You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-18

Chapters 19-23

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Themes

The Link Between Grieving People

The novel separates its characters into two groups: those who have experienced grief and those who have not. For Feyi, trying to be in a relationship with someone who has not experienced grief is difficult. She instinctively feels this with Nasir, knowing that he does not understand something vital about her. Though he is sympathetic, his inability to understand the depth and permanence of her grief creates a barrier between them that proves to be insurmountable.

Conversely, her first attempt back in the dating world with Milan is a good example of the link grief can create between people. His character’s role is brief, but the fact that she gravitates toward and trusts him speaks to a bond between them that even they do not at first recognize, though Milan later comments that they sensed something in each other, a sadness that brought them together. Similarly, Pooja sees the grief and madness (as she calls it), in Feyi’s work and identifies with the feeling. This inspires her to be Feyi’s first big financial supporter because she knows Feyi understands something deep inside her. Feyi’s art speaks to people like Pooja and Alim because it makes her grief obvious and calls to those who have experienced similar things. The inclusion of artifacts of loved ones in her work creates links between all the people who contributed the objects or whose memories are put on the canvas. By making grief the subject of her work, Feyi “excavates” herself for others, as Nasir puts it, and in so doing creates bonds between herself and anyone who identifies with the grief she expresses.

It would be impossible for the romance between Alim and Feyi to happen without their shared grief. They bond over shared experiences and understand each other’s pain. Not only do they stay up all night telling stories about their former spouses, but they can do so without jealousy once they are secure in the other’s affection. Because they have both lost a spouse, they understand that their grief and love are sacred, not a threat to anyone they might come to love later. It is the bond they form over shared pain and helping each other see the light again that makes their relationship feel powerful enough that they are willing to destroy other relationships to stay together.

The Importance of Friendship

One of the major themes of the novel is The Importance of Friendship. While Joy and Feyi’s friendship takes center stage, there are many other friendships throughout that underline this theme, including friendships among characters other than Feyi. Milan makes it clear at the end of the novel that it is Nasir’s friends who will get him through the pain Feyi and Alim have caused him, and Alim talks about how wonderful it is to dance with friends like Rebecca, someone with whom he can feel safe.

The genre of romance relies on set character tropes, and the supportive best friend is one of them. Feyi’s best friend Joy fulfills this character in various ways. The most obvious is that Joy creates a support network for Feyi. Without Joy’s support, Feyi cannot succeed. True to her trope, Joy provides a place for Feyi to express her doubts and fears so the reader knows they are happening. This, in turn, enables the reader to respond along with Joy in solidarity with the protagonist, solidifying the importance of the relationship between the two of them, and on a larger level, the relationship between the protagonist and the reader. Joy’s friendship is important enough that nothing happens without her encouragement, including the inciting incident of the book. Joy’s comments about Milan encourage Feyi to approach him, and it is with her coaxing that Feyi goes with Nasir on vacation. Joy’s friendship exceeds all the other love and attention Feyi gets, even rivaling Alim’s in how concerned, understanding, and accepting she is of Feyi.

Friendship is so important to the novel that it is one of the core criteria for a successful romantic relationship, as well. Besides their physical attraction to each other, Feyi and Alim quickly forge a strong friendship based on their shared interests and experiences of grief. When they face barriers to their relationship, Alim declares that he knows he and Feyi will be fine because they are friends. It is this statement of deep understanding and unity that makes Feyi think to herself, in her husband’s voice, that she has been seen for who she truly is, and that she is healing. Alim is the first love interest that has not pursued Feyi with attraction being the driving force, and showing that genuine friendship is the important missing ingredient to Feyi’s earlier relationships.

The Power of Art and Music

Feyi’s art keeps her going, no matter how deep she is in her grief. Her art becomes a physical manifestation of the feelings she is unable to express in words to herself and those around her. This is why The Power of Art and Music is one of the novel’s major themes. Feyi’s work incorporates objects from the site of the crash that killed her husband, including relics like her wedding ring, his blood, and pieces from other people’s lost loved ones. She makes her lost love a literal part of her art by incorporating his blood, but blood also symbolizes grief and loss in general. Pooja suggests that those feelings will rot away along with the blood as she participates in the mess that is life.

Aside from the art Feyi creates, the art and artists she admires become sources of bonding between the characters. The fact that some of Feyi’s favorite visual artists turn up on Alim’s walls shows their understanding of one another early in the novel before the characters even fathom the depth of their bond. Conversely, Nasir’s lack of comprehension when looking at Feyi’s favorite artists and his physical attack on her art shows his ignorance of who Feyi is. If he cannot grasp the power of the art that Feyi uses to inspire her life, he will never understand her as a person. Less intense but still powerful bonds are made over art, such as the relationship between Pooja and Feyi. Pooja sees Feyi’s work and feels the grief and the power in it, and Feyi’s invitation for her to participate in creating the relics she uses in the painting Pooja commissions creates an experience that is deeply moving to the collector.

Visual art is not the only creative form used in the novel. Akwaeke Emezi includes multiple musicians and dances throughout. The music of Buika, Moses Sumney, and the dance rhythms of kompa literally connect people. For Feyi and Nasir, music creates a powerful moment of intimacy that sends their relationship down the wrong path; and when Feyi sees Rebecca and Alim dancing the kompa, she despairs, thinking they have a relationship. For Emezi, music has the power to set the mood and influence behavior, culminating with the scene in the kitchen when Buika’s music helps fuel Feyi and Alim’s passion.

Alim’s cooking is an art form of its own, and his food is presented at Feyi’s dinner with an artist statement for each course explaining what inspired the flavor combinations and the philosophical and emotional thought process behind the ingredients. With each course, he speaks about how the dishes are physical manifestations of his own grief, which feels like the barbs of the lionfish. In eating them, however, he can conquer his pain.