After ten years of waiting and ten years of hoping that Chimamanda would give her readers a new book, the wait is finally over! Dream Count was officially published last month, and readers rejoiced for finally getting that one book from her. I was one of those readers who were hoping. That’s why I ensured I had my copy of the book a few days after it was launched.
Dream Count, set against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, follows four middle-aged women. First, there is Chiama, a travel writer living in the US, who doubts the quality of her work but dreams of writing a book one day. Then there is Zikora, also based in the US, a practical lawyer whose only dream is to get married and start her own family. Omelogor, Chiama’s cousin in Nigeria, is a successful, no-nonsense banker. Lastly, there is Kadiatou, a Guinean woman living in the US who works as a hotel cleaner. A full review is available in The Citizen Newspaper here.
There are so many good quotes from this book that speak to me. And in this post, I am sharing a few of them:
I have always longed to be known, truly known, by another human being.
All humans desire to be known, loved, understood, and seen. This quote is about that. And if I am being honest, it has left me wondering about that one person who truly knows me. That person might as well be myself, but then again, I surprise myself now and then because the truth is, humans evolve. They grow. They change.
In the same lines of being known, having that one true love is a desire for many of us—at least for me. This is why Chiamaka, who is a dreamer like me, dreamt about this kind of love:
I wanted love, old-fashioned love. I wanted my dreams to afloat with his. To be faithful, to share our truest selves, to fight and be briefly bereft, always knowing that the sweetness of reconciliation was afoot.
As I get older, I have learned that you need to ask for what you want, because how would people give you what you want if you don’t ask for it? They cannot read minds, nor can you. This is why this quote is one of my favourites:
I told him I wanted to love lavishly and I wanted to be loved lavishly.
To be honest, I think the following quote doesn’t need any context.
You cannot nice your way of being loved.
Motherhood is the most sacred thing a woman can experience—so they say—and I believe it, because bringing life and a new human being into the world is no joke. It takes a lot of sacrifices accompanied by several risks. When one becomes a mother, their whole world changes for good. This is why this quote rang true when I read it:
He was hers. She would die for him. She thought this with a new wonder because she knew it to be true; something that had never been true in her life is now true. She would die for him. A new lurch in her chest, utterly alien; the intense urge to live, to stay alive, for somebody else besides herself.
Men say all kind of things. It is what they do that matters.
Need I say more?
This is my personal favourite. It made me feel seen. And understood:
I have learned this of myself, I cannot do without people, and I cannot do without stretches of sustained isolation. To be alone is not always to be lonely. Sometimes I withdraw for weeks merely to be with myself, and I sink into reading, my life’s pleasure, and I think I enjoy the silence of my own musing… There is always another way to live.
I enjoyed this book, and so many quotes spoke to me, but these are some of my favourites. I saw fragments of myself in the four women, and I could reflect on my life and how far I have come, how much I have evolved, and how much I keep evolving.
There is so much to learn from Dream Count and the women in it. Yes, some will feel like some stories could have been extended a little bit more. For example, I wanted to see how far Chiamaka would go with her life and what more she could have done. It would have been interesting to see her life blossom into something more.
But still, this is a fantastic book that I think you should read if you haven’t yet.
