[b:I Do Not Come to You by Chance|6265288|I Do Not Come to You by Chance|Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1236695900s/6265288.jpg|6448541] is fascinating from the stand point of the setting. As a novice on Nigerian culture & history, I found Nwaubani's loving and honest depiction fascinating. Kingsley's struggle as the opara of his family, who is therefore obligated to provide for his younger siblings and ailing mother, but who doesn't have the "long-leg" to get a job using his degree is both manifestly Nigerian and understandable to anyone who has loved academia. Nwaubani takes care to paint the "419 scams" as both necessary and repulsive, successfully depicting a morally ambiguous area.

However, the book falls flat of the mark when it comes to pacing. The plot, such as it is, goes little further than the back of the book and somehow stretches across 400 pages. Character development is fleeting (the only development I noticed was when Kingsley finally realized that he had been either doing what his father said or what Cash Daddy said his whole life, which he realized almost word-for-word as I have typed and then did not reflect on that or change his behavior at all.) The setting alone was not enough to hold my interest; a huge part of the appeal of the book for me was hoping to see change & when I realized none was forthcoming, I finished the last 100 pages at a run mostly to get it finished. ( )

In Nigeria, Kingsley’s father is very sick, and to pay for his hospital bills, Kingsley must go to his rich uncle for money to pay for his father’s care. Uncle Boniface (more well-known in the community as Cash Daddy) shamefully (to the rest of the family) gets his money from 419 email scams. Kingsley has an engineering degree but is unable to find a job. This eventually forces him to work for his uncle.

This was ok. I’m not sure there were many characters I particularly liked, and it was a bit slow in the first half. The end also confused me a bit, as I’m not exactly sure what happened there. I had briefly considered upping my rating a bit until the end. ( )

Augustina/Ozoemena's mother died in childbirth, a sin in Nigeria. It is as if this terrible event had cast a long shadow on the family; one that would follow Augustina into adulthood. Her family of five is wallowing in debt, made worse when her husband falls ill and dies of a stroke. Her son, Kingsley Onyeaghalanwanneya Ibe, being the opara of the family, has been tasked with borrowing money from rich Uncle Boniface. Everyone knows him as Cash Daddy. It is an embarrassment for the family because Cash Daddy does not come by his wealth honestly. There is something dark and dangerous about his lifestyle. But Kingsley can't come by work honestly; he can't afford his girlfriend's bride price; he can't afford to be the man of the house without a job. What's the saying? Desperate times call for desperate measures. Despite Kingsley's reluctance to borrow from Cash Daddy he does so, again and again. This debt ensnares him in his uncle's world of big corporate scams. Education may have its respectable place, but money moves the world and makes things happen. ( )

Great book. Now I almost feel a little bit sad before I delete an e-mail from a Nigerian trying to take advantage of me. ( )

In the tradition of Achebe's "No Longer At Ease," Nwaubani traces the path of Kingsley, a young university graduate in Nigeria whose parents have taught him the virtues of hard work and getting an education, but who is gradually drawn into the strange world of email fraud. A great read. ( )