Book Review: Odafe Atogun’s The Cabal

Photo Credit: Masobe Books

Odafe Atogun’s Third novel, “The Cabal” is a story about a young man, Bako Thomas, struggling to get his life together as he is plagued by promiscuity and alcoholism. Stuck with his vices, he gets into trouble when he finds his girlfriend who has just forgiven him for infidelity dead in his apartment. Most of the story is Bako Thomas trying to run away from the police, not being convinced that he will be able to prove his innocence to the police, who had almost apprehended him. It is in the course of his running away and where he turns to for refuge that the story unfolds, and we meet the Cabal after which the book is titled.

Set in in an unknown place that resembles the typical crisis-ridden Nigeria, the life of the characters in the book are expectedly ridden with the difficulties typical of Nigerian society. The issue of scarcity of fuel is so present in the novel as if it was a character in itself. And the political undertone of the novel discusses the corruption permeating Nigeria with respect to the motivation of the politicians. But by far the biggest concern of the book is the connection of the book’s protagonist, Bako Thomas with the country’s polity.

Reading the book, I wondered, what did Odafe Atogun aim to do with the book? To educate? To entertain? To elucidate the issue of Nigeria’s political turmoil? To show us an unlikely protagonist enmeshed in troubles which make him even inferior to the misfit he could have been with the privileges he rejected, and how he runs back to these same privileges when he got in trouble? These are aims which come to mind as I read through Atogun’s attempt at what could hesitantly be labeled a political thriller.

Atogun’s book is easy to read, it is fast paced, spare and unflinching in focus. But overall, the prose is merely good and does not seem to have achieved anything new even in the crime genre to which it could be ascribed.

The novel reads like a book that is good enough to sustain your interest yet not good enough to thrill or put you on the edge of your seat, either by way of entertainment or education. The novelist should pay attention to improving his knowledge of his subject. An intricate knowledge of a subject is important in genre writing. It would be nice to read a political thriller from a writer who knows his topic and can tell us about a political cabal in a more interesting and insidious style with plots and characters that are less contrived, and also, plot-twists that actually slap when they hit you.

I commend the writer for the effort which went into writing the book and making it so readable. It is my first time reading Atogun, so it is hard to point out where this particular book falls in his catalog of three novels.

However, The Cabal might just be a good novel for you if you are looking for an easy read to keep your mind busy and a bit engaged by the author’s attempt at suspense.

Rating 2.8/5