Book: Tales from Different Tails
Author: Nana Awere Damoah
Pages: 145
Publishers: Multipixel
Reviewer: Caroline Boateng
A BALANCED diet of witticism, proverbs and narrations, all interwoven into a tight
delightful story.
This is what Tales from Different Tails by Nana Awere Damoah affords the reader.
This fresh addition to Ghanaian literary works is classic in that Nana Damoah
manages to hold his readers’ attention by engagingly re-telling the story of our
daily experiences.
The experiences of being cheated by a bosom ‘Kweku Ananse’ (a crafty man), the
experiences of the first taste of independence and love in second cycle
institutions, the first real state of confusion at heart that comes with the
experience of love, relieved by Akua, one of the characters.
Tales from Different Tails also satisfies the human urge for revenge. The reader
will experience the satisfaction with the downfall of Kweku Ananse, who won the
heart of his friend’s beautiful fiancée by craft, but then had to lose her when his
machinations were exposed.
However, the subtle theme of restoration, when all seems lost and an individual has
even given up, is interwoven in a story of pain of Randy, a.k.a. Zagidibogidi,
hardened by circumstances of life and subsequently softened the restoration of the
Saviour, Jesus.
The different tails tell the stories of the teeming youth in the streets of cities,
lives like in difficulty, destitution and despair of the future, with Kojo Nkrabeah
representing all those who, due to circumstances, find themselves living on the
streets of Accra and in slums.
Nana Awere Damoah’s style as a writer is easy. He envelopes the reader with his
proverbs and finishes up his art with memorable witticism that leaves the reader
deep in thought of the wisdom of it all.
For instance, most readers, particularly women, would agree and smile when they read
his words, “A man thinks he chases a woman, to win her; but a careful observer of
the oldest game in life knows that a man chases a woman until she catches him.”
Nana Awere Damoah treats social ills in a fast-paced, dramatic, almost hilarious,
but poignant manner.
Flirtatious married women and betrayed wounded husbands who become enraged beasts,
excursions through the city on local commercial vehicles (“trotros”) and the
attendant “wahala” (troubles) such as breakdowns and discomfort from “big Markola
mummies” and mates who are experts in what the author terms “Kweku Ananse
mathematics,” or “substitution by shifting around,” that is, ripping off passengers
by charging exorbitant fares, or confusing them with change on their fares, are some
of the different tales that will engage readers.
In all the different tails, the tales of life’s principles are told.
Tales that assure readers that life has a way of working out its own complexities in
the end, that evil does not pay, that love conquers all and that even when one has
compromised his or her life with evil, there is restoration.
Nana Awere Damoah’s book is a good read and recommended for all readers.
It is a handy pocket book to be pulled out easily and enjoyed everywhere as one
waits for an appointment. It is for the youth, grown-ups, the light-hearted and
those wanting some relaxation from an intense day.
It is available in all leading bookshops in the country or can be obtained by
contacting the author at ndamoah@yahoo.co.uk
Source: The Mirror (http://www.graphic.com.gh/mirror/index.php), Saturday June 16 2012
