Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad

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I wished some of the stories had more depth to them but overall I would recommend this to anyone who is in a reading rut and looking for a good laugh!

So, if anyone can collate stories about the madness of the men, there deserves to be one revealing the madness of the women. There were men afraid of commitment, power thirsty ones, egoistic, and all collectively felt like Kings that deserved to objectify women, use them as tools, have their way; like women were created to dance to their tunes with whatever melody as long as it suited their low desires or gave them that absurd high of being overentitled and unaccountable for their deeds.The idea that women are the propellers of the madness of nearly all the men in Lagos doesn’t plausibly apply to Stella or Chidubem in ‘Match Made in Heaven’. The stereotype of pointing fingers at the woman as being responsible for infertility in marriages finds its way into this novel as well. While Lagos, Yoruba, and indeed,Nigerian men have their peculiarities, many of which are far from gentlemanly or chivalrous, the sustenance of moral decadence in a generation that sees sex as a commodity, is bound to result in unfortunate eventualities, of which women tend to bear most of the brunt. The range of stories, ethnicities, and experiences really threw me in for a loop as every story was something new that I could enjoy.

However, it was an interesting read and made me reflect on the nature of romantic relationships in this society. Her keen eye for the idiosyncrasies of Lagosian culture, combined with his clever wordplay, ensures that every page delivers a punchline. The men in this book are liars, cheats, scammers, and largely undeserving of the women in their lives. Some were really enjoyable such as Catfish (messy as hell), Ode-Pus Complex (madness) and Cuck-Up (also mad). What may be underreported in other reviews of this book, is the tendency of the fairer species to make terrible decisions where matters of the heart are concerned.All in all, captivating read, very Nigerian, and funny in some places, also very sad if you're the sort to think about it. I also thought it could have benefited from a further edit, and from more variety in the narrative styles/ voices.

From cheating husbands, a mommy's boy, an impotent husband, a side chick, to closeted gay husbands, and many more. It sometimes made the transition from the end of one story to the beginning of another a bit jarring for me. I finished the first 4 stories and completely stopped on the 5th story because I didn't sign up for all that. At a point, the POVs switch to the males in the stories, but the message remains the same: Lagos men take stupidly selfish decisions regarding love and sex. The polygamous inclinations of African men are deeply explored in this book, as is their propensity to find logic in double-standards.

Out of all the stories my favorite may be the Beard Gang or Sidelined only because of the craziness of the whole thing. This to me is madness, that this man seems to get the victim position when they both are secretive and toxic to each other. Undoubtedly these characters represent some real life bad actors but the humor and sharp wit and downright absurdity of this collection raises it to four stars. The last page in the book felt like the author was patronizing ‘Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad’. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

Worthy of note is that the lady in the story is another exception to women possessing these madness-propelling characters. Nearly All the Men in Lagos are Mad is a short story collection written by Nigerian author and actress Damilare Kuku. Kuku's writing style is delightfully irreverent, and he fearlessly tackles taboo subjects with a touch of satire.Starr”, the author makes it known that the woman contributes nothing to the home as she follows her husband on all his tours and shows to ensure he doesn’t have baby mamas. The humor in the novel cannot be missed, in ‘That Weekend in August’, the author helps us to relive the 6 am warm water and salt bath broadcast that went around after the Ebola virus outbreak. Although set in various parts of Lagos, the part about it being 'men' isn't quite true as the book shows. Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad underscores with wit, humour, wisdom and sensitivity, the perils of trying to find lasting love and companionship in Africa’s most notorious city. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.