06/22/2015
Iromuanya's debut novel opens during the awkward wedding night in Nigeria between arranged couple Job and Ifi Ogbonnaya. Although naturally wary of her new mate, Ifi believes her husband is a successful, wealthy doctor in America, but he's actually a nurse's assistant who failed out of the University of Nebraska. Ifi is also unaware that Job married a twice-divorced American named Cheryl in exchange for a green card years earlier, and then divorced her before marrying Ifi. Financially challenged Cheryl resurfaces before Ifi arrives in her new home, asking for funds. The crux of Iromuanya's world lies in Job's vast capacity for continued delusions of grandeur. No matter how dire the circumstances, Job manages to find a way to manufacture superiority: "The more he spoke, the bigger the promises, the larger he felt." Iromuanya skillfully explores the cultural challenges Job and Ifi encounter within their Nebraska community, rendering a complex, rich portrait of their lives. (May)
This refreshingly well-drawn debut novel is peopled with lively, engrossing characters who reflect a sophisticated understanding of human nature and relationships. Against a backdrop of the micro- and macroaggressions African expats endure in the West, Iromuanya presents a fascinating and often hilarious drama of marriage, highlighting the discrepancies between who we say we are and who we really are.”—Kirkus
“In agile prose, Iromuanya creates an intricate and fresh portrait of the perennial immigrant’s tale.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Julie Iromuanya’s debut novel is both keenly observational and intensely introspective. She’s one to look out for.”—Bustle
"Reading this book, I found my worldview recalibrating. . . Ambitious in its subject matter — an arranged marriage, an ever-present Nigerian heritage — and deft in its maneuvering of point of view, Mr. and Mr. Doctor is a staggering debut about legacy, shame, and the folly of ambition."—Bustle
“This tale of two Nigerian immigrants pretending to live the American dream in small-town Nebraska is heartbreakingly funny and terribly sad, a remarkable feat of storytelling, in which all the characters’ isolated longings and frustrations are intimately felt, yet register on the grand tragicomic scale of human folly.”—The Star Tribune
“From the physical knockout punch Ifi lands on Job at the beginning of the book to the magnificent verbal one she delivers at the end, Iromuanya establishes Ifi’s place among the indelible characters of immigrant novels. While it takes Ifi the full duration of the book to come into her own, Iromuanya, by contrast, snaps readers to attention with the first paragraph of Mr. and Mrs. Doctor, announcing the arrival of a mature, distinctive and commanding voice.”—Paste Magazine
“Mr. and Mrs. Doctor is an exceedingly well-crafted examination of marriage, expectation, appearances, and what happens after one’s carefully crafted idea of self has finally crumbled. Heartbreaking, occasionally wryly hilarious, and told in a spare, sensory style, this thoughtful debut novel ranks high in this year’s literary fiction.”—The Masters Review
“Iromuanya tackles many subjects — marriage, race, immigration, families . . . the interplay between Job’s rigid and secretive bluster and Ifi’s attempt to build a new American life never loses its poignancy.”—New York Times Sunday Book Review
“Each of the characters falls victim, in turn, to the human weakness that we all share: the need for acceptance and approval, and to see ourselves reflected well in the eyes of others. The perennial immigrant tale of heartbreak, poverty and discrimination rings familiar in "Mr. and Mrs. Doctor," even in the American heartland where we pride ourselves on friendliness and acceptance.”—The Lincoln Star Journal
“Raunchy, provocative and sometimes dirty, Dr. Julie Iromuanya’s debut novel Mr. and Mrs. Doctor drew gasps and chuckles from the audience.”—NEIU Independent
“Iromuanya flexes her creative muscles is in this unflinching portrayal.”—Gilmore Guide to Books
“In the tradition of Andre Dubus’s House of Sand and Fog, Mr. and Mrs. Doctor is a heartbreakingly complicated story of leaving one culture and never fully entering another. A splendid debut.”—MARGOT LIVESEY
“Mr. and Mrs. Doctor is a heart-rending and open-eyed tale of a Nigerian immigrant couple’s struggle to establish a life in Nebraska. Julie Iromuanya’s vision burns away the superficial veneer of America’s promise to its newest inhabitants even as it tells a story that is classic, powerful and, in its own way, open to possibility.”—DAVID MURA
“[Iromuanya] tackles the impossible hopes attached to the American dream in her debut novel about an ambitious Nigerian immigrant who lies about being a doctor to his new wife.”—Chicago Magazine
