josie_owl 's review for:

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
4.0
I don't know how to rate or discuss this book. It was well written and I learned a lot about Nigeria, war, colonialism and human nature. The graphic decent into war, the devastation, misery and starvation of the characters that were introduced as belonging to the upper class was very impactful and shocking. And yet or because of that, I struggled to finish it, I wanted it to be over but when it finally was it left me feeling hollow.
Spoiler Except for Kainene, I didn't care for any of the main characters anymore. Odenigbo's drinking problem while understandable, left his wife and daughter to fight for themselves. I also felt like he was more devastated about losing his social standing and his group of revolutionary drinking buddies than the war. Olanna's obsession with Odenigbo's possible infidelity was another point I didn't understand. Why would he be faithful in wartime when he wasn't in peace? And Ugwu died for me the moment he took part in the rape. Yes it was common at wartime, yes it was peer-pressure, yes he regretted it, but I realised that for me, this is one unforgivable sin that I cannot rationalise away. He didn't even hesitate. Richard was a character I don't know what to make of. Like the war itself, I don't see his point. Does he believe in 'the cause' (whatever that is)? I the end he stopped writing his book because it was never his war. But all along he had talked about 'we', had learned to speak Igbo, called himself Biafran. Sure, he could have left any time, but so could all the other characters! Olanna and Kainene's parents could have gotten them out, at least at the beginning of the war. Richard stayed because he made it his war, just as the other characters. But in the end it was supposed to be just because of misguided love? But that I can understand, as Kainene was the only one that I felt stayed sane through all this. And of course she would be the one not to come back. And then there is the war, almost a character itself, mindless and pointless and destructive. I didn't understand where it came from and I didn't understand why any of the characters would support it or hope for 'victory'. When the whole country is starving and dying, what cause or what outcome could justify that? Yes the world was silent when they died, but in the end what were they even dying for? Maybe the worse silence of the world was when the Igbo were massacred after the coup, because that was what initiated the war?

To sum up: There are some questions left for me.