Gripping and revealing
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Fifteen year old Kambili and her brother Jaja are the children of a wealthy Nigerian business man, and they enjoy the benefits that their father's wealth provides. Their father is a well known and highly respected man who is not afraid to speak out against a corrupt and tyrannical government; he is caring of his employees and overly generous with his abundant riches. But at home their father reveals another side, he is a demanding and deeply religious man, perhaps fanatically so, and out of a misguided zeal imposes an oppressive rule over his family's life with occasionally brutality. He expects his children to succeed, and there is serious trouble if they do not. When Kambili and Jaja are invited to stay with their relatively poor aunt and cousins in Nsukka they experience a freedom and joy previously unknown to them, and set in motion a series of events that will have a drastic outcome.
This is a moving, occasionally horrifying, but always enlightening tale. The characters are superbly drawn and individual. Kambili, who narrates the story, and Jaja are very appealing, they enjoy an especially close relationship able to communicate with each other with just their eyes. Their aunt and cousins too are very likeable; their aunt the complete antithesis of their father being fun loving and adventurous. Also in Nsukka there is the young and very manly Father Amadi, adored by all, who immediately takes a shine to Kimlablli, and awakens desires in her previously unknown.
The Purple Hibiscus is equally revealing about life in Nigeria and about the contrasting lives of practising Nigerian Catholics who interpret and live their faith in different ways. In the latter there is a clear warning of the dangers of oppression. But whatever ones views in that regard it remains a gripping story, a story which is hard to put down; and if one does it is sure to continue to haunt ones thoughts.
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