Scan barcode
fionaengelson's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
luisina_kl's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
nicole_schmidt094's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
stefhyena's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Very good book about the war/s in Africa, how British colonialism has caused unimaginable suffering. How in hellish situations noone is innocent but ethics still matter.
It has violence, rape, starvation...it's awful and painful to read but so necessary. We all need to oppose the capitalist military-industrial complex. Ugh...a lot of what is in this book (in Africa) is also true for what is happening in Palestine. Disarm!
It has violence, rape, starvation...it's awful and painful to read but so necessary. We all need to oppose the capitalist military-industrial complex. Ugh...a lot of what is in this book (in Africa) is also true for what is happening in Palestine. Disarm!
at287's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
annacampb's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
everydayweekends's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
the_eucologist's review against another edition
5.0
Prior to encountering this story I had only a cursory awareness of the Biafran Revolution and even though this account is fictionalized I do feel that Adichie captured both the spirit of revolution and its breaking. The characters she works with aren't static, they aren't prone to easy digestion and simple caricature, and because of this the world is imbibed with a kind of loping, stumbling vitality that is at times overwhelming.
There were quite a few sequences that were so tense I had to put the book down and mentally prepare myself for what I anticipated would be some uncomfortable realities. I was rarely disappointed, but even though my discomfort was somewhat predictable I was never underwhelmed by the skill of the writing or the places it took me. While the pacing is, in some areas, sedate (to the point where one wonders whether there is a coda) even this, I imagine, is a part of Adichie's plan. Questions about the temporality of war, about its seeming unendingness result from this pacing.
The story ranges across the better part of a decade, but in this time span we bear witness to the diversity of human reality. The fragility of social prestige seems to be a common theme, as is the importance of community when social infrastructure is ephemeral and hard to come by. We see these characters stretched across washboards, scraped, beaten, rung, and hung to dry. The dusky Harmattan erodes them to their wiry essences, their mettle tested. Despite their circumstances, the constancy of these characters in some way anchors them in their survival. This is a story about the preservation of family, and about the costs and tolls of that preservation.
Looking back I didn't completely love the ending, but I did find that its understated resolution allowed space for self-reflection. Here the novel's pacing appropriately slows and the losses incurred in the fight for survival, for preservation, are truly seen to be innumerable. It's regretful that there isn't much attention given to their memories, but this, too, may be intentional. The characters have become, by and large, nomadic, carrying only what is necessary. How then can they make the conscious choice to weigh themselves down further with the baggage of memory, of unfulfilled promise?
This is a story of incredible, uncountable loss. While it would be nice, tidy, to say that the characters gained something in exchange, I wonder if this would be true to history. It certainly wouldn't be a symmetric exchange. As championed as revolutionaries are, rarely is history looked at from the perspective of those who lose. The war has ended, but for those who've taken up additional baggage we're left wondering if internal battles of identity, of allegiance, still quietly rage and fester. In identifying with the survivors of the Biafran Revolution we realize that Adichie's magic as a storyteller isn't in crafting a world of conflict, it's the power to fully manifest in readers a spirit of endurance.
There were quite a few sequences that were so tense I had to put the book down and mentally prepare myself for what I anticipated would be some uncomfortable realities. I was rarely disappointed, but even though my discomfort was somewhat predictable I was never underwhelmed by the skill of the writing or the places it took me. While the pacing is, in some areas, sedate (to the point where one wonders whether there is a coda) even this, I imagine, is a part of Adichie's plan. Questions about the temporality of war, about its seeming unendingness result from this pacing.
The story ranges across the better part of a decade, but in this time span we bear witness to the diversity of human reality. The fragility of social prestige seems to be a common theme, as is the importance of community when social infrastructure is ephemeral and hard to come by. We see these characters stretched across washboards, scraped, beaten, rung, and hung to dry. The dusky Harmattan erodes them to their wiry essences, their mettle tested. Despite their circumstances, the constancy of these characters in some way anchors them in their survival. This is a story about the preservation of family, and about the costs and tolls of that preservation.
Looking back I didn't completely love the ending, but I did find that its understated resolution allowed space for self-reflection. Here the novel's pacing appropriately slows and the losses incurred in the fight for survival, for preservation, are truly seen to be innumerable. It's regretful that there isn't much attention given to their memories, but this, too, may be intentional. The characters have become, by and large, nomadic, carrying only what is necessary. How then can they make the conscious choice to weigh themselves down further with the baggage of memory, of unfulfilled promise?
This is a story of incredible, uncountable loss. While it would be nice, tidy, to say that the characters gained something in exchange, I wonder if this would be true to history. It certainly wouldn't be a symmetric exchange. As championed as revolutionaries are, rarely is history looked at from the perspective of those who lose. The war has ended, but for those who've taken up additional baggage we're left wondering if internal battles of identity, of allegiance, still quietly rage and fester. In identifying with the survivors of the Biafran Revolution we realize that Adichie's magic as a storyteller isn't in crafting a world of conflict, it's the power to fully manifest in readers a spirit of endurance.
kitkat962's review against another edition
5.0
If the sun refuses to rise, we will make it rise
Clay pots fired in zeal, they will cool our feet as we climb
My knowledge on African history and Biafra is essentially nonexistent, but Adichie made me care deeply for the struggle of Nigerian. I couldn't compliment enough on the magic of her writing: her characters are brought to life with humane complexities. Each of them harbors their prides and insecurities, each of them owns their mistakes and flaws. Ugwu, the village boy who later became an author; Odenigbo, the professor with his "self-assured eccentricities" and "fierce moralities"; the charming Olanna with her insecurities; the strong-headed Kaleine.
I love the culture portraited, of raffia bag and jollof rice, of wine carrying in wedding and ori-okpa festival.
And the prose's fluidity, the strength lies in her words. Some of the highlight for me
Odenigbo: I am Nigerian because a white man created Nigeria and gave me that identity. I am black because the white man constructed black to be as different as possible from his white. But I was Igbo before the white man came
Olanna wondered to herself "If perhaps she lacked a certain strength that would compel him to include her in his pain" and her grief is described as "stretches of raw pain, and then a surge of faith would make her hum under her breath, until the downward slide came and she would be crumpled on the floor weeping"
Clay pots fired in zeal, they will cool our feet as we climb
My knowledge on African history and Biafra is essentially nonexistent, but Adichie made me care deeply for the struggle of Nigerian. I couldn't compliment enough on the magic of her writing: her characters are brought to life with humane complexities. Each of them harbors their prides and insecurities, each of them owns their mistakes and flaws. Ugwu, the village boy who later became an author; Odenigbo, the professor with his "self-assured eccentricities" and "fierce moralities"; the charming Olanna with her insecurities; the strong-headed Kaleine.
I love the culture portraited, of raffia bag and jollof rice, of wine carrying in wedding and ori-okpa festival.
And the prose's fluidity, the strength lies in her words. Some of the highlight for me
Odenigbo: I am Nigerian because a white man created Nigeria and gave me that identity. I am black because the white man constructed black to be as different as possible from his white. But I was Igbo before the white man came
Olanna wondered to herself "If perhaps she lacked a certain strength that would compel him to include her in his pain" and her grief is described as "stretches of raw pain, and then a surge of faith would make her hum under her breath, until the downward slide came and she would be crumpled on the floor weeping"