Title:                           I’ve Miles to Walk Before I Sleep

Author:                      Hyginus Ekwuazi

Genre:                          Prose

Publisher:                   SEVHAGE Publishers

Year of Publication:  2019

ISBN:                         978-978-57372-1-9

No. of Pages:              151

Reviewer:                   Eugene Yakubu

I’ve Miles to Walk Before I Sleep is no doubt a laudable effort by a writer who weaves all kinds of emotions— humour, melancholy, anxiety, apprehension, happiness, in a family tale about the innocence of childhood, survival amidst tribulations and the unreliability of the future. This coming-of-age story or even memoir as the case may be, brings to light topical issues that African writers have been shying away from: the psychic, its intangibility and fragility. Ekwuazi is a confident writer whose theme has remained of talking point some of the areas that African literature doesn’t care to delve into and he does it so graphically that it comes up as intentional, deliberate and even overzealous as some readers may find the direct referral to the theme of the story uninventive.

Worthy of mention, Ekwuazi avoided one clichéd stereotypical infantilization of the African character. The characters in the narrative aren’t the typical obtuse characters still living in huts and hunting games but the characters in I’ve Miles to Walk Before I Sleep are portrayed as informed, fecund, and even engaging. The characters are voracious readers conversant with literature, art and culture and who even studied the classics and are able to quote passages from books they’ve read. In I’ve Miles to Walk Before I Sleep, we find an engaging discourse on the topic of Coma discussed in its psychological, biological, physical and even social and religious premise. In this text the reader gets to know what coma is, symptoms of coma, causes of coma, what happens during and when the victim is emerging from coma. The narrator goes a point further to provide the statistics of comatose cases in the world. So much for a child narrator the reader may say, and this of course is where the reader gets to raise his eyebrow, surprised that a child narrator could be this meticulous and scholarly. Thus the reader finds it hard believing that this is a bildungsroman and not a memoir because too often we find the writer’s voice in the narrator meddling with the narrative. For anything, a coming-of-age narrative should have no space for the writer who has dissolved himself in a narrator that is allowed to act him/herself and not a mere puppet to be masterminded by the writer.

The story seems to contradict itself, for as soon as the reader tries to flow with the narrator’s innocence and simplicity, the writer shows up with sophisticated language and ideas, and constant commentary that we get to suspect the narrator as unoriginal. Thus, despite the boundless potentials in the narrative, verisimilitude seems to be an issue here.

Nevertheless, we must give it up to the writer who shows mastery of language. This isn’t surprising as Ekwuazi is a poet who has published the poetry collection One Day and has achieved commendable success as a poet. Ekwuazi has some witty expressions that will immediately capture the reader’s interest. Among others, lines like: “the night has eaten away the two-inch advantage which his shoulders have over those of Nonso”, “interesting lessons that end before they begin. Boring lessons that tie a heavy weight to both hands of the clock…” (15). The conceits are sublime as well as precise.

Even though the narrative always goes off on a tangent with so many disconnecting scenes and stories, the writer successfully drives the plot to the end of the story and even resolved the tension in the narrative, thereby purging the reader’s emotions. I’ve Miles to Walk Before I Sleep has little or no issue with its technique. Its form and structure is well arranged to hold the reader in the story with amusing characters (The Bandits) like the narrator, Arinze, Nonso, Rom and their parents.

The writer leaves much to be desired on the setting (temporal and spatial) of the narrative. Save for one or two instances where the spatial setting is hinted at like in pg. 58 “she made the best akara in the whole of Zaria”, there isn’t enough evidence in the story to connect the story to a particular space or time. This could have been done better, which would have foregrounded the narrative and make it realistic.

Reading I’ve Miles to Walk Before I Sleep, the reader notices that Ekwuazi is a writer who is confident of his theme. He has no problem tying the story around it and even the characters. Ekwuazi deserves applaud for bringing out the naiveté and innocence of childhood. He has really invested his time and imagination into the psychology and sociology of childhood that in the end, because of the graphic and familiar scenes and characterization, the story reads more like a memoir because it’s hard to believe the story isn’t the writer’s personal experiences with childhood. Save for the language and ideas which seem undeserving of a child and the writer’s commentary in the narrative, the story would have passed unproblematically as a coming-of-age narrative.

Nonetheless, I am willing to wager I’ve Miles to Walk Before I Sleep deserves acclaim and critical examination by critics. There are themes that can be studied with a psychoanalytic frame. It’s a book that can be read and enjoyed by readers of all ages— young and old. It’s a good read and I am looking to read more stories from Ekwuazi.