The Interpreters

"For how would he explain to her that the sluggish bilgewater which twice, when he called the paper, lapped the receiver at the other end seemed to evoke the same squelch as her piano-key armpits."

"The “plop” continued some time before its meaning came clear to Egbo and he looked up at the leaking roof in disgust, then threw his beer into the rain muttering. “I don't need his pity. Someone tell God not to weep in my beer."

"He recalled that it had been the rainy season when he returned from Europe and America. Instead of heat he obtained electric shocks—once as he touched the faucet of a bath with his toes and another time through a finger as he dialed a number on the phone. When he told Mathias he said, “Na austerity measure. Government wan join three ministry together—Works, Electricity and Communication” and roared away at the idea."

"The rains of May become in July slit arteries of the sacrificial bull, a million bleeding punctures of the sky-bull hidden in convulsive cloud humps, black, overfed for this one event, nourished on horizon ops of endless choice grazing, distant beyond giraffe reach."

"Cumulatively, these interpreters of the new Nigeria explore a society dominated by confusion, social climbing, corruption, and moral decadence."