Stay with me by Ayobami Adebayo; a book review
The first phase that comes to mind when I think of Ayobami Adebayo debut ‘Stay with me’ is ‘Ah! Love’ and this exclamation exist completely because of Akin.
Akin is one of the most beautiful written man I have ever read by a woman, first because he has actual flaws and second because he is a living example of “to love a person is to become”. Akin’s flaw is something completely out his control, a pungent shame is what he believe it to be, and in his current situation, he is isn’t far from accurate.
The books follows the marriage life of Akin and Yejide, where they are four years and counting in their marriage, but with no children which is a fact scorned at in 1980’s Nigerian society. Simply speaking, they can’t have a child and when they do, disaster follows.
To be completely honest, I had spoilers on this book already, yet it still ranked up to be one of my all times favs. And I don’t know if it because I find the male lead completely pitiful or the female lead absolutely resilient, their couple makes up by far one of the best relationship portrayed in books. It is messy, passionate, bleeding, apologetic, all form of the word utterly love consuming, grief-bound, and most all, dishonest.
The one certainty of this book is the overwhelming love Akin has for his wife, which no matter how Yejide may love him, it would never equivalent, nor how deep she may come to despise him, would waver his love for her.
This book really questions how far you would go for the one you love whilst hiding a vital truth of yourself. Most times, when a person loves another they hope to only show their most memorable admirable parts of themselves, while digging a deeper hole to bury parts of themselves that are tarred. You begin to question if it is really love…
After I closed the last page of this book, I understood why it was named as it was. The name was embedded in every sentence made by Akin. He made all the decisions that made his and Yejide’s lives miserable, even though the means of all the decisions he took is bad, the end goal was his wife’s happiness. That was supposed to be enough to settle his guilt.
But what of Yejide?
What of her feelings and her sorrows and her grief. Love is not enough to solve all the emotional distress that she lived through. She really became a victim because she is loved whole heartedly by Akin.
I re-read this book again, and I still feel tingles whenever I read my bookmarked pages, so I am going to share my favorite highlight.
