Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun by the Nigerian writer, Sarah Ladipo Manyika is a life-affirming novel exploring ageing, personal independence, debilitating illnesses that affect us as we grow older, loneliness, friendship, loss, immigration, the importance of books in one’s life and the position of older women in the society.
This novel is also an ode to the city of San Francisco which the main protagonist Morayo finds “gentler than most”. She treasures this city “with its bright morning sun and brilliant blue skies (…), the people of San Fransisco so often quirky, but often friendly that makes it feel like home to [her].”
We meet the main protagonist of this novel, a 75-year-old Nigerian woman Morayo da Silva when she lives in a small flat in San Francisco. Fiercely independent with a cosmopolitan outlook on life, a former professor of English and literature, Morayo has a profound love for her books and considers writers her friends. She has been living in a rented one-bedroom flat for the last twenty years and knows “all the comings and goings” of the building she lives in. She drives a vintage 993 Porsche, loves wearing pearls not only on special occasions but also when running daily errands. In her wardrobe there is “a stack of brightly coloured fabrics”, and the older she gets she more enjoys “wearing [Nigerian] native attire” in vibrant shades of pink and blue which reminds her the smells of Lagos markets.
Morayo is probably one of the most devouted bibliophiles in literature. She reminds me of another literary character, a 72-year-old Aaliya from An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine who was a voracious reader and has a profound love for books. As for Morayo, she loves the company of her literary friends and has a special bond with her own library, her own books. In the novel Reggie, a former academic himself notes that Morayo speaks with such profound authority and thoughtfulness on literature. Morayo expresses her love for the literary world through her own way of organising her books:
“I no longer organize my books alphabetically (…). Now the books are arranged according to which characters I believe ought to be talking to each other. That’s why Heart of Darkness is next to Le Regard du Roi, and Wide Sargasso Sea sits directly above Jane Eyre.”
Books bring Morayo joy and comfort; they are an integral part of her existence:
“(…) I try cheering myself with thoughts of home and the books awaiting my return. I keep the books that used to belong to my mother in my bedroom. All her Beatrix Potters are in the tiny shelves behind the glass doors of the cabinet. (…) “Now, as I lie in bed, I close my eyes to better picture my shelves with the spines of my literary friends. I am making a mental list of the books. (….) I think of James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, and Earnest Gaines as well as C.L.R James. (…) I could lend him the Famished Road and another by Zola whose title escapes me. (…) I fall asleep still thinking of him and my books.”
Following the visit to Morayo’s flat, one of her neighbours notes that “books are everywhere, strewn haphazardly across the shelves, some with spines facing inwards, others facing out. (…) I discovered many more books tucked away in clothes drawers and cupboards. (…) Morayo has so many books, too many books, more than she has room for.”
When her friend accidently got rid of some of her damaged books, Morayo became very upset which she expressed in the following words:
“Just because you would never buy more than one […] book doesn’t mean others wouldn’t. Doesn’t mean there isn’t a very good reason why I do!”
In her 70s Morayo starts experiencing eyesight problems and following a fall she hurts her hip resulting in the hip surgery and hospitalisation. She does not like being fragile and feeling this out of control. She worries who will look after her when her health won’t allow her to take care of herself. Witnessing what was happening to Pearl, an elderly woman Morayo met during her hospitalisation, she ponders whether she becomes just another old woman with Alzheimer’s. As much as it is possible she wants to remain independent and to be able to take off in her vintage Porsche whenever she feels like it. Morayo cherishes freedom to do things in her life as and when she chooses. She does not want to be looked after by strangers and on a positive side she notes that she has “by the Nigerian standards (…) outfoxed the female life expectancy by nearly two decades.”
Morayo does not romanticise ageing: “Old age is a massacre. (…) No place for love songs. No place for dreaming” but on the other hand she tries to live her life to the fullest indulging in her books and friendships with people around her.
Her former neighbour, Sunshine notes that “Morayo was so uninhibited, so open and unconventional in comparison to most old people. There couldn’t be many women of her age who would choose to spend their savings on a beautiful sports car.”
