My Favorite Book – Freshwater

If there’s one book that I believe everyone should read once in their life, it’s my favorite book – Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi.

From my course, Queer Literature under Dr. Bill Albertini, I discovered Emezi’s Freshwater (2018). Once more, my course, Creative Writing Thesis Workshop under Professor Amorak Huey, was instructed to present our favorite piece of literature. After days of pondering, I chose Freshwater. Here are a few reasons as to why you should check it out:

Autobiographical Fiction

The realm to the genre of autobiographical fiction intersects our reality in with fiction. Originally, I would question what was real or not. However, I soon realized that this is not the point to Emezi’s work and autobiographical fiction as a whole. Within fiction lies messages we can take into our own realities. Emezi addresses mental illnesses, sexual assault, trauma, and more where the personal becomes political.

Personas and Perspective

The chapters switch into ambiguous perspectives. The protagonist, Ada, has other voices within her head. Though, we do not know if these are real or not, and if these new voices are related to Ada’s mental well-being or devoted to religious aspects. We have to infer for ourselves what these “we” chapters mean for Ada and ourselves, as readers. Emezi allows us to question religion, mentality/mental illness(es), queer identities, etc. through these dynamic personas.

Imagery

Emezi loves to give us imagery including that of body horror. Within the first few chapters, we witness a car accident and death. Then, there’s an intense moment containing sexual assault. This text is part “fiction,” but speaking from personal experiences, I could tell Emezi wrote this section from her own traumas and heart. They describe this scene in an appropriate manner and Ada’s experience through therapy thereafter. Emezi weaves emotion through their imagery and links memories to motifs. Every time I reread this work, I find something new!

Underrated

I cannot believe I did not discover Emezi sooner. Their works have countless reviews from academia and theorists such as bell hooks (feminist theory). In addition, Emezi just released a foreword for Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Talents. Although, we should acknowledge that minority groups are often overlooked in the writing world. Emezi is a Nigerian and queer writer, and their perspectives and works should definitely be checked out.

Not into fiction? They also have poetry, visual art, and music!