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In a world where
anomaly has become the norm, a world where orderlessness has become the
order of the day, there is need for calm to the raging storm. The level
of the creativity of any writer determines the point to which they can
give answers to the never-ending questions of life. Ebi Akpeti, in her
two stories, through her ingenuity, offers just one solution to the
numerous problems mortals face on a daily basis.

All mortals fumble
and wobble; only the immortal is infallible. In our fault-filled lives,
we, human beings search for any way out of the thorn-ridden road of
life. The protagonists in the two stories, Emmanuel and Tonye, disclose
to their audiences the challenges they have faced and how they were
able to surmount them. More so, when Jesus himself was on earth, he was
also persecuted. Through the employment of story-within-story, these
two protagonists are painted in the light of Christ. Oyinkro, of story
one, is a replica of Christ—for every question, he has a wise answer.
Oyinkro is the source of steering nuggets such as “the richest person
is not one who has the most, but one who needs the least” and “To be
nobody but you in a world that is fighting night and day to make you
someone else is to fight the hardest battle any human being can ever
fight.” Not only should the story told by the protagonists be seen has
parables, they should be seen as more than a slice of reality.
Verisimilitude is further edged on by the actions that take place after
the stories-within-stories.

There is one
important message both stories bring to bear—that the distance between
the pattern of thought of human beings and God is as far as heaven is
to the earth. The writer seems to say that everything God does is good;
human beings are the ones who for themselves decipher the good and the
bad. Though this is questionable, both stories point out that every
step human beings take brings them a step closer to God’s will for them.

Emmanuel and Tonye
represent people (precisely Christians) who fall and stand, only to
fall again in their faith in God. In some respect, they are like the
biblical Job. However, unlike Job who suffers because of his
righteousness, they suffer because of their unrighteousness. Through
them, Ebi Akpeti seems to be saying that if Nigerians are truly devout,
the problems bedeviling Nigeria would have ceased a long time ago.
However, as in the two stories; in a jiffy, God can turn ashes into
beauty. One has to also remember that no matter how close one is to
God, He does not show one some things about the future.

The two stories in
‘Growing Pains’ have some resemblance with some Nollywood movies. They
are embellished with intense suspense such that the readers find it
impossible to stop reading until they get to the end of the stories. As
it is in some Nollywood movies, the true-to-life feature of the
character, Oyinkro is in doubt. One wonders why Oyinkro, a true
Christian, instead of being able to break the curse in his life through
prayers, is depicted as a fool of fate. He is like the tragic hero of
ancient Greek tragedy who is merely like a pencil in the hand of the
creator. However, unlike most Nollywood movies, the two stories in this
book are intriguing and quite unpredictable.

Ebi Akpeti’s ‘Growing Pains’ negates the assumption that Christian
literature is everything but interesting. Despite the pockets of errors
that are present the book, it qualifies to be called impeccable.
‘Growing Pains’ which is Ebi Akpeti’s debut novel, proves her
storytelling worth.