Imagine Lola

Character’s Name: Lola Ogunwole
Book Title: Imagine This
Author: Sade Adeniran

At age nine, Lola Ogunwole’s life crashes with the mishap that will characterize her life in years to come as she is forced to live in Idogun. Idogun, a far contrasting picture with the world she is used to in Edgecombe House in London. In the time of uncertainties, a becoming reticence later turns Lola’s language of survival. She reposes her solace in the only diary she addresses her woes, joys and encounters as her life mundanely passes by. A diary where every word, no matter how awful or memorable, begins with Dear Jupiter.

Imagine This is the tantrum of Lola against uncontrollable fierceness confronting her life. The book is a poignant account of the compromise of hapless children in the face of domestic violence, matrimonial disarray and cultural imbalances. It narrates the plights of Lola and Adebola Ogunwole as they toil to remedy the taints only the attentiveness and care of a father could make them overcome. Imagine This measures the anguish of a teenage girl (Lola) and how she battles to retain the love of those around her. Her action towards this changes everything about her life; her father’s attitude and her brother’s, Adebola’s, existence.

That the character is portrayed in the first person narrative view shows how far its aesthetic distance is to the author, Sade Adeniran. I could quite observe from the tone every of the sentences carries that Sade is only creating a medium to pour out her heart about issues of her past. Having said a sequel, Imagine That, will follow confirms that she has not yet drained her emotions in those pages in Imagine This.

It is quite easy sharing empathy with Lola Ogunwole. Most especially how her sudden urban-rural migration triggers the trauma I had to put up with when my academe changed location from Festac in Lagos to Ilesa in Osun. The change was brutal and scarring, just like Lola’s.

©Joseph Omotayo,
Adejimi Castle, Aderin, Oshogbo, Osun State.

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