Grief and Soul Searching Ebidenyefa Tarila-Nikade’s When Tomorrow Beckons

A book Review by Michael Chiedoziem Chukwudera

Ebidenyefa Tarila-Nikade’s When Tomorrow Beckons episode opens with the protagonist, Edevie, in deep contemplation. She seems caught between thoughts of suicide and the reality of being on her dying bed. At the beginning of the novel, the reader never quite knows which of them it is for sure. She writes to a friend known as Sele. It is presumably the end of her life. She wants to narrate how things came to their present state.

It begins with the tragic end of her love affair. She was to marry the man who has just committed suicide. It is even sadder when we learn that the ill-fated relationship was very wonderful while it lasted. The whirlwind romance made it more beautiful. Then, came the tragic end with its own unfolding and ungodly revelations.

The book begins on such a high note. The reader is compelled to wonder what the over 380 pages of the novel could hold. The great thing is, the protagonist’s voice compels the reader. Its urgency and piercing story draw you into the story.

It is also noteworthy that this quality is perhaps possible because the novel is epistolary. The reader assumes the place of Sele. She is an intimate friend of the protagonist. We only get to know her through the intimacy with which the protagonist relays the story to her. Aside from very little, we know nothing about Sele, but the story tells us that they must be close.

The reader, hence, reads the story like one written to them by a close friend. Nikade’s “When Tomorrow Beckons” brings to mind John Steinbeck’s advice to writers, “Your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person. This is a real person you know or an imagined person. Write to that one.”

The novel is set in Bayelsa. It portrays a large spectrum of Ijaw people and culture. This is an underrepresented demography in Nigerian literature. The psychology of the settings also proffers upon it a unique language, a Nigerian brand of English. The type of English in the novel brings a fresh dimension. It employs Nigerianisms unabashedly in the language.

The progression of the story shows that fear from one tragedy leads to another. The protagonist quickly faces a double-edged tragedy. Afterwards, the protagonist, Edevie’s vulnerability, leads her into a forbidden romance, which, for a while, gives steam to the narrative.

By the time she realises her quagmire, it’s already quite a battle to get out of it. The heart of the story in “When Tomorrow Beckons” is Edevie’s struggle to regain ownership of herself. This occurs in the wake of her tragedy and the challenges she encounters along the way. She faces losses and a close call with death. Through soul searching, she ultimately discovers herself.

And the profundity of the narrative ultimately lies in the vulnerability of the story. Edevie writes to open up their heart to Sele. As the reader reads, they come to bond like a close friend to the protagonist. Some of the plot is dramatic. It is very convincing because of the strong voice in which the story is written. She writes of her losses and her attendant grief so eloquently. She also writes about her relationships. These include the people in her life from her father to Emeka. It also includes her relationships with Aisha and Father Johnny. She writes about the paradoxes of roles they play in her life, so cleverly.

The characters in the story are presented in a way that engages the reader’s judgments. As the story unfolds, it sometimes refutes the reader’s suspicions. It often rewards these suspicions. For example, Emeka’s overzealous attitude in protecting Edevie, in the wake of Ofonime’s suicide, left something amiss about his character. Sometimes, I felt Edevie tried to be too independent. She needed help but was selective of how it was rendered to her. Ultimately, she found her suspicions materialise.

The novel had a lot of big grammar. One can argue that it was written in simpler English. However, the grammar fits well into the voice of the writer and the protagonist. The story is told in a first-person narrative. Therefore, it could be said that the protagonist likes to speak big grammar.

Ebi Tarila Nikade’s When Tomorrow Beckons is very expansive. This is because the writer is going all out to tell this particular story. They do it in the way that it brews inside of them. It’s an obvious artistic choice. Edevie’s story opens the reader’s eyes. It reveals that dealing with grief could also be a spiritual path. The narrative delves into the native cosmology of how the protagonist’s life was charted.

The answer to life’s numerous problems is often buried in layers of mystery. Sometimes, the answers leave us more shaken, even than our grief. However, they open to us a path of redemption. Anyone interested in how a story can do this should read Ebidenyefa Tarila-Nikade’s When Tomorrow Beckons.