Foreign Gods, Inc. A Novel by Okey Ndibe

Ikechukwu Uzondu, “Ike for short”, is the embodiment of the American Dream gone wrong. He is a Nigerian man who came to the United States as a foreign student and graduated from Amherst, prestigious enough, with a degree in economics. But he finds himself underemployed as a taxi driver in New York City, stigmatized by his accent, which he believes is what stands between him and a proper job, and burdened by debt, most of it incurred when he married an African-American woman to get a green card.

Driven more so by demands from home from his sick mother and incapable sister than by materialism, he decides to go back to his village to steal a war-god Ngene and sell it to an art gallery that buys and sells foreign deities.

It has dark humor and a not so happy ending. It features the overshadowed past – his uncle who is the caretaker of the village’s god; and the folly of the future – a shady Christian pastor. As expected Ike in Nigeria is seen by family and friends as a rich American which we all know he is not.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel, the second book written by Okey Ndibe, a Nigerian author often referred to as “a disciple of the late Chinua Achebe“.