By Ekta R. Garg
February 1, 2023
Genre: Women’s fiction/Own voices
Release date: January 31, 2023
Rated: Borrow it / 3 stars
A young woman must juggle her mother’s sky-high expectations with the burden of being her father’s sole caregiver. Along the way she navigates a new job and forays into love while trying to figure out who she is and how her Ghanaian culture fits into her life. Debut author Jessica George leans into her own background as the child of Ghanaian immigrants in the sweet but ultimately middling novel Maame.
In London Maddie Wright is doing her best to keep track of everything: her job as a personal assistant as well as her father’s health. As his sole caregiver, Maddie spends all of her time either at work or at home taking care of her dad’s needs. His Parkinson’s has slowed him down enough that Maddie feeds her father by hand and helps him into and out of bed every day. He’s mostly stopped speaking, so Maddie is never sure that what she’s doing for him is enough or too much or completely wrong.
She resents her mother for leaving them and spending so much time in her home country of Ghana in a travel schedule that mostly benefits her. She lives in Ghana for a year and then returns to London for a year. She also expects Maddie to kick in funds for the hostel she’s running back in Africa. Maddie is living at home, but she doesn’t have much in savings.
Her older brother, James, made the decision to check out of the family early on . He offers Maddie moral support but not much else. Like their mother, James expects Maddie to help him out financially when his job as the manager of a band leaves him short.
Between all of her responsibilities, Maddie is lonely. Her boss, Katherine, expects her to solve all the problems that Katherine herself creates. When Maddie first got the job at the theater in London, she thought she’d have the opportunity to attend the performances. The only performance she sees on a regular basis, though, is Katherine trying to convince everyone she’s totally fine even though she spends plenty of time in the bathroom crying.
Then comes the day that Katherine makes a big mistake, blames it on Maddie, and fires her. Maddie thought things were starting to look up; her mother had called to say she was returning to start her year in London, and Maddie recently made the big decision to move out. But how can she do that when she doesn’t have a job?
Moving out creates its own issues. Although her flatmates are lovely people, Maddie discovers she’s never really learned how to navigate life as an adult on her own. Now she has to do just that, figuring out dating, the job search, whether a person’s comment has racial undertones, and why her mother won’t leave her alone already about getting married. Through it all, Maddie realizes she’ll have to make some hard decisions if she wants to reclaim any of her life for herself.
Author Jessica George draws from her own experience to create Maddie and some of Maddie’s circumstances. Like her protagonist, George’s parents migrated from Ghana. Also like Maddie, George studied English literature in college, worked in a theater, and then found her next job in a publishing company. For both professional experiences, George’s familiarity and ease with those job environments ring true.
Maddie also grapples with her culture at times in a way that feels realistic to children of immigrants. Her need to assert independence while honoring the legacy of her family weighs on Maddie in a way that is relatable. The Ghanaian impact in her life is dealt with as any other life challenges rather than being used as a prop for diversity’s sake.
Maddie’s voice, too, is fresh and interesting. Her naivete will appeal to anyone who has lived through their mid-20s and struggled with life decisions, no matter their cultural background. If anything rings false, it’s Maddie’s self-awareness and her ability to verbalize in crystal clear, succinct prose exactly what she feels about her life’s biggest challenges soon after they’ve occurred.
Instead of messy conversations that lean one way or the other and eventually find themselves upright again, Maddie’s pronouncements about her life stand ramrod straight. After the fourth or fifth time, her declarations feel put on and too polished. They become a major distraction, and some readers may wonder how on earth Maddie could find herself in the scrapes she does if she’s so self-aware. Why can’t she stand up for herself before something happens?
Those who enjoy reading and learning about other cultures in a book that includes witty inner dialogue might want to try this. Otherwise, I recommend readers Borrow Maame by Jessica George.
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