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kmardahl 's review for:
Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe
I thought I had read this years ago, but I hadn't. Therefore, I am glad that my reading about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's admiration for Achebe made me check this book out of the library. This is the kind of book that creeps under your skin. At first, it seems like a chain of stories where the chapters don't seem to flow. The actions in the closing paragraph of one chapter do not match the actions of the opening paragraph in the following chapter. And yet they do. You have to sit back and listen to the story. Let it flow and go where it has to go. Don't force it yourself.
"I cannot yet find a mouth with which to tell the story." "... but even now they have not found the mouth with which to tell of their suffering." This phrase is so powerful and expressive. I read that Achebe wrote the book in English intentionally because his own Igbo language was too wooden, thanks to the missionaries who set out to structure a written version of Igbo that accounted for all the dialects. Without knowing for sure, I think this is an Igbo phrase that manages to shine through the English. I felt there were other examples like this, but I do not recall them right now. To me, they added to the story. They drew me in and put me in the village of Umuofia where I could listen and watch the tale unfold.
This is a sad and moving tale. It is about change - for better or worse, the agents of change, and the way that change is received. The change is painful because it comes from culture clashes that are actually quite violent even without bloodshed because they involve terrible and sometimes intentional misunderstandings and loss of identity. There are elements in both societies (the conqueror and the conquered) that are bad.
For example, the misogyny practised by Okonkwo and his peers is terrible, and I would not defend it in any way. However, the story takes place around the 1890s and life was different then. This is what people did. I do not think Achebe is praising it or promoting it in any way. It is just how things were. The status quo is different. I read this abuse as an example of something that would definitely have to give at some point - or fall apart, if you will. Ekwefi strikes me as a very strong woman, and I think her daughter Ezinma would not put up with that sort of treatment. She shows some attitude in the chapter with the medicine man that could portend a future where women do not put up with the abusive treatment at the hands of their husbands.
The outsiders who come into their lives are not exactly perfect role models. You can see the conflicts and clashes coming from far away and you can do nothing to stop them. For example, the religion practised in the villages has ties to so many aspects of the villagers' lives. There are rituals of all kinds in their lives. The new religion wants to replace the old religion, but the new rituals leave so many loose ends in society so more "things fall apart".
I think this is a must-read if you are at all interested in literature from Africa. Set aside any preconceptions and just listen to the tale that Achebe wants to tell.
"I cannot yet find a mouth with which to tell the story." "... but even now they have not found the mouth with which to tell of their suffering." This phrase is so powerful and expressive. I read that Achebe wrote the book in English intentionally because his own Igbo language was too wooden, thanks to the missionaries who set out to structure a written version of Igbo that accounted for all the dialects. Without knowing for sure, I think this is an Igbo phrase that manages to shine through the English. I felt there were other examples like this, but I do not recall them right now. To me, they added to the story. They drew me in and put me in the village of Umuofia where I could listen and watch the tale unfold.
This is a sad and moving tale. It is about change - for better or worse, the agents of change, and the way that change is received. The change is painful because it comes from culture clashes that are actually quite violent even without bloodshed because they involve terrible and sometimes intentional misunderstandings and loss of identity. There are elements in both societies (the conqueror and the conquered) that are bad.
For example, the misogyny practised by Okonkwo and his peers is terrible, and I would not defend it in any way. However, the story takes place around the 1890s and life was different then. This is what people did. I do not think Achebe is praising it or promoting it in any way. It is just how things were. The status quo is different. I read this abuse as an example of something that would definitely have to give at some point - or fall apart, if you will. Ekwefi strikes me as a very strong woman, and I think her daughter Ezinma would not put up with that sort of treatment. She shows some attitude in the chapter with the medicine man that could portend a future where women do not put up with the abusive treatment at the hands of their husbands.
The outsiders who come into their lives are not exactly perfect role models. You can see the conflicts and clashes coming from far away and you can do nothing to stop them. For example, the religion practised in the villages has ties to so many aspects of the villagers' lives. There are rituals of all kinds in their lives. The new religion wants to replace the old religion, but the new rituals leave so many loose ends in society so more "things fall apart".
I think this is a must-read if you are at all interested in literature from Africa. Set aside any preconceptions and just listen to the tale that Achebe wants to tell.