Pleasant Nights

Title: The Three of Us

Author: Ore Agbaje-Williams

Genre: family drama

Thank you, NetGalley, for this book.

I’m not a fan of family drama, but this book was supposed to be a “sharp domestic comedy,” but boy, is it not. Gah. I really did not like this book. I loved seeing Nigerian characters with everyday problems, but these characters were so annoying.

Description: The wife has it all. A big house in a nice neighborhood, a ride-or-die snarky friend with whom to laugh about facile men, and an affectionate husband who loves her above all else. The only thing missing from this portrait is a baby. But motherhood is a serious undertaking, especially for the wife who has valued her selfhood more than anything.

On a seemingly normal day, the best friend comes over to spend a lazy afternoon with the wife. But when the husband comes home and a series of confessions are made that threaten to throw everything off balance, the wife’s two confidantes are suddenly forced to jockey for their positions. Told in three taut, mesmerizing parts—the wife, the husband, the best friend—the day quickly unfolds to show how the trio’s dented visions of each other finally unravel, throwing everyone’s integrity into question—and their long-drawn-out territorial dance, carefully constructed over pivotal years, into utter chaos.

At once subversively comical, wildly astute, and painfully compulsive, The Three of Us explores cultural truths, what it means to defy them, and the fine line between compromise and betrayal, ultimately asking: who are we if not for the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and the people we’re meant to love?

The story is told in three chapters, one from the wife, husband, and friend. All of them are not good people. Petty and childish. Obnoxious, rude, and secretive. I did not laugh. I mostly just hated them and their annoying ways. I am not going to be recommending this book.