The Joys of Motherhood

Buchi Emecheta

Heinemann, 1994 - Fiction - 224 pages

...a graceful, touching, ironically titled tale. - John Updike A new edition of her classic novel to coincide with the publication of her other works in the African Writers Series. Nnu Ego is a woman devoted to her children, giving them all her energy, all her worldly possessions, indeed, all her life to them -- with the result that she finds herself friendless and alone in middle age. This story of a young mother's struggles in 1950s Lagos is a powerful commentary on polygamy, patriarchy, and women's changing roles in urban Nigeria.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - arubabookwoman - LibraryThing

This is the story of the life of a Igbo woman, Nnu Ego, from the 1930's to the 1950's. I loved her and I loved this book. Nnu is the daughter of a wealthy Igbo chief living in the country, who is ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - froxgirl - LibraryThing

The irony of the title cannot be lost on any followers of this "lost" Nigerian novelist from the 1970s. Emecheta chronicles the unhappy lot and difficult lives of Ibo women in Nigeria in the 1940s ...

Contents

• The Mother: 7
• The Mothers Mother: 10
• The Mothers Early Life: 29
• First Shocks of Motherhood: 40
• A Failed Woman: 56
• A Man is Never Ugly: 63
• The Duly of a Father: 72
• The Rich and the Poor: 82
• A Mothers Investment: 101
• A Man Needs Many Wives: 111
• Sharing a Husband: 126
• Men at War: 141
• A Good Daughter: 151
• Women Alone: 156
• The Soldier Father: 170
• A Mother of Clever Children: 188
• A Daughters Honour: 198
• The Canonised Mother: 212

About the author

BUCHI EMECHETA was born in Nigeria and came to England in 1962. Her novels include In the Ditch, The Joys of Motherhood, Kehinde, Head Above Water, and Gwendolen.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Joys of Motherhood; Volume 227 of African writers series, ISSN 0065-4108
• Author: Buchi Emecheta
• Edition: reprint, reissue
• Publisher: Heinemann, 1994
• ISBN: 043590972X, 9780435909727
• Length: 224 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / General; Literary Collections / African