IN almost two decades of journalism practice, Edozie Udeze has made his mark as a newsman whose sensitivity to issues and developments around him is ever alert.Even in his new book, This Wonderful Life, a collection of short stories, this avid commitment to society is manifest. In the publication he captures the land in very instructive but witty manner. With characteristic passion and lucid language, as in his various reports, reviews and journalistic analysis of activities in the arts and culture sector, he draws an engaging picture of the Nigerian society. The author appears to have drawn largely from his background as a University of Ilorin, Kwara State graduate of History and the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba, Ikeja, Lagos alumnus. 'This Wonderful Life ,' the blurb states, 'draws on writings which have strong roots and bearings in the author's own times and experiences in Nigeria. The stories are witty and reflect effusively on numerous events and fascinations that mirror the Nigerian society as it is today.'Udeze's narrative offers as much commentary at it serves tales of socio-cultural developments in the society, yet it is fiction. Although, This Wonderful Life is his first published novel, Udeze has been widely published over years as a journalist whose career has passed through such media publications as the defunct Passion magazine, The Satellite, Sunday Times newspapers and his current press, The Nation among others. The 160 pages of This Wonderful Life is taken by three short stories broken into various chapters of unequal lengths. It also has a glossary of local words and phrases used in the book. In Story 1, Adventures of Brother Harry, which spans through five chapters, the author tells the story of a young man caught in the cobweb of pressure to make money at whatever cost and peer group influence. In Chapter One, 'Harry in the Jungle,' Udeze provides a background of a rich and affluent Harrison Udene Ede 11, simply referred to in most part of the story as Harry. He visits his long-time friend, Asota who leaves in the slum of Ajegunle, Lagos. Harry proposes that Asota joins him in his advance-fee fraud business (419). According to the story, when the going was good for Asota, he helped Harry to secure a job in a certain finance house. 'Then the economy was buoyant and Harry, fresh from school, sought the help of Asota to get employed in Thick and Thick Finance House, Lagos.' However, with the collapse of the whole business, Asota is finding it difficult to survive. Harry therefore wants to make it up to him by inviting him to join his group. Acting under the guise that he wants Asota to have a feel of the action in his new line of business, he lures the unsuspecting Asota to join them in lifting oil on paper. Asota promptly refuses upon learning what the business is about and informs him of his desire to join an anti-narcotics organisation, the Drug Agency which then has publicised it's quest to recruit experienced graduates to fight drug pedlars and their allies in the Nigerian society. Two weeks later, Asota is employed by the Drug Agency. In the four chapters that followed, namely, 'Harry, The Village Boy;' 'Harry, the Fraudster, the Lover;' 'Harry in Trouble,' and 'Harry on His Way Out,' respectively, the narrative veer from Harry's childhood experience to the influence of his father who is a renowned dibia (native doctor) in their community, the pains of loosing his mother, and that of his friend Daniel Ogaga Junior, as well as how his love affair with a love-struck Ellen which ends tragically for the lady. In spite of the glaring signals that things are beginning to turn awry and the warnings by his father, Harry, blinded by the quest for quick money, insists on continuing with his 419 business. Eventually, the long arm of the law catches up with him and his accomplice Chief Ogaga. Ellen dies under mysterious circumstances in a room in Mafoluku, Lagos, on the eve of the judgment which was to determine the fate of Harry. Second short story, Michael ' The Abandoned Child, is about Michael who is abandoned by his mother Amaka, a prostitute. Under the cover of darkness, she dumps the child in a big sewer by a busy road. Two nuns who find him take him to a motherless baby home where he grows up to become a brilliant boy, and subsequently a professor. But his archilles heel came via incest and marriage to his blood sister whom he never knew. And the resulting trauma that follows makes the punch in the short tale. Michael ' The Abandoned Child is broken into four chapters that capture the birth, growth and development of Michael and the crisis that followed through his marriage to Ednah Udoma.The third and final story in the series is entitled Independent Life Tales, and has four stories. It is broken into four chapters, namely 'The Spoilers,' 'Travails of Love,' 'An Encounter With Harlot,' and 'Lost but Found.' As writer of the foreword, Sam Omatseye, notes in This Wonderful Life, Udeze lives 'true to an artist's love of twists and ironies.' He notes that the collection of tales 'is not so much a celebration of Nigerian life, but the possibilities of such a celebration.'Omatseye further describes This Wonderful Life as 'a series of narratives bound by the strands of the sordid and the potentially triumphal.'He captures the entire collective in this capsular narrative: 'From the seedy ambience of Ajegunle to the forbidden incest resulting from a mother's teenage misadventure, we see a writer rippling with a sense of the absurd. This collection of both long and short stories, should add to the ever-evolving symphonies and cacophonies of the contemporary voices of Nigeria's literature.' In This Wonderful Life, Udeze, no doubt offers a collection of stories that are sure to provoke sober reflection on various issues and developments which the stories still grapple with. The book comes with a beautiful cover and the binding makes for easy reading. The language is simple and unambiguous; the printing clear and legible. The editing passes with just some typographic errors which however, does not distract from the flow of the narrative. There are some issues with usage of street lingua such as in the expressions 'Once you are there, no other one will poke-nose...' (page 93); 'Pipe down still. We mean no harm' (page 148).Nevertheless, Udeze's debut, which comes across more as a collection of three novellas than short stories is a very high standard debut. And overall, in total packaging and quality of content, This Wonderful Life is a memorable first step forward for the Ihiala, Anambra state born journalist, art critic and creative writer.
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