Book Review: The Three Of Us by Ore Agbaje-Williams

“He sees what I see, but from the other side. A woman in between two selves, undecided as to which she can remain loyal”

The premise of the book is pretty simple. There is a wife who has a husband and a best friend. The best friend’s name is Temi (that’s the only name we get). Temi and wife’s husband hate each other and wife is in the middle seemingly not trying to take sides. The book is basically the telling of one night where the three of them hang out in Wife’s house, drink too much and let their bubbling resentments spill over.

“Doubt and truth are so close that it’s sometimes impossible to tell them apart”

I can’t tell you that I knew what direction the author was trying to take besides trying something different. The book had no quotation marks, paragraphs and like I said no character names – save for Temi. If I wanted to reach, I could say that the intention was to say that Temi is the only one with a strong identity but I am not going that far.

I have written before about whether it is possible to like a book with unlikeable characters. I say this because of the way I could not stand these three people. Temi because why are you so intrusive in someone else’s marriage even if they are your best friend? Showing up at all hours to their house and never leaving and judging her friend’s choices like choosing to get married. Wife because why the hell is your friend that involved in your life and mocking your husband and you join in laughing at him? and Husband for putting up with the shit and having low key misogyny.

The book reads like a novella and a thriller except I wouldn’t say I found it thrilling. It was like a thread just unraveling without any building excitement and instead building annoyance. Temi and Wife became friends because Temi “saved” Wife from the rules put on her by her Nigerian parents. But the irony is, Temi seemed to pick up where Wife’s parents stopped and wants to dictate Wife’s life and Wife lets her.

I couldn’t tell if Temi loved Wife romantically or if she loved Husband romantically. And I couldn’t tell if Wife even loved Husband (well technically we got the idea she wasn’t in love with him). My conclusion is that Agbaje-Williams wanted this book open to interpretation and each character represented something in society. The depiction of Nigerian culture was accurate though.

Overall, I think the book suffered from being a novel that came off as a short story. But the thing is, I can’t definitively say it didn’t work because I am sure there is an audience for it. I can admit being biased because the characters were so unlikable to me. I really hated the ending, and I couldn’t even believe that was the end. Since it’s a short book it’s one I’d say it wouldn’t hurt to read for yourself and come to your own conclusion.

Taynement