“Iromuanya’s exquisitely drawn novel centers on an arranged Nigerian marriage that has been undertaken under false pretenses.”—SF Gate
“Rather than marring her novel with moral didacticism and chastising Job and Ifi for their many lies . . . [Iromuanya reveals] the very human weaknesses that we all share—the unwillingness to admit failure, and the desire to see ourselves reflected well in the eyes of others.”—The Rumpus
"Translation is one of the levers of Iromuanya’s wonderful novel, which also puts to good use the storyteller’s tool kit of equivalences, false and true, inversions and reversals, all within a story that manages to make the most intimate idiosyncrasies and failures at once minutely, movingly real even as they map the comic and the tragic in a large and classical fashion."—The Star Tribune
“Will Ifi and Job find their authentic selves? This is not a romance and the conclusion is a satisfying surprise.”—Pioneer Press
“Iromuanya explores our contemporary idea of the American Dream.”—The Riveter
“Julie Iromuanya has created a frustrating, funny, sensitive story about race, relationships and survival and how our past shapes and follows us into our future. Check out this captivating story by Iromuanya, a first time author.”—Arlington Public Library
“Iromuanya skillfully explores the cultural challenges Job and Ifi encounter within their Nebraska community, rendering a complex, rich portrait of their lives.”—Publishers Weekly
“In this novel, what is familiar to [Iromuanya] becomes engaging and edifying for the reader...The dexterous dialogue, nonlinear plot, shifting perspectives, and visual motifs all move earnestly.”—Late Night Library
“By turns blunt and subtle, realistic yet credulity-stretching, mercilessly bleak but not without a few good laughs.”—Arcadia Magazine
“A bold journey into the dark side of the American Dream. . . .Mr. and Mrs. Doctor tells a tough, complex story, but it is shot through with wit and humor, making for a surprisingly bracing read.”—Lively Arts
“In Mr. and Mrs. Doctor, Julie Iromuanya constructs a richly characterized, searingly honest and often wildly funny portrayal of immigrant-of-color life in 21st-century America. Iromuanya’s brilliantly rendered narrative cuts deep into the conflicting ambitions, familial expectations and cumbersome cultural baggage of Nigerians in America.”—Paste Magazine
“Iromuanya weaves this tale of a mismatched couple with dark humor and careful observation. . . Her insights into assimilation—its difficulties and pitfalls—are astute and at times, eye-opening.”—BookPage
“Mr. and Mrs. Doctor tells a wonderfully intricate, honest story of two strangers-turned-partners surviving the 21st century American Dream.”—NewPages
"I found Mr. and Mrs. Doctor compulsive reading and kept guessing what was going to happen next. . . Success stories often read as if they are forced, not really true. Mr. and Mrs. Doctor has a ring of authenticity about it.”—CounterPunch
"This is a solid debut from Julie Iromuanya and I definitely look forward to reading more from her.”—Read in Colour
2015-04-01
Newlywed Nigerian expats in America attempt to cement their careers and social standing as an ex's return threatens the life they're building. Job Ogbonnaya has returned to his Nigerian homeland for an arranged marriage with Ifi, who has been seduced by Job's reputation as a big doctor in America. Job has also promised to send Ifi to an American university to study nursing. But after a rocky beginning in which Ifi is repulsed by Job's rough sexual advances—everything Job "knew about sex he learned from American pornography"—things only get worse. Job isn't a doctor with a fancy house; he's a nurse's aide living in a run-down walk-up. With one year left on his student visa, he dropped out of college; his American citizenship is the result of a green-card marriage to a twice-divorced woman from Nebraska. And when Ifi learns the truth about Job from his scheming ex-wife, Iromuanya embarks on a masterful exploration of the interplay of desire, loyalty, and ambition. Ifi has no desire to admit Job's failure to the world and lose the respect of her Nigerian community back home, but Job has no desire to make good on his ongoing promises of medical school and a better life in America. And so the masquerade continues, the clock counting down on just how long Job and Ifi's charade can last. This refreshingly well-drawn debut novel is peopled with lively, engrossing characters who reflect a sophisticated understanding of human nature and relationships. Against a backdrop of the micro- and macroaggressions African expats endure in the West, Iromuanya presents a fascinating and often hilarious drama of marriage, highlighting the discrepancies between who we say we are and who we really are.
