It is axiomatic
to intone that a book is not judge by its cover but by its contents. Permit me
to say that the aforementioned expression says it all about Dr. Gambo’s autobiography
Cheating Death, which takes her readership into a journey of introspection with
an artistically narrative skill running through the various chapters of her
debut from "The Dawn" through “The Terminal Cycle" of her
experiences on this tumultuous lane called life. Part one of the book presents the prologue; while Part two
showcases: The dawn of the living legend,
the quintessential Victoria Leo Gambo, PhD. Life in the village, At the nick of
time; Drowning: the River Wonderful experience, Appendisectomy, Thyroidectomy,
Pneumonia, Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!! Part three unveils: The eight types of accidents as
encapsulated thus: (1) The initial cycle, (2) The unwritten obituary (3)
Accident within accident (4) Mother of all accidents, (5) Accidental accident,
(6) After the crucified Christ (7) The recurrent accident, (8) The terminal
cycle, and lastly, part four is the
summation of this narrative.
Cheating Death, sequel to none is Gambo's brain child weaved out
of the series of vicissitudes of her life, a 126 page book of the school of
life. Segmented into four parts, chronicles eight accidental mishaps and
victories. The aforementioned, loan credibility to Shakespeare's supposition
that: "When misfortunes come, they come not as single spies, but in
battalions." In the case of the quintessential Swadkasa, they did not come
trickling or in battalions, but in quick successions and bouts.
The
writer in Cheating Death has deployed
a third person narrative point of view in her desire to convey her harrowing
experiences to her readers. At a point she started her story as a narrator, by
using her voice, and then at some other point introduces a narrator who tells
the story - in which there are other characters who, in turn, add their own
voices to the autobiography as contained in part three, of the book from page
79. It is appropriate to subscribe that:
Every life is, more or
less, a ruin among whose debris we have to discover what the person ought to
have been-Jose Orteha Y. Easset (1883-1955).
The
book through the use of flash back
technique went down memory lane to show us how Swadkasa’s life is more or less,
a ruin among whose debris we have to discover what person she ought to have
been by graciously cheating on death through divine manipulations. Her humbling
incidents are captured in lucid, simple and yet flambouyant words; sometimes
expressed with some form of literary craftsmanship and dexterity by injecting
some poetic-prose expressions to colour the autobiography. An average reader
may find certain word and expressions very difficult
to comprehend, the book is coloured with mostly theological, medical and
literary registers interwoven into the overall fabric of the story. Its cover
is beautifully designed to depict the unwritten obituary of a fallible being
that cheated on death by divine orchestration, This literary piece is enlivened
with a major of humour and equally solemn moments, which plays on the readers'
emotions through the use of vivid imageries and appeals to their sensory
impressions through the deployment of the "tactile,"
"olfactory," "gustatory," and "kinaesthetic" imageries,
Sometimes you laugh and at times you almost weep out your heart and at some
other moments you feel like stepping into the story to revert some ugly
unpleasant incidents ... due to the emotion aroused in your mind.
Cheating Death is not only an avenue for a celebration of life and
God's faithfulness by Dr Gambo, who had almost kissed death severally and yet,
turned her back too readily on death and it messengers. But the book is also a
reminiscence of her life-time testimonies and experiences tattooed for us and
generations yet unborn to appreciate and appropriate the awesomeness and
richness of God's mercies towards mortal beings like ourselves, The
indefatigable woman, with the nine (9) lives of a cat, survived all the eight
series of accidents just as cats survive mishaps that would otherwise be
seriously damaging to other animals.
I
crave leave at this juncture to say that this book is not only a must buy, but
rather a must read, as saying this is just stating the obvious. Reading it
then, will connect you to the fountain of God's mercies and graces for
longevity and purposeful living on earth, where we shall one day re-echo John
Donne's words that: "If ever any
beauty I did see which I desired", t 'was but a dream thee." Swad, as she is seldom referred
to, had also seen and attested in her third testimony "Dreams: Hell,
Purgatory and Heaven" to the
foregoing remark. May I end this review with these quotations:
Cowards die many times before
Their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death
but once.
Of all the
wonders that I have
heard.
It seems to
me most strange that
men should
fear;
seeing that
death, a necessary
end,
will come when
it will come. -William Shakespeare
"A cat will be
your friend but never your slave. " - Theophile Bautier. The indomitable
Swad, is a friend to death, but not its slave!
I wish you an exciting
and a fulfilled time as you savour this recipe Cheating Death and queue into the graces that abound in feasting on
it.
bivanamos@gmail.com
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