The Freemason and The Boy

‘The Freemason and the Boy’ is a chronology of the happenings between Mr. Otchere (The Freemason) and Nyantakyi (The Boy), which unfolds the true identity of the Freemasons in an already brainwashed community. Many furphies surround the Freemasons in an African society and the writer was much aware of the rumours, and in his quest to know the truth for himself, he finally took bold step to join the Freemasons. So now, he writes as a Mason and as one who grew with the many scuttlebutts about the oldest and largest fraternity in the world - Freemasonry.

In the stories, he carefully and artistically stretches out the doubts of the people in the community, the Freemason’s stand, how the people see the Freemason and how the Freemason limns a true self of knowledge and divinity, the boy’s belief about him and what finally led the boy to join. But let me leave it here for your own serious perusal, whether or not the boy actually regretted after joining, or whether he saw it worth all the struggles. Or whether all the rumours were actually true about the Freemasons, and that Mr. Otchere had lied to him all the while.

Suspense forms a greater part of this book. Every page is a mind-blower and you would want to read ahead, only to end up wanting to read further, even the end leaves you unsated until you go over the whole book again and read it, this time, with much patience. We are all curious to know what the Freemasons do behind closed doors, why they wear black lounge suits in their meetings,what binds as a brotherhood, in fact everything about them. And right here the writer seems to have said it all or paint it for the one who reads and reads it well. So many was hidden in this book, it takes one to get into the book to know it for himself. The philosophies of the Freemasons, their livelihood and their principles, all that is right there in the pages ahead, but till you put your eccentricity aside and pay close attention to the details, am sorry you will be thrown into complete disarray.

Another thing that intrigued me was the way Clifford chose his characters and developed them. You would come across a whole lot of persons in the book. Some just walked by, others just gossiped, but he never lost grip on the two principal characters, Nyantakyi and Mr. Otchere. They are so alive in every page of the book. Clifford created vivid pictures of them in the very first chapter and they became more and more graphic as the stories unfolded. Another character was the boy’s mother. Right from the beginning, we are told that she is dead, and then along the line, she seemed to have awaken and doing more, then you get confused as to whether she was actually dead, finally, you come to find out in the end that she was only a ……………… (That too is something I will leave you to dig it out).

Let us not talk about his settings yet, oh my God, they remind me of Ernest Hemingway’s ‘The Old man and The Sea’ , so much attention to details, well description of places. At a point you would feel yourself living with the characters in the community, as if you can actually touch a building or you may feel stupid (Sorry but that is how I felt).

I am privileged to read it first before anyone else. And I endorse it with a Big Yes. I will encourage everybody to rush in for their copies when it is been published.

Rachel Rada.
Waterford, Ireland.