Cindy stirred her coffee with a silver spoon and set it down. The ocean breeze which Neni had enjoyed that morning was no longer relaxing – it’d become a nuisance as it gained force and blue her braids into her face.

Deliberately, Cindy took off her sunglasses, put them on the table, and looked into Neni’s eyes. “You probably look at me,” she said, “and think I came from a life like this. You probably think I was born into this kind on money, right?”

This novel tells the story of two families – an undocumented Cameroonian family and a rich Upper West New York family – during the 2008 financial crisis. Jende Junga, originally from Limbe, Cameroon, goes to New York in pursuit of the American Dream, and after a few years he is able to bring his wife Neni and their son to New York City. This happens just before he gets a job that will change his reality: being the chauffeur to a top a top executive at Lehman Brothers, Clark Edwards. From this moment on both families share an intersection, they become friends albeit facing their own realities,  then not without expectation, the crisis hits.

The main characters undergo a transformation that is almost unbearable to read. To me, this is the best aspect of the novel. At the beginning both men are presumed to be hardworking for the wellbeing of their families, during the crisis, this changes for both of them. And the path they each decide to follow sheds light on the actual power they have over their wives disregarding their opinions and emotional well-being. The women, on the other hand, behave in completely different ways and adopt several tools to affront their problems. Neni is strong and determined. She has a dream to become a pharmacist and will do anything to pursue it. Nancy, Clark’s wife, feels displaced by a distant son and a workaholic husband. All her riches and phone calls are not enough for her to feel fulfilled. Although Mbue profoundly describes Nancy, it is hard to feel empathy for her, a feeling that comes naturally for Neni.

Mbue questions the American Dream from two very unique perspectives and underlines how human nature plays an important role in pursuing any type of dream. Resilience comes in different shapes and sometimes the most unexpected solution, even contradictory to the person’s efforts of the last years, is the correct one… at least for one member of the family. This novel is a page-turner with the imminent financial crisis as a main character that creeps from page to page until it breaks loose, and the two families are caught in devastating circumstances.

About Imbolo Mbue

Imbolo Mbue grew up in Limbe, Cameroon, and moved to the US to study her undergrad and graduate studies, in Business and Education, respectively.  She didn’t pursue a career in writing until she had to face the 2008 financial crisis herself. During her unemployment, she came up with the idea for her first novel, “Behold the Dreamers”, winner of  the PEN/Faulkner Award. It was also selected as the New York Times Notable Book.

Other books written by Cameroonian women 

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Cameroonian initiatives and projects that support and empower girls and women

Mbonweh Women’s Development Association

MWDA Cameroon is a women’s non profit that fights for specific women’s rights: economic self sufficiency, freedom from violence and information about health.  They have three distinct programes, education, women empowerment and advocacy. Through their empowerment program they established a revolving loan fund that grants micro credits to women entrepreneurs from rural backgrounds in Cameroon. Additionally, in 2001 the organization created its own school, Unique, where they design the coursework to prepare children from poor and rural communities to become independent adults.