Who drove nearly all Lagos men mad? Has been termed a response to Damilare Kuku’s Nearly All the Men in Lagos are mad. The issues raised are real ones. More than half of the time, women are on the receiving end of bad decisions and selfish acts by men. Nevertheless, this is far from being a "Lagos men" issue, as the author seems to portray. To add to that, the stories were so captivating. The ridiculous title drew me in but the even more ridiculous stories kept me hooked. I do not want to spoil but let me just say that Lagos men are truly mad. Out of all the stories my favorite may be the Beard Gang or Sidelined only because of the craziness of the whole thing. So, it is not surprising when a man dates a woman for years, treating her as his one and only, while being secretly married to a woman he respects enough to keep away from his concubine.The irony...

For me, it was the characters telling their stories, and I can remember older people who had read the book who called me and said, "Is this what is happening now?" and I said yes. I told them it was different from their time when women were very conservative about their sexual life and sexuality. Nowadays, if a woman consents to sex, she's doing it of her own free will. So is that necessarily a good or a bad thing? Then again, it is not my place because if I pass judgment as a writer, I'm not doing my job telling the story. It is left to the readers to make with it what they will. I remember I did an interview a while ago and the interviewer and critic called NALMILAM not too far from pornography, and I laughed. Similarly, the book is dedicated to my mom Oluremi Abake. She started reading the book, but she also says the sex talk is a bit too much for her. But I feel like it's a normal phenomenon; young people living in Lagos are having sex, so why sugar coat it? From Ikorodu to Yaba, Ilupeju to Victoria Island, the stories underscore with wit, humour, wisdom and sensitivity, the perils of trying to find lasting love and companionship in Africa’s most notorious city that will prove universal and illuminating. A compelling read, but it gets two stars less from me: one for the use of "Nigerian English", and a second for a thoroughly misleading book title.Albeit vividly describing women's experience with the dating scene in Lagos, we can map the events in this collection of short stories to the Swahili saying above and in any city for that matter, and we will have the same outcome. Soko ni chafu. Another amazing thing about this book was its form of storytelling. It was never consistent which worked for the book instead of against it. One story would be first person the next could be second person. Anyhow, it still involved the reader in the storyline and made me feel like I was listening to a story from a friend.

I do have one concern about the book. There is a considerable amount of explicit sex scenes in the collection I wasn't prepared for. Also beware of the last story ( Independence Day)! The subject of rape comes up in a very explicative way. The stereotype of pointing fingers at the woman as being responsible for infertility in marriages finds its way into this novel as well. In “Being Mrs. Starr”, the author makes it known that the woman contributes nothing to the home as she follows her husband on all his tours and shows to ensure he doesn’t have baby mamas. Noting that the cause of infertility in the marriage is a result of the woman’s irresponsible lifestyle in her youth, the author then reveals that the man has tried his best not to cheat on her when he already brought in an official third party into the marriage. This to me is madness, that this man seems to get the victim position when they both are secretive and toxic to each other. At some point, I wanted to know why the fertility of Eric wasn’t questioned. It takes two to tango and since there was a third party in the marriage, Lisa should have been pregnant if he was so ‘fertile.’ On characterization, the author does exceedingly well. He portrays Lagos people just rightly, the hook-ups, big boys wanting to show off, influencer lifestyle, everyone in Lagos dating everyone, stereotypes based on area of residence— Ugochukwu taps into every aspect of Lagos — from the mainland to the island.But, these are not new issues. Neither are they unique, in today's world. They are just a reminder of how morally decadent we have allowed ourselves to be; we wallow in a quagmire, splashing mud all around, without first wondering when solid ground became sinking sand. In Just the tip, a story of a supposedly virgin girlfriend and her celebate relationship, Ugochukwu writes