C. N. Adichie, "Transition to Glory"
Let’s begin a trip through One Story stories with an oldie, published in 2003. I’ll leap up to the present shortly, after a couple other detours to the past. By the way, last year I published my first note on a One Story piece, here . Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Transition to Glory” ( One Story 27, September 30, 2003) is a story of an affair (“In her better moods, she liked that word, affair , liked the decadent affectation that clung to it, affair ” [7]). It takes place in Nigeria. One party is a radio talk show host called Ozioma; the other is a powerful and wealthy man called Agha. Her name means “Gospel”; his means “War” (11). Ozioma is much younger than Agha, almost as old as the oldest daughter Agha has with Didi, his wife. The story jumps back and forth from descriptions of the affair to scenes that are set after Agha’s death. Agha dies in a car crash not too long after the affair had begun. One of the most poignant moments in the story is when Ozioma puzzles at a crumpled ...