What It Means to Burn and Still Bloom: A Review of Joemario Umana’s ‘Burns’ by Annah Atane

What It Means to Burn and Still Bloom: A Review of Joemario Umana’s ‘Burns’ by Annah Atane

In Burns, Joemario writes like a movie director. I say this because it is not the equivocal collection you read. It flows, just like a movie series. In “The Undoing,”  Joemario begins the story with a quote: “The wind, once imprisoned by its own sorrows, often knows no path but the darkest to find release,”  and we can thread this to the plight of the protagonist.

A young boy is admitted into a seminary and  gives himself up for destruction. The world around him begins to collapse as he reunites with his former lover, Esther. Carried away by desire, they both fall into the bait of lust. But one thing is incredible: how the writer narrates this story in reverse. Joemario numbers every paragraph according to how each event came to be. Ever heard of paradigm shifts? I experienced it when I got to the end of The Undoing. I had no choice but to go back to the start with a fresh pair of eyes to decipher the whys.  Indeed, Joemario gives his readers the right to discernment.  A skill I consider to be profound in prose writing. Joemario writes with intention. And I must agree that “The Undoing” has a great deal of resonance.

In progression, “The Workings of a Teenage Heart” is almost written with the resolve to entertain the reader, but falls deep and emotional. It is the kind of story that comes to mind when taking a shower.  Uduak is a character who lingers. I could hear her speak directly into my ears. I could hear her laughter echo. I am trying to say that I experienced Uduak in 3D because Joemario created Uduak in the same way God created Adam. Unique! He crafts clear imagery and takes us into the world of boyhood. In this story, the protagonist is smitten by Blessing, a girl who has moved into the neighborhood with her parents. A love triangle spurs between the protagonist and his friend, Casmir. This is a story I, too, can relate to. I had thought of our new neighbour back in 2008. How it felt, to go mad, in one’s chest. The burning of innocent affection, naked but careful. Oh! The things we felt, we buried because love in our time was taboo. “The Workings of a Teenage Heart” explores vulnerability, love, and betrayal.

Another story in this collection is  ‘Empty Page.’ A reader arrives at this story and finds scenarios that almost seem like an extension of the first story, “ The Undoing.” It is here that you realize it is all cinematic. And this is where it all gets interesting. The main character sits with his thoughts, recounting the events that occurred before, just like the protagonist in “The Undoing.” Joemario must have done this subconsciously, but it adds to the brilliance of this collection. Joemario harmonizes the tone in such a way that the pain of the character is felt. Imagine it this way, a boy sits in front of you, eyes red with hurt. Narrating all that had happened between him and his lover. And you are left with nothing except pity. This is what Joemario has done with this story.

After Everything Still, although beginning with a touch of disgust, the story is understandable to the average person. In this story, we are brought to a love interest between two people, the main character and his friend, Stanley. It felt like a game at first, the type you could not wait to witness who would win. Joemario is very focused on the reader; he brings out all the dispositions of his characters, down to the most basic and useless. In an entertaining manner. He explores them to their fullest. Humor is one of them. I could remember how the main character professes his love for blessing ‘I compare my love to astronauts’ in this part, one would wonder how a young teenager is so big on love, heavy with metaphors. As the story continues, his hope grows high but falls flat on his face. He receives a rejection letter, which bruises his heart. How Joemario ends this story is swift. One would have thought the protagonist would go back to his friend, Stanley. Tell him of his rejection, too. But it is believed that the chances that one would be heartbroken after a rejection when they are not the only one who was rejected are tiny.  After Everything Still, was the proper title for this story. The phrase earns its sense at the end of the story. Clearly, after everything, she still rejected both of them.

Flowers in my Family are like a dent on one’s skin. Emotionally rich in imagery and metaphors. He describes the story of an aunt, Edoama. Who took another route in life. Aunt Edoama had dropped out of college, and no one in the family knew until the rumors arrived on their doorstep. The family, already defeated, is left without a choice other than to accept the waywardness of Edoama. The narrator here expresses his encounter with his aunt. A not-so-smooth meeting. After, she gives birth out of wedlock. Edoama is kicked out of her matrimonial home after a month, the same man who had gotten her pregnant.  In the struggle to pursue the reason behind his act. The family realizes they have been tricked by Edoama’s supposed husband. The people he had come with to ask for her hand in marriage were a fake family. The family is devastated by the ruin brought upon them. Depressed by how her life had turned out, she met her end. All these, the writer expresses from memory, the reader, too, is seduced into going further in the piece. Flowers in My Family  is written like a wound. A flashback to reduce the reader to tears.  Joemario is not a writer who lets you go; he keeps you close to the characters, in such a way that you feel them, you converse, in a dialogue with your imagination.

Joemario must have fallen deeply in love with flashbacks. For Something About Goodbye, he begins the story with what had transpired days before,  using dates. A boy is smitten by a girl whom he had met. The writer fast-forwards us to what happened after. Already, one would have thought the girl he was telling about was someone he had just met. But the farther you go as a reader, the more the story reveals itself to you, like a new flower opening up. The connection between both lovers are exposed with caution. It is commendable that the writer’s use of language is simple and digestible. So much is drawn out with fewer words. This story feels like poetry. Using fewer words to say so much.  One thing I question is the intent of the writer telling us about two characters whose names we never knew. Yet, all that is said and done is remembered. These are the kinds of stories that keep me returning to Burns. These stories pick up different emotions from you each time it is read.  I’d advise you to keep tissue paper close.

When Rain Fall, is a political piece. Joemario takes us on a roller coaster of social issues. The story behind with a family struggling in a home with a leaking roof and a community flood. The protagonist speaks of the ache his family encounters. Not family alone but the society at large. This is a painful price, considering it to be the norm in the country we found ourselves. That the people can only complain for as long as they wish, that lives would be lost and none of it would move the government to take action.  I hate that I think of this piece as a cut on my throat. Joemario may someday make a reader run the streets like a lunatic. When Rain Fall is a perfect story, even regarding the fact that it is quite slow in the beginning. The story is very reputable, I read and grow in fury. Burns is a lack of emotional turmoil expressed in much simplicity. Joemario is the artist who scoops emotions better than an ice cream seller. If you look outside your window as an average Nigerian, there is a chance that you’d find a pothole. Or even, walk across two streets, and you’d discover a story of death on the road that you walked. This story, too, will keep me returning to Burns.

In ‘The Cancer that Ate Us Whole” Joemario describes the narrator, an undergraduate, devastated by the weight of abandonment and commitment. The protagonist tries to find balance in chaos but ends up losing one thing he loves the most. What Joemario never fails to do is expose the raw, unfiltered truth of his characters. He does not hold back when he writes in all honesty. Ultimately, in this compilation of Burns, Joemario painted the proper picture of boyhood . From senseless conversations to a harmony of childishness, pettiness, and disgust. All, properly put down to feel more connected to those times we did the world’s most foolish things. Burns carries one single voice, and that voice is juvenile. This is an interesting standpoint.

Contributor’s Bio

Annah Atane is a Nigerian writer of Owan descent. She has been long-listed for the Brigitte Poirson Prize for Literature and is a 2024 Voodoonauts Fellow. Her works have appeared in Brittle Paper, The Menniscus, The Muse Journal, Valiant Scribe, Kalahari Review, Roc Journal, and elsewhere.