Heartbreaking, beautifully written. Enlightened me on a tragic episode in recent history, when the world let down a small nation fighting for its freedom, and allowed thousands to die, for the sake of oil money and post-colonial politics. But, Adichie is honest enough, as a chronicler of events, and such a good writer, that she recognizes that the breakaway state of Biafra wasn't perfect, and that its leaders exploited the hope and idealism of its people, and contributed to their suffering.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a amazing writer. Having been seriously impressed with her collection of short stories, The Thing Around Your Neck https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..., I hesitated to start this, because I didn't dare believe that lightening would strike twice, and she would be as good in the long form as she was in the short.
She is. This lady knows what she's doing -- character, dialogue, setting, imagery. the twists and turns of a complicated story, and a large cast of characters. All beautifully done. The thoughtful, sensitive use of language to create a sense of place, and differentness. I chose that word carefully, because one of the important takeaways from this excellent novel is that it's not different or foreign, or exotic to her. This is the story of her family, and families like hers, and her people. And we are very fortunate to be invited in to hear it, from someone who has the right to tell it -- and knows how to tell it well.
Adichie aces this on both the factual and the metaphorical level. Her chronicle of the Biagran war, starting in the years leading up to Biafra's secession from Nigeria, and ending with its defeat and reabsorption, is clear and easy to follow. As I said above, she is honest enough about the failings of some of the real-life Biafran players, and horrors of real-life events, when Biafrans were at fault, that I trusted her version of events that drove the Igbo minority to secede from Nigeria, and the the world-wide indifference and bad faith that led to their defeat.
But this is a novel, not a history, and it the fictional flourishes that raise this up as a universal saga of survival and love, how trouble changes you (for good and ill). Adichie includes little details that really resonate: a chicken freshly killed for dinner contains a "translucently pale egg ..."; two of the ain characters are twin sisters who, we are repeatedly told, look and act very different (and one has been told all her life that she isn't as beautiful as her sister, which has a life-long affect on her personality and their relationship). But near the end, another character notices, for the first time, "... the similarity in the curve of their lips, the shape of their slightly larger front teeth."
A complicated story, well-told.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a amazing writer. Having been seriously impressed with her collection of short stories, The Thing Around Your Neck https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..., I hesitated to start this, because I didn't dare believe that lightening would strike twice, and she would be as good in the long form as she was in the short.
She is. This lady knows what she's doing -- character, dialogue, setting, imagery. the twists and turns of a complicated story, and a large cast of characters. All beautifully done. The thoughtful, sensitive use of language to create a sense of place, and differentness. I chose that word carefully, because one of the important takeaways from this excellent novel is that it's not different or foreign, or exotic to her. This is the story of her family, and families like hers, and her people. And we are very fortunate to be invited in to hear it, from someone who has the right to tell it -- and knows how to tell it well.
Adichie aces this on both the factual and the metaphorical level. Her chronicle of the Biagran war, starting in the years leading up to Biafra's secession from Nigeria, and ending with its defeat and reabsorption, is clear and easy to follow. As I said above, she is honest enough about the failings of some of the real-life Biafran players, and horrors of real-life events, when Biafrans were at fault, that I trusted her version of events that drove the Igbo minority to secede from Nigeria, and the the world-wide indifference and bad faith that led to their defeat.
But this is a novel, not a history, and it the fictional flourishes that raise this up as a universal saga of survival and love, how trouble changes you (for good and ill). Adichie includes little details that really resonate: a chicken freshly killed for dinner contains a "translucently pale egg ..."; two of the ain characters are twin sisters who, we are repeatedly told, look and act very different (and one has been told all her life that she isn't as beautiful as her sister, which has a life-long affect on her personality and their relationship). But near the end, another character notices, for the first time, "... the similarity in the curve of their lips, the shape of their slightly larger front teeth."
A complicated story, well-told.
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