As her 75th birthday is fast approaching, Morayo shares her two traditions when it comes to her birthdays: the first to buy shoes and the second was to do something new and daring with each passing year. She already dd scuba diving, she learnt how to swim in her early 70s and now she is thinking of getting a long fine thread tattooed on her back.
” What could be more perfect to mark seventy – fifth than this [tattoo]?”
Morayo has led a truly international life during her younger years. While married to Caesar, the ambassador to various countries, Morayo had a privilege to live in Paris, London, India, Lagos, New York, she also had lunch with Mrs Ghandi and on one occasion she was invited to afternoon tea to Buckingham Palace.
Throughout the novel the memories of her childhood and younger years in her hometown of Jos in Nigeria, and then life in Lagos, India, London, New York are shared. Remembering Jos which used to be a place of serenity, of cool, plateau weather, not the anxious city that is today with the constant fears of random acts of violence. With her parents gone and school friends who moved away or passed away all these pleasant recollections are just memories. Morayo was back to Jos only once since she left, and she has never visited since the troubles broke out between Muslims and Christians and the arrival of Boko Haram. She recalls the massacre in Jos that she read about in the newspaper while she was sitting in her kitchen in San Franciso back in September 2001. She thought about her school friends who might have been among the victims. She remembers that Jos used to be the place where Muslims celebrated Christmas and Christians broke the fast-during Ramadan with their Muslims neighbours. The atrocities she read about in school were committed by people in other countries: Germans, Russians, Japanese , Chinese – it was never supposed to happen to them in Nigeria until one day it did.
Morayo remembers the flamboyance and craziness of the megacity like Lagos which was her home between her husband’s diplomatic postings. She admits that she has often thought of returning to Lagos, the land of “daily theatre” but also of “unruly traffic, power cuts and few bookshops”. She thinks of her cousins and how it would be to reconnect with them. Together they share memories of places and people that few others now remember. But she is aware that it is unlikely that she would feel at home in such a crowded city like Lagos. Her desire to return to Nigeria comes more from nostalgia than a genuine longing to return. She recalls her marriage with Caesar whom she married when she was 22 and he was 37 followed by the divorce once Morayo found out about his second wife. Memories of her Brazilian love interest, a younger man called Antonio years earlier come back often to Morayo as she always remembers those experiences with warmth and tenderness.
We learn more about Morayo and her life and how she is perceived not only directly from her but also through the stories and accounts of other people, her neighbours, former students, her former husband, a homeless woman, people she befriended during her stay in hospital. All these characters also often come from immigrant background trying to find their place in the world: we have a Palestinian shopkeeper, Reggie originally from Guyana whom Morayo meets during her stay in hospital, the Nicaraguan nurse, Bella whose life had not always been so hard as it is now, she holds a university degree and once used to live in New York in midtown Manhattan where she was able to afford many things, Caesar, Morayo’s former husband and Antonio, her former romantic interest from Brazil. All their stories give a reader a nuanced and multifaceted portrait of Morayo.
Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun is a portrayal of a woman full of life and plans for the future, who is not restricted by social norms or outdated concepts of what people of certain age should or should not be doing. Life is a real adventure for Morayo where one can indulge in art, literature, food, culture, romantic relationships, and friendship. It does however not mean that she had not encountered difficulties or loneliness in her life.
At one point she asks herself “how often I have felt lonely even when with someone. Lonelier sometimes than when I’m on my own.” Following her divorce, she struggled to live alone trying to make ends meet on a teacher’s salary. She experienced a fair share of destructive thoughts during her life.
She also notes the absence of younger friends which got worse once she stopped working as a teacher. According to Morayo it was harder to form friendships with younger people in San Francisco than it was in places like Lagos or Delhi.
One she returns back home from her hospitalisation Morayo notes that “(…) it was emptiness that frightened her.” She received many birthday cards from her friends in France, Nigeria, India, yet all these friends were far away, they were not friends with whom she could share her daily life. She also notes that her shelf friends weren’t her real friends either.
Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun is a life affirming novel exploring the position of an older woman in the society who tries her best to live her life on her own terms, unfazed by social constructs and concepts. This is a very pleasurable read – I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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