Title: Maame Author: Jessica George Publisher: St. Martin’s Press @stmartinspress Genre: Contemporary/Literary Fiction How about a #Fivestarfriday review!? Maame was my very first read of the month and it lived up to the hype! I knew I had falling in love with this book and the main character, Maddie, by page 6 when she had me chuckling at her quirkiness:
“I try to see what I can decipher about my new neighbors by their garbage. I see that they don’t make an effort to recycle, so sadly they themselves are trash. It’s a shame, because one of them was playing music last night, which I could hear through our thin walls, and their taste in nineties R&B is pretty good.”
Maame (ma-meh) has many meanings in Twi, but in Maddie’s case it meant woman and was a nickname from her mother. One she wasn’t sure if she really liked. She had a complicated relationship with her mother. Her parent’s never officially divorced, but her mother left London and spent most of her time in her homeland of Ghana. And later on when her father had advanced staged Parkinson’s this left Maddie as his primary care giver. Her brother wasn’t much help either.
But, when he mom returns from her latest trip to Ghana, this allows Maddie to final move out and experience life a little. Her twenties have been slipping past her. So she creates a “bucket list” of all the things she wants to do.
🌺Find a Flat Share
🌺Say Yes to after work drinks
🌺Career Recognition
🌺Internet Dating
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book was quite humorous at times the way Maddie was always googling things she didn’t know that maybe she should’ve already by now, in her twenties. And I love a good coming-of-age story, especially a later in life one. We don’t always have to have it figured out right away! But, make no mistake, there are some heavier themes of racism, culture/family duty, and the complexity of love. Highly, highly recommend this one. Can’t wait to see what the author writes next.
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