21st Century Literature discussion

Welcome to the general discussion for Freshwater! Please post about how you discovered this book and what you thought. Are there other books you'd compare it to, or is it sui generis? Below are some links with background and more information on Emezi. Please feel free to comment on these, or post your own links or other comments. I'll open a thread for discussion of the entire book soon.

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Freshwater is part of a series of self-portraits in different mediums, known collectively as "The Unblinding". From Emezi's website:

"THE UNBLINDING is a series of self portraits depicting an ogbanje's progression from unawareness to clarity around its nature as an embodied spirit. Initial self-portraits include paintings created by the ogbanje in its initial state of 'blindness' and an autobiographical novel, FRESHWATER, in which the ogbanje articulates details of embodiment and ascribes legibility to its self. The final set of self-portraits is an ongoing collection of video art, using ritual and performance to render multiple self-aware iterations of the embodied spirit."

Some of Emezi's paintings for this project, as well as descriptions and stills from their video work can be found at their website https://www.akwaeke.com/paintings#1

Freshwater is currently in development as a television series at FX, with Emezi co-writing and executive producing: https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/akwa...

The following interview contains background on Emezi and how they came to writing. Among other things, Emezi discusses how they saw ogbanje as a much better lens for interrogating suicidality than the standard western mental health descriptions. They also discuss how there was a lack of precursors and inspiration for what they wanted to write. At the end is their somewhat unique and level-headed take on reading GR reviews about their work. https://therumpus.net/2018/02/the-rum...

In this essay in the cut, Emezi discusses their gender transition surgeries as a reflection of their ogbanje nature. https://www.thecut.com/2018/01/writer...

I read it last year when it was longlisted for the Women's Prize, and was very impressed. Her use of Nigerian spirits was a little reminiscent of Ben Okri's Booker winner The Famished Road and more recently Chigozie Obioma's An Orchestra of Minorities but all three use them very differently and for me this book is the best of the three. Looking forward to the discussion!

I read this many months ago, and it's way at the top of my all time favorites.

I'm following Emezi on Instagram - I was expecting it to be a promotional account where I could keep track of her publishing and appearances, but I'm surprised at how personal it is - not TMI, but still quite personal. Feels like it's intended for friends, so I keep thinking that I don't belong there. On the other hand, it makes me feel very warm towards her, so maybe it is good marketing after all ;)

As I wrote this, I was vascillating between pronouns - her or them, but since she was on the Women's Prize list, I'm going with her and hoping that a more graceful non-gendered pronoun eventually rises into general use.

I read and enjoyed this (in audible) shortly after it was published. I found it quite entrancing. I learned a lot more about the author and the book after I read the book. I intend to follow the discussion here and chime in when I can.

I read this a year ago. I wasn't as enchanted by it as some of you appear to have been. I much preferred Obioma's An Orchestra of Minorities. I'll wait for the discussion to get underway before I explain my reservations about the novel.

Nadine wrote: "As I wrote this, I was vascillating between pronouns - her or them, but since she was on the Women's Prize list, I'm going with her and hoping that a more graceful non-gendered pronoun eventually rises into general use. ..."

Thanks for bringing this up. I was assuming "she/her" since that's what all the interviews and reviews I read had used. Going to the source, Emezi's twitter account says "nonhuman (they/them)", so I'll update the above posts.

Thanks also for mentioning the Instagram account, I see what you mean about it being personal rather than promotional.

Tamara wrote: "I read this a year ago. I wasn't as enchanted by it as some of you appear to have been. I much preferred Obioma's An Orchestra of Minorities. I'll wait for the discussion to get und..."

Thanks, Tamara. Looking forward to what you have to say about Freshwater, and what you found superior about Orchestra of Minorities.

Hugh wrote: "I read it last year when it was longlisted for the Women's Prize, and was very impressed. Her use of Nigerian spirits was a little reminiscent of Ben Okri's Booker winner [book:The Famished Road|10..."

Thanks, Hugh. I read Famished Road so long ago that I'm hazy on the details. Since two of you have mentioned Orchestra of Minorities now, I'm looking forward to reading it.