starts to change and mature. No longer is she the spoiled little girl from London. Lola starts becoming a woman. But when she is tested, when something so earth shattering happens that Lola does not speak for days, something inside her changes.
She knows that she must fight to get where she wants, otherwise her heart and her spirit will perish….
My brief summary of the plot does not do the scope of this novel justice. Told in diary format, we are really reading Lola's journal; her inner thoughts, her inner demons are poured out onto the page for all of us to read. Because of her words, I find myself changed forever.
I can't express how good, how utterly amazing, this novel is. The fact that this is Adeniran's first novel is astounding. There is so much depth here, so much feeling and emotion that it is hard to believe I'm not reading the work of a seasoned writer. IMAGINE THIS is pure, unadulterated storytelling and the power of it is incredible.
Because it's told in a diary format, we see into Lola's head and her thoughts a lot more clearly than if the novel was told in first person or third person. Indeed, we get to read her private wishes, dreams and aspirations for the future.
After a while I forgot I was reading a novel and could picture Lola scratching away in her diary. I felt I could reach out and touch her.
Few authors are able to render a character so completely. Lola becomes not just a character on a page or words on paper. She lives and breathes alongside you as you read her story. I can honestly say I was blown away.
Few books have affected me as strongly as Imagine This and I know that my spirit carries a piece of Lola with me where ever I go now. I am haunted by her; by the sound of her voice in my head, her words on the page it's hard to believe that Lola does not really exist. It's hard to believe that I can't reach out and touch her. This is the power of Adeniran's amazing first novel.
Imagine This is not just a story, not just a novel. It's about having the courage to face obstacles head on. It's about finding the strength to survive and succeed that you didn't know you had inside of you. But most of all, Imagine This is about the triumph of the heart.
If you read one good book this year, make sure that it is Imagine This. Your heart will thank you for it.
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer
By Ellen Rimbauer
April 29th, 2002
Hyperion Books
Genre: Fiction/Diary/Movie Tie In
Rating: Five out of Five Roses
Built on a Native American burial ground in Seattle in the early 20th century, Rose Red was to be a Queen among houses. Built as a wedding gift by John Rimbauer for his wife Ellen, Rose Red claims a victim even before the foundations are laid. A foreman is shot to death; his death would only be the first, however and would be far from the last.
People begin to disappear. First a maid, then another woman. Ellen knows there is something wrong within the walls of Rose Red. Sukeena, Ellen's maid, knows there is evil within the walls too. She is an African witch woman and knows the face of evil. Ellen keeps a diary to document the events surrounding Rose Red. It becomes her confidant and the stuff of nightmares.
Wanting to find answers for the strange goings on in her house, Ellen hires a medium to hold a séance. John Rimbauer scorns this event, but it changes Ellen's life forever. The medium receives a message from the house, from Rose Red. She tells Ellen that as long as the house continues to be built, Ellen will never die.
Preparations begin the next day for new wings to be added to Rose Red. Strange things begin to happen in Rose Red. There are noises at night time; rooms exist where no room existed before. As more people continue to disappear, Ellen can't quite get over the idea that the house seems to be building itself.
Then someone is found dead. More dead bodies follow, always men. Women only disappear in Rose Red. Men are killed savagely. With each new death and disappearance, Ellen's world is plunged into turmoil. She knows she must stop the force within the house before something else happens. She is too late; Rose Red has taken her daughter.
For those of you who don't already know, "The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer" was actually written by Ridley Pearson as a movie tie in for Stephen King's three part, six hour miniseries "Stephen King's Rose Red" that aired in 2002. Stephen King has this to say on his web site:
"Now it can be told--the actual author of The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer is suspense novelist (and Rock Bottom Remainder bass guitarist) Ridley Pearson. Ridley did a great job--I couldn't have done better myself…"
If you haven't seen "Stephen King's Rose Red," I urge you to do so as it is the epitome of the modern haunted house movie. One would think a movie tie in novel would be an awful rewrite of the story with no depth behind it or anything worth reading. I held back on picking up the book for so long as I was afraid that the novel would be found lacking when compared to the movie. I was happily surprised to find that I was very wrong indeed.
