Behold the Dreamers

Neni Jonga is a mother, worker, and student with ambitions equal to her husband’s. At the start of the novel, Neni leads a restricted life as she shuttles between home, school, and work. Like her husband, Neni is also a dreamer. Despite starting out young adult life as a teen mom, Neni wants to be a pharmacist and holds up Oprah and Martha Stewart as models.

When Jende is offered the job with Clark, Neni’s dreams expand to meet the raised ceiling for accomplishments that the increased salary seems to offer. Neni is thwarted by various challenges, including Jende’s command that she stay home with their young daughter and that her immigration and economic statuses are controlled by her husband. Neni also confronts gatekeepers, such as a dean at her college, who has low expectations of her because she is a mother and an immigrant.

The major pivot in Neni’s character occurs when she blackmails Cindy Edwards for $10,000. This act seals Cindy’s fate but also gives Jende the confidence he needs to foreclose on Neni’s dream of staying in America. By the end of the novel, Neni is a character who somewhat discontentedly settles into the gender norms of the conservative corners of her culture. 

The son of a Stanford professor and a California native, Clark Edwards is a Lehman Brothers executive who works at the company in the years before its bankruptcy, brought on by the 2008 recession, a financial meltdown the company helped spawn. Clark is a man who consistently places work above family and money above ethics in the early parts of the novel. By the end of the novel, Clark has transformed himself into a person who places a greater value on these neglected aspects of his life.

At first, Clark places emphasis on work over family. He skips family events, vacations, and his son’s recital. Clark also has little value for his marriage. He openly flirts with other women in front of his wife and regularly uses the services of escorts (possibly with federal bailout founds) by the midpoint of the novel. The reckoning for Clark begins when Lehman Brothers goes bankrupt. He moves over to a cushy job at Barclays, which acquires his division, but lands in hot water when his use of sex workers is exposed.

The turning point for Clark is the death of Cindy. Clark leaves or is fired from work, moves to Virginia, and moves his parents out from California, in order to be more present for his family.

Cindy Edwards’s life starts out as a true rags-to-riches story. Cindy was conceived when her mother was raped and endured poverty and abuse from her bitter mother. Despite this background, Cindy puts herself through college and solidifies her class status by marrying Clark and becoming a nutritionist. Nevertheless, Cindy’s character arc is a tragic one.

Cindy enters the narrative as a middle-aged, beautiful woman who is so insecure that she unravels if she misses out on an invitation to a social event. Her constant conflicts with her husband and her son, Vince, have real causes but they also stem from her sense of being an imposter because of her background. Cindy covers over this insecurity with an addiction to alcohol and Vicodin.

Cindy’s ability to be happy narrows with the exposure of Clark’s infidelity, the destruction of Lehman Brothers, and Neni’s blackmail. Cindy’s life is, as a result, already over when she chokes to death on her own vomit while high and intoxicated.

Vince Edwards is Cindy and Clark’s eldest son. Raised in privilege and seemingly on the verge of entering the affluent lifestyle of his parents as a lawyer with a degree from Columbia, Vince rejects these opportunities to go live in developing countries where people are supposedly less materialistic.

Vince’s role in the novel is to denounce the materialism of his parents and claim the moral high ground as a result of this denunciation. Mbue none too subtly undercuts this moral authority by having Vince decide to open a retreat for business executives who go to Mumbai to pursue business opportunities. The implication is that Vince is enmeshed in the system he claims to reject.

The youngest son of Cindy, Mighty is a boy who spends much of his time with people other than his parents. He is apparently a kind boy who befriends Neni and Jende quickly. As a boy, he is unequipped to deal with loud arguments between his parents and his mother’s death. He is portrayed as a casualty of his parents’ affluence. 

A close friend of a Neni’s, Fatou represents an important alternate voice for African women immigrants in the novel. Having been in America for years, Fatou seems more inured to American culture and has a broader range of experience than Neni. She, for example, helps Neni to realize that Cindy is an addict and shares her own story of addiction. As a friend, Fatou represents Neni’s connection to Africa. 

A cousin of Jende’s, Winston is an immigrant success story. He works at a New York law firm, is established enough that he can throw a party at the Hudson, and has a white girlfriend and many white friends. He has made himself part of privileged, white America. Like Jende, however, he feels a strong sense of responsibility toward family. As predicted by Neni, he ultimately chooses to date a woman with whom he went to high school back home.

A Nigerian who has become an American citizen, Bubakar is the fast-talking lawyer who represents Jende in his request for asylum. His high fees are just one of the pressures the Jongas face as they attempt to navigate the immigration system, and his half-baked persecution narratives are one of the primary reasons Jende is forced to return home.

The eldest of Jende and Neni’s two children, Liomi was born in Cameroon. His parents invest in him all their hopes for the future and thus tend to be harsh when he does things like fail to pay attention in class. Liomi is the major impetus for Jende’s decision to come to America and then to return home. On the other hand, the things he will miss out on by returning home to Cameroon is the inspiration for Neni’s desire to stay in America.

When Neni attempts to find alternate funds or scholarships to continue her education, this dean takes it upon himself to squash her dreams by telling Neni that an immigrant and mother would do better to aim lower. His attitude may be read as realistic or patronizing, but he is just one of the many people who attempt to put Neni in her place due to her gender and immigration status.

Leah is an older, unmarried woman who serves as Clark’s administrative assistant at Lehman Brothers. She is one of the first people to let Jende know all is not well at Lehman Brothers. Unable to find a job after the company fails, she is the face of many people who experience harsh economic consequences because of the actions of people like Clark.