Largely unemployed for the last so many years, Nyanchwani becomes a low-budget gadabout, loitering in Nairobi with intent.
Like a fly on the wall, he is in your neighbourhood, in nightclubs, in the street, everywhere, constantly observing the human angst, complexities, and contradictions. In a club, he can’t dance, so he is the voyeur winking at your skimpily dressed girl. When he sees a couple on a night out, he is morbidly curious: is the relationship starting? Is it in that phase where couples are bored with each other? Or is he about to lose her to a man with a bigger car or cock? He observes all these and then makes his judgment which he serves in this book, Man About Town.
In this unflinchingly raw, uncut, and largely uncomfortable book, he tells us among other things:
-A hot female lawyer with questionable standards (drinks only chilled wine) but sells low-quality boxers as a side-gig.
-His best piece of female clothing (and it is not a thong or a negligee).
-The disgusting and vulgar aftertaste of being dumped on a Saturday morning, on your way to meet her.
-On dating younger women: Why he wants to sue young women he has dated who have taken advantage of his senility.
-Inevitably he argues, “a woman has a right to choose what to wear but can never dictate how men will interpret her dressing.”
-And of course, he journeys in a bus to expose the indignities Nairobians endure when hawkers sell them deworming and urinary tract cleaning tablets.
Wicked, in and out, honest, annoyingly funny, and sad, Man About Town is a mirror for Nairobians to look at themselves, and Nyanchwani doubts if many will like what they see. But does he care? Yes, he cares and that is why he wants this book to be strictly for his fans and people familiar with his writing. Treat this book as barroom banter with him after the fifth beer.
Ekoroi Blog –
“A lot goes on in Nairobi”.
Silas Nyanchwani’s Man About Town is a camaraderie of encounters that evokes different emotions as he takes on life in the city of Nairobi.
It is humorous, sometimes serious, witty, in fashion, out of fashion analysis with a tinge of cynicism; the author delves into the romantic relationship scene in Nairobi.
How simps and alpha males compete with wealthy men to court the young, middle age beauties in the capital city.
One thing is for sure, “Money is the answer and antidote to almost every question and pain you will ever have in your life”.
To me, this book does not announce itself as one that sticks to one’s hand in the first chapter, but you get that drift when you hit the third chapter.
I laughed all through some chapters.
It becomes hard to put down as one goes past the third chapter.
The author’s explanation of encounters and his judgment of people in relationships is the stuff of legend.
Girls can love any man without vetting as long as he has money. -Silas Nyanchwani, Man About Town
A relationship is high stakes game, the younger the lady, the more value she wants to extract from the men she dates.
I will best capture Nyachwani’s stroke of genius and magic by sharing some of the phrases in the book.
“No demographic sleeps with married men more than young women in their 20s”
For women who play hard to get, when they get past age 30 after overvaluing themselves out of the dating market, some end up , ‘…to be side pieces of their now, happily married exes, especially if their exes have no standards or are simps”.
“Waitresses, especially, younger ones have very high standards than some corporate women I know because out of tens of men begging for their numbers, they know how to win the eye of the highest value man in the club”.
One thing that comes through mightily, is Nyanchwani’s observation, analytical and descriptive skills. Wueh.
Some chapters end and one wishes they could go on forever.
On the flip side, on page 91, I found the author’s defence of women out of place, maybe because of the picture I built of him (and his agenda), in the previous pages.
Chapter 12 where the author reveals his obsession or is it infatuation with women in blue jeans is very unnecessary.
Above all, easy and enjoyable to read and great for learning.