Not all it's craked up to be!
|
I bought this book because of the rave reviews and it won the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007. That'll teach me. Like many other readers I thought Adichie took far too long setting the scene and introducing us to the characters. This may have been excusable if there had of been any depth, sadly there is not. The characters, in the main, are superfical. So much so that not only is it difficult to have sympathy for most of them and very difficult to see what they saw in each other. I spent most of the novel wondering what on earth Kainene saw in Richard.
However, There are some horrific descriptions of the violence of war, mans indifference and cruelty, at times truly harrowing. Ms Adichie also provides us with an insight into the Biafran war of the late sixties and I must admit the last few chapters raced along. Some judicious cuts and editing would improve this book no end.
|
|
Absolutely loved this book
|
Even better than Purple Hibiscus.
Fantastic combination of fictional family in real history.
I was quite young when the Biafra War occurred, so had not heard of it.
What a great way to learn about the recent past.
|
|
Uplifting - a great novel
|
|
This is a great novel. After Tan Twan Eng's 'The Gift of Rain', it's the best I've read in the past year. It has excellent pacing and yet manages to be atmospheric and descriptive. All the characters have three dimensions and they change and develop convincingly as events overtake them. Ugwu and the cynical Kainene are especially memorable. I've never been to West Africa but the sights, sounds and smells came alive for me. Of course, once the horrors of the war appear, the author's descriptive power makes for some harrowing reading but it's uplifting too, dealing with love loyalty and redemption. I fully recommend it.
|
|
|
Keenly observed and very engaging
|
Half of a Yellow Sun is an excellent read. Easily my favourite novel this or last year.
Chimamanda has a gift for human observation. Her descriptive style is compelling and the characters sometimes cleverly invite you into their worlds. One often has to remind oneself that the author, being as young as she is, cannot have lived to see as much of life as her work represents.
I understood Odenigbo and Olanna perfectly but found Ugwu a little contrived. This is not to say he is not likeable: Ugwu is, without a doubt, the central character in this rich dramatis personae. He makes you laugh and cry far more than anybody else. Still, it is difficult to believe that an African houseboy - in a continent where labour is cheap and expendable - can occupy such a central part in the life of a family while growing up with little regard for his own future. Richard was the least believable of all. He was, for me, a cartoon character. A shallow Englishman suddenly finding himself a journalist deeply wrapped up in a war which has nothing to do with him takes a greater leap of the imagination than I was capable of making. I liked the detachment of Kainene and the supreme confidence of Madu.
The pages describing the war are clearly where the author had to do the most work. It is difficult to tell that she did not live through the war herself. A novel about a forgotten war written by an authentic Igbo is exactly what was needed - not another paternalistic travelogue/history book from yet another European "discovering" themselves and their writing skills in Africa's turbulent history. Brilliant.
You cannot read this book slowly - it is far too fast-paced for that. I will be looking out for more of Chimamanda's work; she has a superb future ahead of her.
A delightful surprise awaits you at the end. Lovely twist!
|
|
|
The action is a long time coming!
|
People declaiming this book as 'a masterpiece' must have skipped straight to the second half. While the latter part of the book was filled with dramatic events and horrifying spectacles, the first half creeps along at a snail's pace, boring your wits clean out of your skull. It is rare that I give up halfway through a book...but with this one, I came close several times. And while yes, I do appreciate the fact that Adichie is attempting to show the contrast between the luxurious, idle intellectualism that Olanna and Odenigbo revel in prior to civil war breaking out - did she really have to spend 130 pages doing it?!
My other big issue with this book was that the characters never really come to life. And where there IS character development, it feels contrived. The arch, sarcastic 'ugly daughter' Kainene suddenly discovers a conscience after seeing her servant (who she admits later she 'never paid much attention to') beheaded? As for Olanna, with her petty snobbery - who can feel any empathy for this character? Her constant worries about her child fraternising with those 'beneath' her completely alienated me. As for Odenigbo - he changes from a pretentious bore to a faithless drunkard throughout the course of the book, and neither persona is endearing. The only characters that felt real to me were Richard and Ugwu. The rest, I could not force myself to care about in the slightest, and I felt let down by the fact.
All that said, I do appreciate the opportunity to learn something about a chapter of history that I was previously unaware of. But what a waste of 130 pages, where nothing much happens except smug, superior Africans sitting around and enjoying the sound of their own voices.
|
|
|
United States | 
United Kingdom | 
Canada