Book Review
Liberian Literary Magazine Promoting Liberian literature, Arts and Culture
Book Review
Nichoatra: The Love He Could Not Keep
Between the World and Me
Book Review by: Momoh Sekou Dudu
Mackeline Sata Wilson’ s romantic fiction thriller, Nichoatra: The Love He Could Not Keep, is a daring story of love and heartbreak. The book peers, with unapologetic intensity, into the glamorous but dark and perilous world of toxic love. With allengrossing twists and turns of plot lines, the author explores the associative( and addictive!) ingredients of that sensual toxicity: sex, lies, denial, pain, more lies, and ultimately, murder.
The story is narrated from the perspectives of the two main characters: Roderick Sanders( Rod), and Nichoatra Williams( Nicky). It opens with Rod, an older, married man, crossing paths with Nicky, a young bank employee. Instantly, Rod narrates, he feels something uncontrollable inside of himself for Nicky whom he describes as having“ just enough curves, with almond-shaped eyes, smooth skin the color of milk chocolate, and full lips that begged to be kissed.” So begins a cascade of events the confluence of which, in the end, destroyed two otherwise promising lives.
Nicky, by the time she meets Rod, has grown apprehensive of starting intimate relationships with men. She distrusts them for she carries with her, perpetually, an eternal scar from her prior experiences— all of which had been, for the most part, odysseys of betrayal, abuse, and rejection. She recalls, hauntingly, one such early-life abusive experience thus:
“ I could feel Forest’ s gun pressing against my temple— but the strange thing is, this time I wanted him to pull the trigger. I knew that if Forest had ended it back then, I would not be here now, feeling Roderick’ s words rip through my heart like a bullet through human flesh.”
For this reason, Nicky resists Rod’ s initial advances toward her. Soon, however, Rod’ s charm and persistence, and his lies, sweeps her off her feet. In the course of the impassioned courtship that ensues, Nicky, fearing a repeat of her past, displays a guarded determination to make the relationship prosper. But Rod has an alternative plan: He neither wants to break off his marriage to commit to the
relationship with Nicky nor does he want to let Nicky move on from him.
In time, Nicky decides she has had enough. She rekindles a romance with an old acquaintance for, as the noted Jim Elliot cautions:“ He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." But Nicky’ s efforts come a tad too late. She is savagely murdered by a jealous Rod just as she and her new beau ready to consummate their relationship.
I am not a sucker for romantic fiction, but I found myself unable to put this novel down from start to finish. The story rouses the heart with each sentence, with each turn of the page. It is a scintillating read!
Nichoatra: The Love He Could Not Keep, by Mackeline Sata Wilson. AuthorHouse, 2012. 176 pages. Reviewed by Momoh Sekou Dudu.
Momoh Sekou Dudu is the author of the memoir, Harrowing December( 2014) and the forthcoming novel, Forgotten Legacy( 2016). Copyright( c) Momoh Sekou Dudu, 2015. All Rights Reserved.
24