The void has existed, probably as long as Nigerian Literature is itself.
An editor wrote after working on my novel manuscript, a thriller, set in our modern-day Nigeria: “This is really a great book, I must confess. And this is something I hardly say of thrillers. But you have successfully combined serious literature with the traditional American thriller…” This is not to say the manuscript did not have flaws. When she returned it to me, I said, “Uhrrr!” She did a great job that almost had me wheeling. For someone who love thrillers and wish for more of it to pour out from our very own authors here, this comment evoked in me something beyond the praise it lavished on my work. Immediately, I asked the question: “Where do ‘serious literature’ and the ‘traditional American thriller’ belong?” I answered this question with serious literature falling under ‘literary fiction’ and the traditional American thriller falling under ‘genre fiction’ where the thriller genre belongs. I am not attributing this disparity to the editor, it is already an existing fact, but really, I’ve got something to make a case with.
I have always asked, “Has ‘genre fiction’ been relegated to complete neglect by Nigerian authors?”
The answer is genre fiction is alien to Nigerian literature, let’s face it. So to make a comparison, she coined ‘traditional American thriller’ because that is where most of the notable contemporary genre fiction works (thrillers, mystery, science, etc.) are shipped to us. But when I saw the phrase ‘a Nigerian thriller’, just recently, on the cover of Adimchinma Ibe’s Treachery in the Yard, I was instantly filled with a glimmer of hope. There are classic works of genre fiction. Some of the most famous writers on international scale have achieved this through genre fiction: Ian Fleming, Agatha Christie, Sidney Sheldon, Frederick Forsyth, Tom Clancy, the list goes on. Literary fiction and genre fiction in my opinion does two distinctive things. The former leaves a deep psychological effect while the latter entertains or put in another form, mesmerizes—something more like a rollercoaster ride. So the yardstick is how deep the impact is on the reader? What makes a thriller less serious if it satisfies what it is supposed to? A good book remains a good book.
With serious plans to have my first full-length novel, a high-concept thriller titled ON THE RUN published, my desire, though not confined, to writing as much as I could in the attempt to balance this lopsidedness has remained the fuel to my writing ambition.
Nigerian authors embracing genre fiction doesn’t look vain at all. There is vast readership for all I want to believe; it is evidenced from the type of foreign novels I see people read. It could be grown here too. We want the tension, high stakes, fast-paced action, intrigue, suspense…we want the thrill; we want the mystery. Let us as well tell stories that must not be pathetic, about war, struggle, suffering, hunger…that would thrill, mystify. Yes, thrill, mystify. Is this to say ‘genre fiction’ has to wedge competition against ‘literary fiction’? No. But when there is a void to fill, it has to be filled.
This is a new dawn!
Happy New Year, folks!
