Blunted on Reality by Chinedu Achebe

Looking for a book to read by a Nigerian author? I've got one for you.

Blunted on Reality follows the life of Obi Ifeanyi, a Nigerian American lawyer in his late 20s, coming of age after the historic election. As he confronts challenges that impact his family, career, and romantic interests, he is forced to examine his past and present choices to define his future.

Here's an excerpt of the book to whet your appetite

While they enjoyed a late breakfast, they began to discuss the history of Obama’s election. Obi started the conversation saying, "I still can’t believe this racist ass country elected a black man named Barack Hussein Obama to be the President. I guess Bush fucked this country up so much that Americans were ready for a dramatic change. Regardless of the matter, it is all good with me. Tamika, you wouldn’t imagine the electricity that was at the spot we were watching the election results at yesterday. It was like everybody knew he was going to win, but when CNN reported that Barack Obama would be the President-elect on the screen; the crowd erupted in a euphoria that I have never seen in my life. I was embracing everybody at the place, including people I didn’t know. I can’t even lie to you; I got real emotional and shed a few tears. It was one of those moments that everybody will be able to tell their kids and grandkids about."

Tamika also indicated the feeling was the same at the place she was at with her friends. She posed a question to Obi, "So how does it feel to be 29 and one year closer to the big 30?" Obi responded, "I guess I am just embracing it. I think sometimes people get caught up in reaching a particular age as needing to have reached a certain level of accomplishments. I now see that in life everything comes with time. But it does make me more introspective that I am not getting younger and that I need to start prioritizing what is important for the rest of my life as well." Tamika responded, "So are you ready to settle down, get married, and start a family?" Obi said, "At this point of my life I know I am ready for the right woman to come into my life. I guess it depends on if that woman is ready for a man like me."

The comment was not intended for Tamika, but she took it like it was. "Well everybody isn’t ready to settle down at the same time, we all got our own time." Tamika said. "That’s cool, but I am not going to hang around while someone decides if I am a good enough man or not. If that person doesn’t recognize what she has in front of her, then maybe I am not the guy for her." Obi responded.

Tamika started pondering a lot of thoughts in her mind. She really loved being around Obi and wanted to be with him one day,
but even though she just turned 30-yearsold; she was just getting into her advertising career and wasn’t sure if she wanted to make a sacrifice for any man, including Obi. The other thing is she couldn’t imagine giving up Obi to another woman. It was funny how life turns out. In college she would never worry about competing for the affection and attention of a man. She held all the cards and decided who she wanted to date. But in the world outside of college, the odds of meeting a tall, smart, and conversational man like Obi were very slim.
Tamika’s dating experiences after breaking up with Obi were not very successful. She didn’t want the Obi type of guy, so she reverted back to the type of guys she dated before Obi. Even though in her early to mid 20s, the roughneck niggas were her thing, lately she finally realized that those weren’t the type of guys to build a future with. The problem with Tamika was that she never fully appreciated Obi’s scope of knowledge on political and social issues. She wasn’t a very engaging conversational person beyond discussing the
entertainment industry

Tamika thought Obi’s knowledge consisted of a wide variety of things like fluff which didn’t amount to anything. She would always wonder why he liked to know what was going on in the world. Obi would be upset with Tamika’s lack on intellectual curiosity. He would tell her, "I don’t understand how you know almost everything about these damn reality shows, but you can’t take 20 minutes to read the headline news from CNN on TV or the Internet." Tamika had never been asked to do much in her life but to smile and look beautiful.

Most men never demanded her to challenge them mentally. But with Obi things were different. He was a very strong willed, outspoken, and opinionated man. He came from a family growing up where his father would have him read the New York Times by the time Obi was 10-years-old. Obi would have to write a thorough analysis of what he read. Both of his parents challenged their kids to be critical thinkers and not just memorize things or just regurgitate them.

The book is available on Amazon.com


Just because i'm nice like that, i am also giving away a copy of the e-book to one lucky reader. Entering to win is easy peazy. All you need to do is

1. Be a friend/subscriber of nigerianscorpio.com
2. Follow the author on twitter - @chineduachebe
3. Leave a comment telling me your favorite book written by a Nigerian author

The winner will be selected by random.org and annouced on Wed, Oct 31st. One entry per person please.

What i really want to know is if the author is related to Chinua Achebe......

P.S. My favorite book by a Nigerian author is The Concubine by Elechi Amadi. I wish there were more books like that.All you writers get to writing. Nigeria has lots of stories to tell and i want to read them cos i'm an amebo like that.