#69 On Monday of Last Week- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
New to the U.S., Kamara takes a job as a nanny to a seven
year old Josh. His father is a overly protective but supportive Jewish man
married to an African-American artist who is locked up in the basement working
on her latest project.
Kamara is over qualified to be a babysitter, but until her
green card comes in she cant get a job more befitting her Master’s Degree.
However the work seems to suit her, and she falls into a nice groove as Josh
prepares for an academic competition.
Her understanding of the local culture has a bit of a
learning curve as she “…had spent the past months watching court TV and had
learned how crazy these Americans were.”
She sways back and forth between liking the Father’s parenting
and judging it harshly:
“She had come to understand that American parenting was a
juggling of anxieties, and that it came with having too much food: a sated
belly gave Americans time to worry that their child might have a rare disease
that they had just read about, made them think they had the right to protet
their child from disappointment and want and failure.”
She finally meets the mother and is overwhelmed with
emotions, meeting a woman that free, and open was intoxicating: “What had
happened in the kitchen that afternoon was a flowering of extravagant hope…”
Another good story from this collection, artfully written.
These are true short stories, complete and fully executed, perfect pacing and
length.
Notable Passage: “…she still said nothing, because all he
seemed to need, desperately need, was her listening and it did not take much to
listen.”
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