Reading List: Victor Ehikhamenor

This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz 

This book is really funny; it deals with the entanglements that beset love and its practitioners. I like it because of the use of "vernacular" Spanish without apology. Diaz is from the Dominican Republic and he spiced up the book, the way a Nigerian author would with Pidgin English or even his/her first language, be it Igbo, Yoruba or Esan.

Even The Dogs by Jon McGregor
The author experimented with language, and succeeded. It inspired one of my new stories, "Look Alike", the language is beautifully woven, poetic and tells a very painful story of homeless junky friends and what they went through when one of them died. 

One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina
It is one of those few creative non-fiction memoir that rides the delicate line of reality and fiction. I love what he has done with the his story in the book. 

An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah 
I just went to re-read one story in there that cracks me up, it is called 'The Mupandawa Dancing Champion". I love funny stories, and Gappah  handles humour very well in her writing. But the story is also quite sad at the end.

Why We Struck: The Story of the First Nigerian Coup by Adewale Ademoyega
I have had the book since 1989. I am re-reading some parts of it after reading Achebe's new book. Ademoyega, one of the surviving few of the first coup and the Civil War helps put some things in perspective for me. You will be shocked at what he has to say about Ojukwu and Gowon and the way they both handle dthe war. It should be read as an accompaniment to Achebe's There Was A Country, to see if there was really ever a country.

Victor Ehikhamenor is an internationally known visual artist and writer. He received his BA in English and Literary Studies from Ambrose Alli University. He holds a Masters degree in Technology Management, as well as MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland, USA. Widely exhibited at home and abroad, Ehikhamenor is a regular contributor to magazines and journals on social issues. He has won awards for his works; these include the 2008 Leon Forest Scholar Fiction Award and a Breadloaf Scholarship. He served as NEXT Newspaper’s first Creative Director and maintained a weekly column in the paper which forms the bedrock of this new book. He manages his own creative and strategic communication company, VEE Global Concepts. His latest book Excuse Me was published by Parresia Publishers.