Book Review: BURNING HURT By Unyime-Ivy King

 Author :Unyime-Ivy King

It was worth the read. I must confess, I enjoyed reading a book with a local plot/setting like "Things Fall Apart," etc which I read years ago. I so enjoyed the Ibibio vibes, the proverbs etc. It made me identify with my ancestry.  I was actually interpreting the book in Ibibio, acting or playing a certain village setting in my head- I imagined watching this book on TV.
I can relate to this book a little bit when I remember some issues in my Dad's village. It is a small village bordering other villages, so anything that happens in one's compound is the talk of the village. The likes of Sunday etc in the book remind me of one particular man we called "Ekpa Enang", he was rumoured to be dating an Ex-soldiers wife and the woman used to fry fish or bush meat for him and perhaps other foods. So the husband got wind of it and we hear he poisoned him.
The day the Ekpa Enang died, my dad took us to visit the village and on the way in, he was told so we got to the deceased compound first before driving to ours. It was a beehive of mourners, "talkers"/rumour mongers etc. Village issues travel very fast. You can cross into another person's compound freely, scream from the road to someone who is miles away, visit like Eka Inyene in the book. Huh, your book refreshes my village issues/life in my head. Lol

One thing I must say without meaning to flatter is: I'm so excited that an UKANGS has a novel, I feel really good that I can see "Unyime-Ivy King" as author. It is not that we don't have a few books authored by our people but I have not seen so many contemporary and well published ones like if you mention "Chimamanda". I could be myopic, (maybe I've not looked out for them). But I'm very glad this book you spoke of is a reality. For me, I see it as the beginning of more works to come from your end. This book "Burning Hurt" I really believe will swing open several doors, I pray God will use it as an announcer in many quarters and cause more works to spring up from here amen.

About the book, I enjoyed reading I read it into the night, slept off and started again. For the first time in a long while if I'm not wrong, I've voraciously read through a book(it could be that I don't want to keep it till I'm due). I really enjoyed reading even though I could predict some scenes; I still longed to know the next story. It was not so much of suspense for me but the story unfolded well.

But some scenes like Itohowo fainted seeing Daniel, when Verity took a bike to hospital and her husband fainted in delivery room didn't look real to me, LOL but then again, I said for someone who's waited so long for a baby, they do all sorts. My former choir director waited 12years to have a son. The day of conception, he ran into the church announced to people and ran out. I hear he cried giving the testimony. So its fine the way you put it (adds more humour). Ity's fainting looked like Nollywood scene to me.

The book also made me search the dictionary a lot; I had to goggle words as I came across them,  and I learned new words too.
The book for me is easy read though with excellent grammatical use, I must say I learned a lot when it has to do with sentence structure/construction (Expression etc).
There were some parts in the early Chapters; I was interpreting in Ibibio -sounded like direct interpretation. But its fine....

I must also commend the part Ity asked her Aunty "ufon mmi eh?" when she lost her baby. I love her lamentation, it was so real. I played out that scene in a real setting. Sis, that village setting in the first Chapters really tripped me a lot.

Thank God in Christ, no curse can hold sway over a man as long as we realise that he's redeemed and broken us free from the past. But some are living like Daniel, still held in bondage to a past and wandering aimlessly refusing to address the issues squarely. Jesus said "It is finished". And I've realised that men seem to bottle things up and when a woman figures it out, she reacts like Verity. I've heard such stories too. Then, I was wondering how Itohowo and Daniel would ever meet, if the dinner would hold (I would have screamed Nollywood ,lol). But that village meeting did it for me.

I just believe that "Burning Hurt" ushers in several books which will be introduced in schools, Libraries, Conferences, home and abroad. Someone had mentioned that we need more moral/Christian books(literature used in schools I mean),collection of poems/poetry in our system. It’s coming in trickles and I hope a lot of us can write and publish.
Keep up this good work Sister. I say Bravo and may this GOOD work spring up more and more beautiful works. May this book birth many more books in your name for its a good work. May the LORD bless the works of your hands and cause His face to shine(favours from all angels) on it, may men see this good work and glorify Him amen.

Thanks a lot and God bless

Enobong Ekpott

Writer/blogger
http://enobongekpott.blogspot.com/