The novel was written as a companion to the movie. In fact, it explains more within its pages than the movie does. Several things in the movie are left without an explanation. There are explanations a plenty of the haunting at Rose Red within the diaries pages. There is even a website that relates to the diary and the miniseries. There are pages of the diary that are only published on the web.
Apart from being part of a brilliant multi-media advertising campaign, "My Life at Rose Red - The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer" is an incredible, beautiful work. It examines the power of fear and what happens when someone is pushed too far. It takes a chilling look at the human condition and the stresses of the unknown.
What was surprising were the subplots of the novel. Ellen is a young woman in a terrible marriage. There is also the issue of lesbianism between Ellen and her maid Sukeena; Ellen examines her budding sexuality and tries to find herself, even while she is struggling with the evil that is going on around her.
The novel is more about personal discovery than anything else. It takes a look at what scares us, what torments our dreams. It is a beautiful, darkly gorgeous novel and can be read on its own apart from "Stephen King's Rose Red." Even if you don't watch the movie, read "My Life at Rose Red-The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer."
It will leave you breathless and in awe of the beauty found in the dark. Just make sure you always bring someone with you into the darkness…you may be liable to disappear.
Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood
By Rebecca Wells
Harper Books
December 7, 2004
Genre: Fiction
Rating: Five out of Five Friends
When secrets have been buried beneath the veneer of the skin, they fester. Sometimes, those secrets can be held at bay for years, decades even. Sometimes the secrets you hold can eat away at who you are, and what you have become.
Usually, they have to come out sooner or later. The consequences of that release, letting the secrets breathe and have life once more, can be good or bad - but keeping those secrets inside can tear a family apart.
In the incredible book "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" by Rebecca Wells, we meet Siddalee Walker, a middle aged playwright directing her first Broadway play. She is the daughter of Southern Belle Vivi Abbot Walker. Their relationship is rocky at best. Along for the ride are Vivi's life long friends: Necie, Caro and Teensy.
Decades ago, Vivi, Necie, Caro and Teensie formed a secret sisterhood, the sisterhood of the Ya-Ya's. They will let no man put them under, and will always listen to the call of the women and Gods that came before them. Their friendship, forged in the heat of the South and the blood they shared, has stood the test of time. Unfortunately, Vivi's relationships with her children, especially Sidda, haven't.
When the New York Times interviews Sidda and proclaims her mother to be a tap dancing child abuser, all hell breaks loose. Vivi cuts Siddalee out of her will and proclaims her dead to her, in true Southern fashion. At a loss as to how to articulate her pain, Sidda decides not to marry her seven-year sweetheart Connor McGill.
The Ya-Ya's step in to Sidda's aid. They implore Vivi to send Sidda the Divine Secrets, a scrapbook of sorts that chronicles their lives together. Flipping through the large book, Sidda is thrust back in time, to the South in the 1930's and beyond, and learns what really happened to her mother and her life.
We learn, along with Sidda, about the alcohol, the lost love that died in the war, what really preceded the beating outside of their family home when Vivi finally broke down. Once secrets are released, they have a difficult time staying hidden. And, as is often the case with secrets, once one has found it's way out to the light, the other secrets are not too far behind.
In "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood," Wells has created a tapestry of words, showing us snapshots of one family's life and a relationship between mother and daughter that is, in the end, strong enough to survive child beatings, abuse, booze, girl scouts, lovers, enemies and the perfect perm. We are offered a glimpse into the lives of these people, Sidda, Vivi, her husband Shep, and it is often times a harrowing picture, a dark one.
It is, however, a story that probably everyone can relate to. For how often have we bemoaned our parents, thought them ill equipped to deal with us, or that they really didn't love us or want us when it is the other way around? That they don't know how to show love and affection, that they are unable to, perhaps due to what happened to them as children. Secrets that no child really ever finds out.
"Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" is a wonderful novel filled with humor, honesty and the strength of the human spirit. If you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for?
