Glittering City by Cyprian Ekwensi : Summary, Review and Questions

Glittering City by Cyprian Ekwensi


Introduction: Glittering City is set in the city of Lagos in the year 1960. This short story is written by the prolific Nigerian author Cyprian Ekwensi (1921-2007) who is considered to be one of the fathers of the modern West African novel. The story was first published in 1966.

Glittering City by Cyprian Ekwensi was part of the new Penguin Mini Modern Classics Series. I had never heard of Cyprian Ekwensi before but he is kind of a big deal. Basically, he was born in the year 1920s in Nigeria. Cyprian Ekwensi published a book โ€˜People In The Cityโ€™ 1954 and that was his first book or the first Nigerian book that was published in Britain and had an audience there too. So, it was kind of interesting to learn a little bit more about him and in 2018 Penguin also published another book of his in their General Modern Classics Series that is Jagua Nanna ( originally published in1961) and it is actually a book that I want to pick up because judging this present short story as a short story I thought it was just alright. It was not phenomenal but was also not bad. What I enjoyed was Ekwensiโ€™s writing style. I thought his writings really flowed well and I was very comfortable with it because I am really on the hunt for writers that I can read comfortably.

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Summary of Glittering City

It is essentially a jazzy and somewhat melodramatic short story about the life and fall of an inveterate filou (rogue), or rather a voyou( thug), a trickster possessing some thuggish features, dancing through life, swindling in shady businesses and playing trumpet in night clubs, lying and deceiving all and sundry, including his wife and son, his fellow musicians, galvanising from one mistress to another mistress, seducing them with deceptive smile.

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The hectic, swift rhythm, the fine evocation of the cityโ€™s vibrant chaos, intensity and noise, and the seamy nocturnal nightclub atmosphere along with scenes reminiscent of Godardโ€™s A Bout de souffle are what gives the tale a cinematic tone and a fluid feeling; the blind worship of the women for this protagonistโ€™s windbag was somewhat annoying, making themselves fools by flying at each other because of him, and I must admit that I was unable to sympathise with the protagonist who starred in his empty life, and his irresistible attractiveness as Ekwensi portrayed left me cold.

I witness little more in him than the fictional grasshopper from Jean de la Fontaineโ€™s fable-Fussy Joe, the kind of amoral charmer and lady-killing sponger Iโ€™m lucky to know only from stories and hope that my daughter will never meet or if so reject like the plague.

I am unsure until now if I would read Ekwensiโ€™s most renowned and highly praised novel Jagua Nana- maybe I would rather revisit Buchi Emechetaโ€™s The Joys of Motherhood, which in a way could be seen as a sequel to Glittering City, discussing the roles and relationships between men and women in Nigeria as told from the perspective of a woman, and which, to be honest, fascinated me much more than that.

Review of the story Glittering City

Glittering City is a peculiar short story I would say because it follows Fussy Joe and he is kind of jazz player, a blues singer who is like a typical worthless human being, who likes to play with womenโ€™s hearts and women who are not smart enough to see through his bullshit. Glad, he did bit getaway.

โ€œForget all your fears bow. Have a fling this night.โ€

It was an interesting story in that sense but it was weird also, it was still very weird-like. I didnโ€™t really love this; wouldnโ€™t even say that I really enjoyed it because the pacing was also a little off-like. It felt rushed in certain places and not all the characters were fleshed out well enough for me to really care but it was still interesting to have that look and that story for me at least didnโ€™t feel like if this was written in the 1960s because it is so free and open especially about sexuality. I was just like oh wow okay cool people also said like yeah this is not genuine. Basically that Cyprian Ekwensi was kind of this scandalous figure back in the day which I find super fascinating.

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