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A Book Review by Ifeoluwa Olokode
Ever encountered an elderly person whose joie de vivre makes you curious about their past and current lives? Morayo, the main character of Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun is such a person, and the author, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, gives us a brief but layered foray into the lived experiences of a woman in her twilight years.
We meet Dr. Morayo Da Silva, a Nigerian woman who has lived most of her life outside Nigeria and is now settled in San Francisco, a few days before her 75th birthday. Her narrative voice is simultaneously upbeat and introspective, fluttering in and out of present day, bringing forward rich memories. Through the author deftly weaving colorful vignettes of the past into the mundane present, we get to feel what it may have been like getting an eye exam in colonial era Northern Nigeria, while being privy to how the realities of aging can complicate seemingly straightforward tasks such as renewing one’s driver’s license. Morayo’s keen observation of and delight in her surroundings makes one curious about the spaces she inhabits be they her quaint but cluttered apartment, or the dreary rehabilitation center she calls home for a few weeks. Her genuine interest in people she meets makes room for the book’s secondary characters to intermittently yet seamlessly take centre stage. In less than 120 pages, we get to meet six wildly different supporting characters – a neighborhood grocer, a homeless person, the ex-husband, a love interest, a surrogate daughter, and a cook – all rendered in bold 3-dimension with a few paragraphs of vivid prose. Intentional or not, this thoughtful examination of secondary characters is a call to action: get to know the stories behind faces we pass each day.
Adventures do not have to seize when the body slows down.
Beautiful, vibrant writing aside, Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun is a unique book beca
use it tells a story we rarely get to encounter in media of any form: the story of aging. Although Morayo is adventurous and fiercely independent for any age, not just those in her septuagenarian group, even she cannot escape the difficult, unavoidable consequences of growing older. When she has an accident and her independence is curtailed, it brings to the forefront what it means to age without an immediate family, away from the place of one’s birth. Morayo’s story also demonstrates that one can have a fulfilling, exciting life without a spouse or children, while showing how the absence of such intimate familial relationships may shape one’s later years.
The author packs this novella with several striking themes that reveal themselves so organically, one may be tempted to think their appearances were happenstance instead of the strategic placements they most likely are. These themes include the immigrant experience from several perspectives, black diasporic connections, the frustrations that come with caring for a sick partner you were hoping to blissfully grow old with, racism in America, and perhaps, most satisfyingly, sex and sexuality in old age. Manyinka candidly illustrates the fluid nature yet constant presence of wants and desires – they may change in intensity as time passes but they never completely go away. The stories uncovered during the novella’s exploration of its elderly characters’ personal histories and motivations urges one to consider our relationships with our elderly loved ones. Are there similar narratives lurking in plain sight amongst the memories of the beloved elders in our midst? How much do we know about the lives of our parents and grandparents? Have we boxed them into the “old” category and never think of them as more than their relation to us? Are we speaking to them enough? Documenting their accounts and preserving them for the next generation?
There is the immigrant experience from several perspectives, black diasporic connections, the frustrations that come with caring for a sick partner you were hoping to blissfully grow old with, racism in America, and perhaps, most satisfyingly, sex and sexuality in old age.
Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun beckons us to envision what might fill our older lives and inquire after the lives of the elders in our community. It also provides reassurance to those anxious about getting old, demonstrating that adventures do not have to seize when the body slows down. This novella is in a league of its own, and hopefully, it opens the floodgates for other writing about aging to enter the mainstream.
The reviewer, Ifeoluwa Olokode, describes herself as a connector, problem solver and trouble shooter. Her 8-5 job is in Partnership & Growth at the Life Bank in Lagos. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, United States. She writes reviews and features regularly for newspapers, magazines and blogs and have been featured in several platforms, including The Guardian (Nigeria), Ayiba Magazine and BookArtville.com
