1/50: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun
1/50: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun
From Publishers' Weekly: "When the Igbo people of eastern Nigeria seceded in 1967 to form the independent nation of Biafra, a bloody, crippling three-year civil war followed. That period in African history is captured with haunting intimacy in this artful page-turner from Nigerian novelist Adichie (Purple Hibiscus). Adichie tells her profoundly gripping story primarily through the eyes and lives of Ugwu, a 13-year-old peasant houseboy who survives conscription into the raggedy Biafran army, and twin sisters Olanna and Kainene, who are from a wealthy and well-connected family."
The book is written in four parts, alternating between the early 60s and the late 60s. I usually prefer a linear narrative, but this structure served the book well.
The first part was somewhat boring to me - I found it hard to relate to most of the characters (an adolescent boy with sex on the brain, a self-absorbed, pretty, rich girl, a bunch of intellectuals who talk a lot but don't do much, a wussy British toyboy with a pottery fixation) and the happenings in their personal lives weren't compelling (primarily sex, romance & sibling rivalry, or so it felt) . If the same plot & characters were set in a country I knew more about, I probably would have put the book down. There's a reason I barely read fiction any more... But even in that first part, there were things that held my interest: the way it highlighted the cultural and societal background of several groups of people in pre-war Nigeria, the rich characterizations, the new (to me) revelations about historical events.
You're thrust into the second part, several years into the future. If nothing much was happening before, everything is happening now, so fast you (and the characters) can barely catch up. And it shakes you up, the pace changes so abruptly. I thought that was perfectly done, making the reader *feel* the contrast between the sort of more-or-less peaceful, self-absorbed lives people lived before the massacres began, and the way it felt for them to have their lives thrust into this terrible civil war. Some interesting developments are also seen and/or hinted at regarding the personal lives of the characters. At this point, I could barely put the book down, despite how sad and horrified some of the atrocities depicted made me feel.
The third part goes back a few years to describe in detail the events just prior to the war (both at the political level and at the personal level), and the fourth part is deep into the war, ending long enough after the war for us to get an idea of the post-war situation in Nigeria.
Overall, I definitely recommend this book. I learned so much from it about the history of a country I knew next to nothing about. But more than that, I discovered new things about people and the bonds between them. I saw the characters and relationships change as the world around them changed (won't spoil by describing how, but I thought what the author did with Odenigbo was brilliant, as was her treatment of the relationship between the sisters). For the short time it lasted, I shared the characters' dreams and hopes for Biafra. IMHO, that's what makes a great novel, making the reader truly see through the eyes of the characters.
From Publishers' Weekly: "When the Igbo people of eastern Nigeria seceded in 1967 to form the independent nation of Biafra, a bloody, crippling three-year civil war followed. That period in African history is captured with haunting intimacy in this artful page-turner from Nigerian novelist Adichie (Purple Hibiscus). Adichie tells her profoundly gripping story primarily through the eyes and lives of Ugwu, a 13-year-old peasant houseboy who survives conscription into the raggedy Biafran army, and twin sisters Olanna and Kainene, who are from a wealthy and well-connected family."
The book is written in four parts, alternating between the early 60s and the late 60s. I usually prefer a linear narrative, but this structure served the book well.
The first part was somewhat boring to me - I found it hard to relate to most of the characters (an adolescent boy with sex on the brain, a self-absorbed, pretty, rich girl, a bunch of intellectuals who talk a lot but don't do much, a wussy British toyboy with a pottery fixation) and the happenings in their personal lives weren't compelling (primarily sex, romance & sibling rivalry, or so it felt) . If the same plot & characters were set in a country I knew more about, I probably would have put the book down. There's a reason I barely read fiction any more... But even in that first part, there were things that held my interest: the way it highlighted the cultural and societal background of several groups of people in pre-war Nigeria, the rich characterizations, the new (to me) revelations about historical events.
You're thrust into the second part, several years into the future. If nothing much was happening before, everything is happening now, so fast you (and the characters) can barely catch up. And it shakes you up, the pace changes so abruptly. I thought that was perfectly done, making the reader *feel* the contrast between the sort of more-or-less peaceful, self-absorbed lives people lived before the massacres began, and the way it felt for them to have their lives thrust into this terrible civil war. Some interesting developments are also seen and/or hinted at regarding the personal lives of the characters. At this point, I could barely put the book down, despite how sad and horrified some of the atrocities depicted made me feel.
The third part goes back a few years to describe in detail the events just prior to the war (both at the political level and at the personal level), and the fourth part is deep into the war, ending long enough after the war for us to get an idea of the post-war situation in Nigeria.
Overall, I definitely recommend this book. I learned so much from it about the history of a country I knew next to nothing about. But more than that, I discovered new things about people and the bonds between them. I saw the characters and relationships change as the world around them changed (won't spoil by describing how, but I thought what the author did with Odenigbo was brilliant, as was her treatment of the relationship between the sisters). For the short time it lasted, I shared the characters' dreams and hopes for Biafra. IMHO, that's what makes a great novel, making the reader truly see through the eyes of the characters.