Hey, thanks for leaving a comment! I really enjoyed reading Things Fall Apart and I don't know how many people on my flist have read it. It was nice to hear from you.
I completely agree with everything you've said here--Chinua Achebe is one of my writing role models, because something in his style (the things that you've summarized so nicely) makes him seem more a storyteller than a writer.
I know he's not on your list, but you should really read some of Wole Soyinka's plays. He addresses many of the same concerns that Achebe does, deals with many of the same challenges and cultural conflicts ... but he's the comedy to Achebe's tragedy, and even Soyinka's tragedies are so lush and celebratory and energetic that they present a completely different perspective on death. He's another writer I deeply admire and from whom I hope to learn.
Thanks for the comment. The thing that I didn't really get into in that distinction between storyteller and writer is the way the final chapter of things Fall Apart turns everything upside down, at least to my mind, and Achebe's writerliness explodes. There is an astonishing degree of sophistication and subtlety in it, which indicates that Achebe is in total command of what he was doing. Hard to believe he was in his twenties when he wrote it.
Which of Soyinka's works would you recommend to start with?
Exactly--exactly. I've really got to start looking actively for more of his fiction; his essays are brilliant and lucid, but what I'm in the mood for now is more of that wonderful authorial control.
Oooh, read The Lion and the Jewel. It's hilarious and playful and subversive. ^_____^
hi, I found your review through the African Reading challenge. I just finshed this book too, and I found it very hard to put the big ideas I felt when I read it into a simple review. It was so well done, and simply written adn yet I got such a big picture out of it: the culture clashes and how neither was right or wrong, they just didn't now how to compromise. I thought Okonkwo was flawed in so many ways but he still made a great main character.
Thanks for commenting. I agree that it was hard to condense the book into a short review. There's something about Things Fall Apart, which you touch on in your review, about how the tragedy seems so inevitable, and that's what makes it so powerful, at least in part. All along, we know that Okonkwo's world is coming to an end, and it's just sort of like watching a train wreck to find out exactly how bad it will be.
If you do have a chance to read No Longer at Ease, I would recommend it. It was a very interesting contrast to and continuation of Things Fall Apart.
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I know he's not on your list, but you should really read some of Wole Soyinka's plays. He addresses many of the same concerns that Achebe does, deals with many of the same challenges and cultural conflicts ... but he's the comedy to Achebe's tragedy, and even Soyinka's tragedies are so lush and celebratory and energetic that they present a completely different perspective on death. He's another writer I deeply admire and from whom I hope to learn.
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Which of Soyinka's works would you recommend to start with?
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Oooh, read The Lion and the Jewel. It's hilarious and playful and subversive. ^_____^
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I thought Okonkwo was flawed in so many ways but he still made a great main character.
I wrote about it over here: http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/2008/07/book-things-fall-apart-by-chinua-achebe.html
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If you do have a chance to read No Longer at Ease, I would recommend it. It was a very interesting contrast to and continuation of Things Fall Apart.
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