A Broken People's Playlist

February 15, 2023
Snapshots of failed romances and busted families in Nigeria. Each of the dozen stories in Garricks' first collection, he explains in an author's note, takes its title from and was inspired by a particular song, mostly by rock and R&B artists like Johnny Cash, Nina Simone, U2, and more. None of those songs are directly referenced in their accompanying stories, but the rubric serves to capture a mood and emphasize a kind of pop sensibility in the writing--Garricks aspires to craft straightforward, tightly composed studies in heartbreak. In "Music," a 17-year-old aspiring DJ uses the dance floor to undermine his father, who left the family when he was young. The narrator of "Hurt" recalls a dying friend's efforts to arrange and attend his own funeral before he passes. In "I'd Die Without You," a man contemplates the aftermath of his wife's miscarriage, while the protagonists of "Beautiful War" and "Desperado" are each facing the consequences of their infidelities. Most of the (lightly linked) stories are set in or around Port Harcourt, a Nigerian city that's a center for the country's petroleum industry, which offers metaphorical opportunities to explore wealth and its abuse; a number of stories also turn on the "confras," or violent fraternities at the state university. The stories demonstrate the shortcomings of that pop sensibility--a repetitiveness creeps in, as does some sentimental prose. ("I felt the bird's wings beating furiously where my heart used to be.") But there are welcome moments when Garricks tweaks the formula: "In the City" is a more ambitious and tragic story involving corrupt police officers and a case of mistaken identity, and in the comic "I Put a Spell on You," a man is consumed with paranoia over his wife's possibly undermining his sexual performance with everyone but her. Well-turned tales of love and loss, though often playing familiar refrains.

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March 31, 2023

Set in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, these stories are linked by the songs that form the playlist of their creation and by recurring characters. Garricks (author of the debut novel Tomorrow Died Yesterday) focuses on middle- and upper-middle-class Nigerians, businessmen and professionals enriched by the oil boom with the means to have been educated in Great Britain or to have sent their children there. "Lost Stars" (inspired by Adam Levine) concerns two on-again, off-again lovers whose decision to finally commit is unexpectedly shattered. The wrenching "Hurt" (inspired by Johnny Cash) is about a thirtyish man dying of cancer who holds a living funeral for himself and intensely desires that his ex-wife attend, despite having physically abused her during their marriage. The wry "I Put a Spell on You" (inspired by Nina Simone) takes place at a gathering of friends where one confesses that he feels his wife has hexed him because he is now unable to perform sexually with his lovers, while another decides finally to marry his pregnant longtime partner. VERDICT Garricks's Nigeria is a land broken by rapid change, and his characters have been broken psychologically and spiritually by it as well, living lives filled with longing and disappointment and seeking an ever-elusive redemption.--Lawrence Rungren

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Starred review from February 15, 2023
A dozen interlinked, music-oriented stories set in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where Garricks was raised, form an ode to feel-good moments (falling in love, finding second chances, reveling in gratitude) and grating dissonances (cheating spouses, living with regret, longing for forgiveness, grieving for a loved one). Readers will feel both bewildered by and invested in the interconnected and fractured lives of friends, lovers, and family members who long for peace and redemption. In ""Music,"" an aspiring DJ vows never to follow his womanizing father's footsteps, but later in ""Desperado,"" heartbreaking details emerge as to why he was unable to keep his promise. In ""Hurt,"" a pampered son stages his own funeral as his older brother, also seen in ""Love's Divine,"" tries to make up for his shortcomings. ""In the City"" presents a young man with a promising future caught in the crosshairs of police brutality. ""River"" highlights the violence in confraternities (secret student groups) in Nigerian universities. Friends ponder the meaning of true love, "when you've unloved the unlovely, the imperfect," in ""Beautiful War."" Each songlike story feels like a breakout hit encapsulating the brokenness and the beauty in life's soundtrack.

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