Hello Royalty.
As I said last week, I would be doing a review of my recent read; that’s Anatomy of a Broken Heart by O. O. Kukoyi. This review is two days late. You have to forgive me (okay you do not have to..but I hope you forgive me. Please do) Thank you!
Publisher: Kwatri Digital Press
Pages: 118
Format: Hardcover
I checked up some reviews of the book and here’s what Amazon has to say, with a 5-star rating.
Anatomy of a broken heart is a collection of short stories and poetry about two lovers. The short stories are episodic narrations written at different points in their lives and the poems are the love notes they exchange all through the course of their affair. The 117-page book covers issues such as death, entrepreneurship, love, loss, fatherhood, sex, and Faith from the point of view of both main characters in the book.
But trust me when I say that is not all there is to this book!
ALEXANDRA ZION’S ESCAPADE
The O. O. Kukoyi kind of writer is the kind I would call “unusual, a writer inked in finesse”. It’s amazing, not to talk of captivating, how he wrote of life and love, of success and of failure, of uncertainties and of eternity, of purity and of patience, of forgiveness and of moving on, of happiness being cut off by a broken heart (lol, not the kind of broken heart you are thinking!), and of a legacy impossible to forget.
I enjoyed fixing my eyes on every page. Sometimes I felt like Sean, most times I felt like Sarah. This is a story composed in an unusual way. Amazon called it short stories and poetry – I think it’s more than that. Maybe I agree with the fact that it is an episodic narrative, but it’s still much more than just episodes. You’re probably thinking, what exactly is this story about?
Well, Anatomy of a Broken Heart is a story about…so many things (a story is never about one thing, is it?) The book begins with the telling of John’s death, who was ‘claimed’ by the sea. Sean had been John’s friend, although not exactly. Now, Sean was having his own life hassles – a failed business that made him bunkers. He found solace in the divine and in a mentor who told him, “It’s the time in between when one expects to see a thing and when that thing is actually seen that all hope will seem bested and a man’s faith truly tested.” He also met Sarah, late John’s twin and their “two broken hearts mended into an unlikely friendship , an unlikely friendship they nurtured into great love.”
Sean was pretty much the happiest man alive; he was bigger than any trouble, but oh well, even this happiest man died of a broken heart. He was diagnosed of a “trial septal defect – a congenital heart anomaly” and before he died, he wrote to Sarah and his unborn children.
For the first time in a long time, the death of the protagonist strikes more ‘food for thought’ in me, than pity. What I saw was a fulfilled man on his way to Heaven. Maybe he could have lived longer, maybe not…but he had left an indelible mark on all who crossed his path. Maybe he died empty and maybe that’s pretty much what matters most.
Anatomy of a Broken Heart is a 4.9/5 for me. Thank you O. O. Kukoyi!
Click here for more of his stories.
About the Author
O.O. Kukoyi is a British Nigerian Author who merges poetry and prose into seamless narratives that inspire, tempt and enbolden his readers. He is sort of a multicoloured melange of the different authors that influenced his formative years as a writer. He has been described as one of Africa’s foremost new age authors. Kukoyi lives in Manchester where he writes and performs his work.
Thank you for your time!
Goodbye Royalty,
With Overflowing Love,
Alexandra Zion.
Ur conceptions about the book as described in this post makes me hunger for a purchase of this epistorial piece by my great friend Seun Kukoyi or Kookies as I fondly call him. I rily missed ur post just as much as I miss u too in person considering the impossibility of seeing u and repaying back the hospitable gesture the firsttime we met due to the elevated status of being an eagle. Thank God am back. Tush