Maame

Maame (2023) by Jessica George was on my TBR list as soon as I read the description, and I was not disappointed.

25-year old Maddie is Ghanaian and lives with her father in the London area. He has Parkinson’s and she is is primary caregiver, along with a home health worker that comes in most days while Maddie works at a job she hates. Her older brother lives in another part of London but doesn’t visit much, and her mother spends months at a time in Ghana, running a hotel that she inherited but still manages to be overbearing. Her mother has called her “Maame” since she was young–it is pronounced “ma-meh” in Twi, and means “woman”. It’s often given as a nickname to the oldest girl, the responsible one.

Everything seems so difficult for Maddie, and when she tells her mother that she wants to be happy but she doesn’t know how, her mother suggests more prayer and to go out so she can meet a husband. Maddie is tired of being the only not white person in the room at her job, but when she’s fired, she’s doesn’t know what job might be better.

When her mother comes back from Ghana, she finally moves out into a shared flat with two roommates, and starts to go out like other young people. She joins a dating site and finally starts to date. She finds a new job, in publishing, which is what she wanted to do in college, but she’s still not sure whether they are giving her credit for her own ideas.

Maddie relies on Google to answer the constant questions that come up, with sometimes funny results. There’s friction with her roommates, who are both white, and while Maddie is out with them, the worst happens and her father passes away unexpectedly. Although he had been ill, he had seemed stable. Luckily, her two best friends come to stay with her while her roommates are away. And her new job gives her the time off that she needs, and they have a therapist essentially on staff, who is even Black and Ghanaian, so mother-approved.

Maddie is a great character–although the book deals with difficult subjects, such as parental illness and death, and depression, Maddie deals with it all with humor and heart. She’s just trying to make her way through life on her own terms. I thoroughly enjoyed this coming-of-age book that is also a family drama and a little bit of a romance.

Maame was completely weight-neutral, without a hint of anti-fatness.