House Woman
An arranged marriage becomes a nightmare for an unwitting Nigerian woman in Adorah Nworah’s novel House Woman.
When Nna goes home to visit his unconventional but loving parents, he is surprised to find that they have arranged for him to marry Ikemefuna, a woman from their native Nigeria. Nna agrees to the match, unaware—and uncaring—of what Ikemefuna is going through: isolation and imprisonment in his parents’ home; constant pressure to bear a child she does not want; and a gnawing suspicion that there is more to the marriage than their families are telling them.
The sense of disquiet begins from the moment Nna arrives home to find Ikemefuna in his parents’ kitchen. It grows more unsettling with each new revelation and each well-chosen detail about the sights and scents and sounds of Ikemefuna’s new “home.” Social and family norms—both American and Nigerian—keep her trapped in a situation that becomes more dangerous by the day, despite her ever-more-desperate attempts to free herself.
Nna seems friendly enough at the start, if a little arrogant and possessive. As the story progresses, he stands exposed for what he is: a man more controlling than he will ever admit, obsessed with feminine perfection yet unwilling to see how imperfect he and his parents are. But Nna is far from the only guilty party in this horrifying, tragic situation. Everyone Ikemefuna meets, from her scheming in-laws to the spying neighbors, feels entitled to her body. Despite her initial idealism, Ikemefuna comes to realize that no one, not even the people of fabled America, cares about a Black woman’s suffering until other people start to suffer too.
House Woman is a chilling domestic thriller about a woman’s life-or-death fight for bodily autonomy.
Reviewed by
Eileen Gonzalez
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