There's a reason that out of body experiences such as body swaps or astral projections are a staple of speculative fiction – the possibility of experiencing life in a different body, literally walking in the shoes of someone else, is EXCITING, it is the antidote of looking at the same old boring face in the mirror every single morning. But it is only when the experience is not a swap anymore, and becomes one sided, say like a possession or a haunting, then we're entering horror, uncanny territory. And if the bodies merged belong to people of backgrounds antithetical in nature, let's say the richest and most powerful white man of the world, the president of the USA, and an orphaned boy in Nigeria, you have pure social comedy, and that's what Nigerian-British author Nuzo Onoh explores in her latest book The Fake Ghost.
We follow the Nigerian boy Adisa, known to everybody as POTUS because from the very beginnings of his life he rejected being called anything else, much to the dismay of his adoptive parents and to the amusement of his classmates who then take the piss out of him, but soon get used to it. From his childhood on he has always had a streak of something rebellious, something defiant, and visions and auditory hallucinations he can't explain to himself come and go. The town's elder Babawoo tries to give him a spiritual shield with charms against what he thinks is a water spirit, but it's only when POTUS goes through the most traumatic event of his life, and finds himself in a hospital bed with a broken body, nowhere to go and his world shattered to pieces that he is able to connect to the thing that possesses him and find out what's going on; the spirit, the “fake ghost” of Jerry King, the President of the Unite States, who (or whose body) is in a coma in a hospital bed after an unfortunate accident on the golf field. And he is determined to return among the living, no matter how many bodies he needs to stomp upon.
Jerry King would probably be raging that although he only seemingly plays a major part in Adisa's life, he's in fact more of a sideshow in the boy's spiritual quest. But whichever way you look, in his constant and excessive hatefulness, arrogance and misanthropy, King's appearances are almost reduced to a comedic circus gig, which POTUS quickly learns to manage. In fact, this is rather Adisa's journey to find himself, interrupted by a self serving and malevolent spirit.
In a secondary storyline, a young POTUS, still but a child, discovers a secret about his parents, a secret that may be somewhat too heavy a burden for his little shoulders. The weight of such a burden on a child's psyche as well as the societal aspect of it were very well portrayed by the author. There was a certain mixing, a certain confrontation and meshing of ideas which are in our time perceived as opposing, the coming together of so many opinions and politics and lifestyles concentrating in this one person, that it is a little difficult for the reader to distinguish what of his reactions belong to Adisa and which don't. It's a joy to gain that clarity as the story advances.
Similar to what happens in her latest work, Where the Dead Brides Gather, the main character finds guidance and support in an older companion, who, to some degree overtakes the course of the events, in this case it is Babawoo who gradually turns from a mere mention to an important influence and guide for Adisa. I like that kind of shift, it gives the story a layer of realism that many fiction works lack nowadays, and I like seeing elder characters who matter, who can still move things.
Finally, as usual, I'm a sucker for Nuzo's humor and this book had me cracking up so many times, for which I'm grateful to her – we don't have much to laugh about these days, so it's wonderful to see her take it all with good humor and share that mood with us.
I'd love to thank the author for sending me a review copy, which didn't affect my rating, my opinions are honest and my own!
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