A Life Elsewhere is a poignant collection of short stories by Segun Afolabi that explores the lives of the Nigerian diaspora and others living in states of displacement, transition, or emotional exile. The narratives span various global locations, focusing on characters who are navigating the complexities of identity, memory, and the search for a sense of belonging in unfamiliar environments.
Summary
The collection serves as a mosaic of the “elsewhere” experience. It portrays characters in various stages of life refugees in London hostels, young men drifting through Florida, elderly musicians in Kensington, and families struggling with hidden traumas in suburbia. The stories often center on the quiet, internal struggles of individuals who feel disconnected from their surroundings or their pasts. Whether it is a mother fleeing abuse in a snow-covered Tokyo or an elderly man seeking a lost connection in a London brothel, the stories emphasize the fragility of the human condition when stripped of its familiar foundations.
Plot Overview
While each story has its own narrative arc, the overarching “plot” of the collection is the movement toward or away from a home.
- Arrival and Survival: In stories like Monday Morning, a refugee family tries to find a new rhythm in London, with the father working illegal construction jobs while the children are drawn to the allure of a “glass hotel” a symbol of a life they cannot yet reach.
- The Search for Connection: In People You Don’t Know, a young man in Florida befriends an elderly woman at a pool, only to witness her sudden death, which forces him to confront his own lack of direction. In The Wine Guitar, an aging musician struggles with the physical decline of his voice and the emotional distance of his children, seeking solace in a young woman who reminds him of his past.
- Confronting Trauma: Stories like The Visitor and Arithmetic delve into the “subtraction” of life specifically the loss of children and the subsequent breakdown of communication between couples.
- Departure: The final story, Jumbo and Jacinta, concludes with an elderly couple at Niagara Falls, facing their fears and literally immersing themselves in the spray of the water, suggesting a moment of baptism or acceptance of their place in the world.
Setting
The settings are diverse and integral to the characters’ feelings of displacement:
- London, UK: Often depicted through hostels, Underground stations, and cramped apartments, representing a place of both sanctuary and cold isolation.
- Tampa, Florida: A humid, sticky environment where the heat mirrors the protagonist’s simmering restlessness.
- Nigeria (Lagos, Jos, Kano): Seen through the eyes of those returning after decades, it is a place of intense heat, petrol crises, and painful memories that no longer feel like “home”.
- Tokyo, Japan: A cold, snowy landscape that provides a stark, alien backdrop for a woman escaping domestic violence.
- Hong Kong: A bustling harbor where a Nigerian family navigates the social circles of the international diplomatic community.
Themes
- Displacement and Diaspora: Characters are frequently “one step behind everyone else,” trying to learn the rules of a new “house” where the furniture is constantly rearranged.
- Grief and Loss: The loss of children is a recurring motif (miscarriages in Arithmetic, a car accident in The Visitor, a violent death in Mrs Minter).
- Memory vs. Reality: Characters often cling to a version of the past that is “smeared” or “faded,” finding that returning to their origins reveals a world that has moved on without them.
- Communication Barriers: Whether it is a literal language barrier or the emotional silence between husbands and wives, characters struggle to express their deepest needs.
- Poverty and Class: The divide between the “lost ones” on the street and the “glass hotels” or “overblown palaces” highlights the economic precariousness of the immigrant experience.
Characters
Major Characters
- The Father (Monday Morning): A quiet, former chef working as a manual laborer in London; he is a man of “observation” rather than words.
- Leon (People You Don’t Know): An 18-year-old with a history of “trouble” (shoplifting) who seeks escape through stolen cars and the friendship of an older woman.
- Kayode (The Wine Guitar): An elderly, “stubborn” man who has lived too long in “another man’s country” and feels he has failed at life.
- Alicia (Arithmetic): A woman from “the Islands” who has endured multiple miscarriages and remains a symbol of “sureness in the world” for her husband.
- Femi (Something in the Water): A man returning to Nigeria after 20 years, overwhelmed by a “corrosive” rage and the trauma of losing his parents.
- The Mother (Gifted): A survivor of domestic abuse in Tokyo who protects her sons with fierce, quiet determination.
Minor Characters
- Emmanuel: A cynical, angry boy in the London hostel who views the adult fathers as “foolish and clumsy”.
- Mrs. Drexel: A large, cheerful woman in Florida whose sudden death serves as a catalyst for Leon’s departure.
- Jumoke: A house girl from the narrator’s childhood in Nigeria who harbors a deep, secret hatred for his family.
- Gerry: A boisterous, “messy” man whose presence at a dinner party forces his hosts to confront their buried grief.
- Mr. Ooststroom: A Dutch diplomat in Hong Kong who is mocked for his perceived loneliness.
Literary Devices
- Motif of Water: Water is used as both a life-giving force and a site of trauma. It is where Alfredo “makes fire” (urinates), where Mrs. Drexel dies, where Femi’s parents died of cholera, and the site of Jacinta’s ultimate acceptance.
- Metaphor: In Arithmetic, the narrator uses mathematical terms like “subtraction,” “gain,” and “calculations” to describe the emotional and physical labor of sex and the loss of his children.
- Symbolism of Glass: Windows and “glass hotels” symbolize the thin, transparent barrier between the characters’ current meager lives and the “elsewhere” they desire.
- Inner Monologue: Many stories are told through a stream of consciousness or close first-person perspective, allowing the reader to experience the character’s internal “arithmetic” and “warfare”.
- Imagery of Heat and Cold: The “unfettered” heat of Nigeria and Florida is contrasted with the “bleak” and “cold” environments of London and Tokyo, reflecting the characters’ internal temperatures of rage or depression.
