What Napoleon Could Not Do by D.K. Nnuro

This could be subtitled: America, It Is Not All It's Cracked Up To Be. This is a family tale set in Ghana, but the story could be told from many corners of the globe. This one is written by an Iowa City resident who can here to learn how to write and stayed. Early in the novel, the Ghanaian father presiding over his son’s divorce ritual is introduced by his well-read brother to the concept of schadenfreude, the pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune. This could be an alternative subtitle, should one even do that sort of thing with works of fiction. Unlike tales that are often told, this family is not one that looks out for each other--it is more like every man for him or her self. The book examines the lives of siblings Jacob Nti and Belinda Thomas. Belinda is the academic success, whose skills and contacts got her accepted to boarding school in the U.S., then university and law school. The lack of a green card made employment difficult, leading to an early marriage to Wilder, a man nearly twice her age. Wilder is a black American who is not only old enough to have known Texas before and after the Civil Rights movement, but also fought in Vietnam, so he is a special kind of jaded, something that doesn't enlighten Belinda, nor does it quell her fury. Jacob is back in Ghana, with few prospects and a dwindling sense of hope that he will ever make it to the states. His divorce, from a Ghanaian woman living in the U.S., after five years of long-distance marriage and many failed emigration attempts, launches the novel. I would recommend this (and so did Obama--it is on his 2023 summer reading list).