Book Thoughts: The Arrangements by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2016)

Virginia Woolf and Donald Trump, the perfect couple? Say what now? A belated mention of this recent brief work, The Arrangements, by the author of Americanah, in the 3 July issue of the New York Times Book Review (it's an e-book, also). In her new short story, Adichie has rewritten Virginia Woolf, with Melania Trump (Mrs. Donald Trump) in the role of Mrs. Dalloway in Mrs. Dalloway. The Book Review states that for the first time ever, it had commissioned an original short story, addressing "anything about this election season." Adichie chose Mrs. Trump and, in reality, Mr. Trump. Adichie's The Arrangements consists of the thoughts of, and conversations with, Melania Trump, combining Virginia Woolf with the headlines and news stories of today. She thus introduces us to the imagined inner life of  the mostly silent wife of the much praised and much attacked presumptive Republican presidential nominee. The thoughts described seem eerily probable, more credit to Adichie, as non-fiction credibility rings through the fictional feel of the writing, the Woolfian echoes clear and bright. I won't make any editorial comments here about The Arrangements, merely wanting to make more people aware of this new short story. Here is a new work by, and the point of view of, the Nigerian novelist who is also a graduate of Johns Hopkins and Yale universities. Which begs the question, what would Virginia Woolf have made of Trumpism? Seek it out, enjoy, ponder.