Kanchana Ugbabe's Soulmates

I came to Kanchana Ugbabe's collection of short stories - 'Soulmates' -  with the words of the Hindu's reviewer, Vijay Nambisan, ringing in my head: "Kanchana Ugbabe's story of a Nigerian conman is nice, but leaves you missing something, like the point", he said in his rather scathing review of "First Proof: The Penguin Book of New Writing", in which the story appeared. He kind of spoiled it for us and sowed the seed of dissatisfaction in at least some of us.It was not easy to fight that off..

To begin at the beginning, Kanchana is a professor of Creative Writing at the University of Jos in Nigeria. Born in Madras, she went to Australia to study. It was there that she met and married her Nigerian husband. The present collection consists of 13 very short, short stories, some of which have been published in well-known literary magazines in the West.

Soulmates, the first story does seem to end rather abruptly. And yet all of us have met charmers like Uncle Wahab, been fascinated by tall tales which become repetitive and begin to pall after a while, watched as they became bolder, taking more and more advantage of our goodness!!. Kanchana is good at delineating character. This is her strong point as a writer. The men and women she portrays acquire flesh and form and become real.

I like the view that this collection afforded me of life in Nigeria. I knew nothing of the country, except that Lagos was not the safest place in the world, the country has large reserves of petroleum, but the average citizen did not benefit from this in any way, it was also linked with Biafra, in my mind."Soulmates' gave me an idea of how things look, feel and work in that country.

I also like the way she did not make this an Indian take on Nigeria, glad that she has not done a Jhumpa Lahiri on Africa. She has distanced herself from her own national identity. She really is the outsider looking in...not judgmental at all...just giving us vignettes of moments, events...not all of which have a beginning middle and an end. In 'Legacies' for instance, which is an account of a patriarch's funeral, it is like having a camera panning over the scene and then leaving with the image of one of the 'in-laws' dipping his fingers into the yam...

My own favourite was 'The White Rooster', there is some mention of Indian roots, and the anguish of the wife living in the knowledge that her husband mourns another woman is powerful. This tale is closer to conventional expectations of the short story..

I also liked the "Exile", the faux pas committed by the foreign wife gives the whole episode a funny twist...So too "Golden Opportunities" where another con woman, Kemi, walks off with the protagonist's savings. I also liked "Rescue-remedy' with its clash of cultures.

The story from which the book takes its name - 'Soulmates'- was the one I liked the least. I really do not understand who the soulmates are in this case, and the story does end rather abruptly.  Which brings me to Vijay Nagaswami's comment. This story does seem as if it has no plot..It is as if the writer was in a rush and wanted to finish it off.

So too 'Blessing in disguise', an account of the older white woman attending the wedding festivities of her husband, partaking in it and finally deciding to leave him. Here too, the end could do with some tweaking is my view.

The plot needs thickening in some of them. Perhaps we are not so ready to read stories that present 'a slice of life" and just that. We want definite endings, not ones that make us wonder what the writer could have meant. Our sensibilities are not so tuned to such conjecture.

Perhaps Kanchana should explain what she is trying to do with the short story in a Preface, instead of adding a few short lines in the Acknowledgements, lines which get repeated in every review or advertisement for the book! I would also suggest adding a short glossary to explain terms from the native language. I, for one, do not know what an agbada is, obviously it is a piece of clothing, but I have no precise idea.

The cover with a pomegranate spilling out its jewel like insides is enticing, but does not spell Nigeria to me. The paper is of passable quality, I am not a lover of the font - Sabon MT.

I did curl up with it over a wet weekend and it grew on me slowly. It might also fit the bill if you want something to read on a longish train journey! Priced at Rs 199, it is available for less through online bookstores which deliver at your doorstep!