maapestaartje 's review for:

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

4.5

challenging dark sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This book was hard for me to read, especially because I did not find the main character particularly loveable (like..... at all), but I think everyone should read it. Not just because of its topics and its interplay with colonial books like Heart of Darkness (Conrad, 1899), but also because it is one of the first widely read African literary books and thus in my opinion, fundamental to understanding its current literary culture, especially the English language branch. 

Next to that, I also just think it's a good book. His exploration of the tragic figure Okonkwo is incredibly thorough, and, knowing that colonisation is coming, hard to read. Okonkwo is by no means a nice guy and this society is by no means nice to women (of course, neither was the colonising European force), but it is intricate, something I believe Achebe definitely tried to highlight in this book and I believe he succeeds in doing so. I look forward to reading the rest of the African Trilogy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Violence, Colonisation