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A review by gadicohen93
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
5.0
I finished this book within the six hours it takes a jumbo jet to fly from JFK to SF and simply could not put it down. Sure, this is not a sumptuous read: It's simple, straightforward, stripped to the bone. Achebe finds beauty in words that are plain and yet when strung together are quite ravishingly beautiful in their simplicity.
But that’s not really what kept me going. Things Fall Apart is so heartrendingly beautiful because of the full-throttle pump of its plot, the way that the ugly, unlikable protagonist Okonkwo learns to deal with the ways of the less pious, less traditional world, the innumerable motives and drives of each and every one of the supporting characters in their pursuit of their uncomplicated family life.
Perhaps the most beautiful passages occur when Achebe lets us gaze into Okonkwo’s deepest inner emotional core, into his un-poisoned, unadulterated sensitivity. One scene in the particular—when he follows his second wife into the forest in search of the priestess who kidnapped his favorite girl, Ezinma—touched me.
Read this now, please.
But that’s not really what kept me going. Things Fall Apart is so heartrendingly beautiful because of the full-throttle pump of its plot, the way that the ugly, unlikable protagonist Okonkwo learns to deal with the ways of the less pious, less traditional world, the innumerable motives and drives of each and every one of the supporting characters in their pursuit of their uncomplicated family life.
Perhaps the most beautiful passages occur when Achebe lets us gaze into Okonkwo’s deepest inner emotional core, into his un-poisoned, unadulterated sensitivity. One scene in the particular—when he follows his second wife into the forest in search of the priestess who kidnapped his favorite girl, Ezinma—touched me.
Read this now, please.