Everything is Not Enough
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By Lola Akinmade Akerstrom
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2 reviews
The brilliant second novel from the acclaimed author of In Every Mirror She’s Black follows three women as they try to navigate life, love, prejudice and privilege in Stockholm.
Yasmiin cannot comprehend what the policeman is saying to her. Her friend in a coma? Attempted suicide? Discovering she’s listed as next of kin, Yasmiin looks to her friend’s past to try and understand her actions, uncovering fresh mysteries at every turn. All the while, her own life seems to be running off course…
Kemi seems to have it all: a high-powered job, a beautiful flat, a loving boyfriend. So why doesn’t she feel more settled? Unsure whether its homesickness, heartsickness or sick-and-tired-of-the-same-old-sickness, she embarks on a destructive path to try and change things up…
Brittany-Rae doesn’t remember the woman she was before she met her husband Jonny. She knows she was an ambitious, confident go-getter, but now she’s faded into Jonny’s domineering shadow. And as she unearths disturbing secrets about her husband, she’s focused on only one thing: her daughter, Maya, and ensuring she is as far away from Jonny as possible…
The three women’s lives begin to overlap in the most unexpected of circumstances. Is it possible that the answer to their problems – though it seems impossible – lie in one another’s hands?
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My book group was keen to read ‘Everything Is Not Enough’ by Lola Akinmade Akerstrom, an ‘international bestselling author’. It is described as ‘brilliant’ and a ‘must-read’. The cover is bright and appealing and it does have excellent reviews everywhere. Unfortunately no one in my book group - Immaculate Conception Book Group, Southampton liked it. We didn’t actively dislike it however. It’s just that each reader found it simply uninteresting, irritating, empty and sadly - a waste of time. Initially it looked promising. An easy holiday type read. But the three characters did not have enough depth for us to invest in. The writing felt at times quite promising in its style but the few interesting turns of phrase were then repeated several times, losing their quality through the repetitions. Having no ‘meat’ or finesse and seeming just to rely on gossip, I’m afraid we didn’t warm to it at all.
Read this novel with the group and we all found it had an interesting plot with strong characters. Lots of issues and themes are explored in the book and these generated good group discussions. We liked the contemporary setting and the element of realism in the story - that although the characters were strong each had flaws and weaknesses. There were a lot of characters and the characters are interlinked. Some of our group found that delving backwards and forwards between each of their storylines required lots of concentration but it did hold attention and the group enjoyed it never the less.
