Books by Dumo Kaizer J Oruobu

Sleep-the lookalike of what we are when we take our last and final fall on the canvass, floor, any ground, bed, or wherever and howsoever that happens-is a prized gift and possession of all mankind and womankind and is a routine that everyone goes through when it is not yet time for that fall off the cliff. When it is not there or does not come when it should come, it immediately becomes cause for concern-a serious cause for concern. Therefore, no one disturbs anyone who is sleeping-even the dog who we advise for us to allow to sleep if he is lying down because he could be more deadly dangerous if he were lying down but with his eyes wide open. But unlike death from which there is no return, we come back as many times as we go to sleep to face what we left off at the time that we took off to the unknown, to do better than we did before or as much as we were doing, to do nothing sometimes, and at other times, to go back to sleep again if we do not have the liver to face what we see in our waking consciousness. This is the story I have told here of a heroine and a hero. I hope you like reading it.

In setting out to write It Is You, I asked myself if I can write about the Father of the world, Jesus Christ, and even mention God, the Architect of the creation of the entire universe. And they are realities in the world outside the world of fiction as they are in the world that everyone knows to exist. Why can't I write about things that I know to exist of which I have been a part of, not necessarily because they are as I craft them in the novel? And I came up with an answer: no reason! That is why I have mentioned the great citadel of learning-the University of Ibadan that produced me, the way that Ekine Amabara attended it-and a few other situations like that, notably the city of Port Harcourt, which I have fictionalized in a number of my other creative efforts. Everything here, however, is fiction through and through and bear no true allegiance to any person, dead or alive, or to any situation of which I or anyone else that I know was a part of. In the same way as any work of fiction that I created, where I may decide to give characters my names and all the places that are true and real about me, it will not be about me but just plain fiction. Here is my alibi: my name or the place-names here or any situation, or situations, that approximated what is true in the world that we know are but coincidences and coincidences only and are not true but creations of the figments of my restless imagination.

If you want to know in what way guilt means innocence, how innocence means guilt, in what way guilt and innocence are not related in any way, one to the other, or how they are one and the same thing, then you must read Innocence Betrayed. In Innocence Betrayed, Dumo Oruobu has elevated The Penguin - an ordinary bird, to the level of a Pantheon - a myth and a delight, and for that bird which is a bird only because it has feathers and wings - only those, but is not a bird in any other way that most birds are known to be, not only because it cannot, and does not fly, but also because, on the frontier of love and loving - chastity and faithfulness - marriage - certificated marriage about which it does not know, it is faithful to it's Mate or Partner from the first day of that their Partnership until it dies on it's last day on Earth in obedience to The Will of God The Almighty Architect of The entire Universe and all that are in it which obey Him except man, and, as Dumo says, woman - woman grotesquely personified and portrayed in here by Kalaiyiingibo, to their eternal shame. His Stylistic fervour in the employment and deployment of the elements of surprise, of making the obvious look mysterious and not there, his Commentaries on issues long discussed and dismissed as over with but present in the now as though they were new break away glitters of sunshine from clouds shining bright but covering the sun's shine, hits you as a very benign Gobo but makes you pulsate with a desire for more of what he is taking you through effortlessly. The train is moving on with uncanny rapidity, and you know it - you can feel it, yes, because you are on it, and enjoying the ride, the ambience of it's interior, and the wonders of the mesmerizing Scenery as it glides by, and yet you've got other fish to fry and desire desperately to get down to go frying those other fish, but you are fixated... you are numb and dumb, and cannot say stop. You lack the will power to say STOP!

Silence of the Living is one book beyond what is traditionally called a trilogy, which Dumo Oruobu has defied to enlarge and to build on. I Dare You, Ghost!, Ghost of Dr. VU, and Dying To Live are books that chronicle the episodes of a philanthropist who has transformed from chief; Professor Enemameniyaa Tubokesagbema Ibifaagha Tamunosaki in I Dare You, Ghost!; Professor Temebo Temebo in Ghost of Dr. VU; Professor Ibiso Tamunosaki in Dying to Live to Fafaagha here in Silence of the Living, where he has no title as a prefix to his name. Fafaagha is our hero here, and he has come from the long line of his forebears in the other characters in the three previous works-Professor Tamunosaki, Temebo, and Ibiso Tamunosaki-to continue to weave the ingredients of the substance of the plot of the story together. You will find in Silence of the Living drama, dialogues or conversations that burn the minds of those who engage in it, as well as discussions that are as political as they are apolitical, with the storyteller as nothing but a catalyst who is not a part of the process. While Eko Akete is mentioned as a port of entry and of departure, little or nothing is known about the country in which the story is located or the town in which the major characters of the story gyrate, living their ordinary lives. You have to rely on your knowledge of the culture and traditions of the peoples of West Africa to point to Nigeria and her Niger Delta as the unmistakable settings of the story, with the Naira as the local currency providing further evidence to that fact.

The Agony And The Glory Of Muted Silence is the last novel that I had completed the day before his second visit to my place of abode and is, therefore, dedicated to Abraham Oki for all the things that we both have been through from 1974 to present time. And it is also for the time that I have pinned to specific moments and, in particular, for the things that he said about me that I myself did not know before he spoke them nor would have not known if he did not. But he had decided instead to tow the path of the agony or the glory of muted silence with my poor gratitude to him and prayer to God for his continued favors in his life. The novel is, finally, as usual and as always, dedicated to God Almighty for making me the way that Abraham Oki says that I am. It's with my adoration, thanks, and love for him forever.

There is a character here in JJC called Pattie Dazzle. She is a journalist; she is a radio and television host-not hostess, since we do not have gentleladies, just gentlemen of the press.She is a representative of white-supremacy America.She is much more besides all those.But what could those things that she is or may also be be?That is one of your duties as a reader-to find out.There is a family of six people here in JJC whose collective tears make an ocean so huge, so mighty, and so much like a flood of tsunami proportion that it overruns an international airport in a city called Baltimore in a state called Maryland so badly that it makes takeoff of airplanes impossible!In JJC, Dumo Oruobu has taken the word and the total concept of hyperbole to a whole new level.In dealing with Pattie Dazzle as the Female that she is and whose first name is Pattie and not Dazzle-Dazzle, which she carries along anyway as her father's name-Dumo is deliberately or inadvertently echoing and reechoing the master of words, William Shakespeare, in his classic question, "What is in a name?" in Romeo and Juliet.There's Professor Abejide Olanrewaju, from whose initial naivety the novel takes its title as referring to a Johnny Just Come-a new man, Johnny, who has just come to town, but yellows very quickly, becomes dark blue and red, and is nearly falling off the cliff, horrifying both his wife Abimbola and Pattie Dazzle, his interviewer, and whatever else she is or may be as you will or may find out yourself.In JJC, Dumo Oruobu has succeeded in creating a classic.That is what you will find buried in these pages.