Death of Vivek Oji (Emezi)

The Death of Vivek Oji  
Akwaeke Emezi, 2020
Penguin Publishing
256 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780525541608


Summary
What does it mean for a family to lose a child they never really knew?

One afternoon, in a town in southeastern Nigeria, a mother opens her front door to discover her son’s body, wrapped in colorful fabric, at her feet.

What follows is the tumultuous, heart-wrenching story of one family’s struggle to understand a child whose spirit is both gentle and mysterious.

Raised by a distant father and an understanding but overprotective mother, Vivek suffers disorienting blackouts, moments of disconnection between self and surroundings. As adolescence gives way to adulthood, Vivek finds solace in friendships with the warm, boisterous daughters of the Nigerwives, foreign-born women married to Nigerian men.

But Vivek’s closest bond is with Osita, the worldly, high-spirited cousin whose teasing confidence masks a guarded private life. As their relationship deepens—and Osita struggles to understand Vivek’s escalating crisis—the mystery gives way to a heart-stopping act of violence in a moment of exhilarating freedom.

Propulsively readable, teeming with unforgettable characters, The Death of Vivek Oji is a novel of family and friendship that challenges expectations—a dramatic story of loss and transcendence that will move every reader. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—1987
• Where—Umuahia, Nigeria
• Education—M.P.A., New York University
• Awards—(see below)
• Currently—lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA



Akwaeke Emezi is the author of The Death of Vivek Oji, a New York Times bestseller, published in 2020.

When Emezi's first novel, Freshwater (2019), was published, it was named a New York Times Notable Book and shortlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award, the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize, and longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize, the Wellcome Book Prize, the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. Freshwater was also awarded the Otherwise Award and named a Best Book of the Decade by BuzzFeed and a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, NPR, and the Chicago Public Library.

Emezi's second book, Pet (2019), was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.

Selected as a "5 Under 35" honoree by the National Book Foundation, Emezi has been profiled by Vogue (photographed by Annie Leibovitz) and by Vanity Fair as part of "The New Hollywood Guard." Freshwater has been translated into ten languages and is currently in development as a TV series at FX, with Emezi writing and executive producing with Tamara P. Carter. (From the author.)

Book Reviews
[A] dazzling, devastating story…. A puzzle wrapped in beautiful language, raising questions of identity and loyalty that are as unanswerable as they are important.
New York Times Book Review


Remarkably assured and graceful…. Emezi has once again encouraged us to embrace a fuller spectrum of human experience.
Washington Post


Instead of getting flattened by death, Vivek becomes more vivid on each page. He glows like the sun, impossible to look at directly yet utterly charismatic. I missed him when the novel was done.
NPR


Powerful…. [A] slim book that contains as wide a range of experience as any saga—a little bit like Vivek’s brief yet gloriously expansive life.
Los Angeles Times


Electrifying.
Oprah Magazine


[A] brisk tale that whirs around the mysterious death of a young Nigerian man…. While Emezi leans on cliches…, they offer sharp observations about the cost of transphobia and homophobia, and about the limits of honesty…. Despite a few bumps, this is a worthy effort.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred Review) How [Vivek Oji] came to his untimely end is the focus of this haunting novel… [T]his achingly beautiful probe into the challenges of living fully as a nonbinary human being, is an illuminating read. —Sally Bissell, formerly with Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL
Library Journal


(Starred Review) [A] deeply unsettling yet ultimately redeeming story about one young man’s struggles in Nigeria in a society which too often straitjackets one’s identity.… This is another knockout performance from a writer who… refuses to color within the lines.
Booklist


(Starred Review) There’s something heartbreaking about the fact that his story can only be told by others, especially since some of them never saw [Vivke] as he wanted to be seen.… Even so, the novel ends on a note of hope. Vividly written and deeply affecting.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. "They burned down the market on the day Vivek Oji died." The novel begins in the aftermath of Vivek Oji’s death, despite his being the titular character. How did knowing that Vivek has already died shape your reading experience? What is suggested by framing the book in this way?

2. In the second chapter, the narrator tells us that this story could be told through a stack of photographs. Near the end of the book, Osita and the girls visit Kavita with a stack of photographs to tell Vivek’s story. How are these stacks of photographs connected? Did you draw any meaning from the use of photographs, as opposed to words or physical mementos?

3. As Vivek grows more uncomfortable with his family at home, he finds solace with the daughters of the Nigerwives. What actions do the girls take to make Vivek feel comfortable and secure? If a biological family is unable to accept a child, can friendships be a sufficient replacement?

4. When the boys are in school, Osita does not comprehend Vivek’s fugue states, and these ultimately lead to the cousins' falling-out. How did you interpret Vivek’s fugues? Could Osita have dealt with these and his relationship with Vivek better, or is he excused because of his age? Were you surprised when Osita and Vivek become intimate later? How does their relationship change in the intervening years?

5. After Vivek’s death, Kavita is very concerned with finding his Ganesh necklace, and at the end of the book, it is the one item of Vivek’s that Osita keeps. What does the necklace represent about Vivek’s identity and ancestry? What does it mean that he wore it until the end of his life, despite the alterations he made to his appearance?

6. When she was younger, Juju expressed skepticism about the community the Nigerwives had built around their shared identity, but when she is older she falls into easy community with Vivek, Osita, and the girls. What is most important in building a group of friends? How does the Nigerwives’ shared identity as outsiders bring them together despite their individual differences?

7. After Vivek’s death, Osita, Kavita, Chika, and Juju all cope with their grief differently—by running away to party, by pushing for answers, by hiding in bed, or by falling silent. How do these varied responses pull them apart, and how are they ultimately able to push past these tensions?

8. When they were younger, Osita and Elizabeth were an item, and later Osita is with Vivek and Elizabeth is with Juju. Vivek and Juju share a kiss, and after Vivek’s death, Osita and Juju sleep together. What did you make of the many ways the friends are enmeshed? How does the author present a wide spectrum of expressing feeling and affection through physical touch?

9. In the chapter featuring Ebenezer, we learn of a girl with long hair who previously walked through the market and whom Ebenezer sees arguing on the day of the riots. Did you have any sense in that moment that the girl was Vivek, and if so, what made you think that? If not, when did it become clear? In what way did this method of storytelling inform your ideas of how Vivek presented and how acceptable it was to others?

10. "You keep talking as if he belonged to you, just because you were his mother, but he didn’t. He didn’t belong to anybody but himself," Somto tells Kavita when the group of friends goes to visit her. Do you think Somto is right in saying this about Kavita, and if so, is she right to bring it up then? How does possessiveness play into our relationships with the dead? How about our relationship with our friends?

11. After meeting with the "children," Kavita decides that Vivek’s gravestone should display the other name he was going by, Nnemdi. Does this prove Kavita’s acceptance of Vivek, even if it comes too late? How did this shape your understanding of Vivek’s identity? Did the connection between Ahunna and Vivek resonate with your beliefs on family, inheritance, and reincarnation?

12. At the end of the book, we learn that Vivek died after fighting with Osita, not at the hands of rioting strangers. Were you surprised by this final reveal? Do you agree with Osita that Vivek would have stayed safe and alive if only he had kept his dresses within the "bubble" of Juju’s room? How does this last bit of information shape your feelings about Osita and your ideas of whom Vivek was most under threat from?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)

top of page (summary)