No Longer at Ease

by Chinua Achebe

book data

631 ratings, 3.71 average rating, 43 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		19%
4		40%
3		32%
2		6%
1		0%

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published

September 16th 1994 by Anchor (first published 1981)

details

Paperback, 208 pages

isbn

0385474555 (isbn13: 9780385474559)

description

The story of a man whose foreign education has separated him from his African roots and made him parts of a ruling elite whose corruption he finds rep…more

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Oct 13, 2007

Shep rated it:

Read in January, 2003

So this is a book that anybody who has had to split two cultures or mesh them should read. It is about a young man who gets an English education and returns to his native Nigeria. Inevitably tribal obligations come into conflict with his new idealism related to corruption and progress. The title is a phrase from a T S Eliot poem, "The Journey of the Magi" and the lines are about how when the magi return after seeing the infant king to their own land they are "No longer at ease ...more

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Jan 18, 2009

El rated it:

bookshelves: late20th-centurylit

Read in January, 2009

This 1960 sequel to Achebe's Things Fall Apart is the story of Obi Okonkwo, the grandson of the protagonist in Things Fall Apart. Obi has the opportunity and fortune to study in Britain, and in the process is more removed from his African roots. At times it reminded me of American novels of the turn-of-the-century in which the main character, usually a young woman, leaves her home for a bigger city and is confronted by opposition - like Dreiser's Sister Carrie. Obi is the one who needs to mak...more

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Mar 28, 2008

Hanaan rated it:

This was clearly written, culturally fascinating, and had a strong sense of truth. However, it also had a strong sense of foreboding which I found frightening and didn't really like. In fact, I am not sure what books like this are trying to do. Explain how good people fall into corruption? Explain why Nigeria is how it is? Place blame? Achebe's allegory is universal, and is as insightful as anything, but it is frustrating that it doesn't manage to fully answer the awful questions it raises.

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Jan 14, 2010

Nathaniel rated it:

bookshelves: africa

Read in December, 2009

Chinua Achebe's reputation earns too much exposure for his jaded and pessimistic stories about how the traditions, cultures and institutions of Africa inevitably destroy its most promising individuals.

"No Longer At Ease" frames the gradual undoing of a young man saddled with being the collective investment of his rural Nigerian community. Their fraternal society pay for his school fees and sponsor his European education so that he can return to Nigeria and use his credenti...more

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Dec 28, 2009

Larry Gordon rated it:

Read in December, 2008

Another great one by Chinua Achebe. In the early 1950s, a village collects money to send Obi, a bright young student, to get a university degree in England. Obi returns with his degree, determined to be part of a young generation who will build a strong independent Nigeria. He is determined to cast off the corrupt ways of the old guard, who used their government positions for self-enrichment rather than public service.

Once he returnes, however, he is torn between the old ways - both ...more

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May 11, 2009

Jim rated it:

Read in July, 2009

After finishing another read, I was wandering around a bookstore looking for something interesting. As I walked by, the sign marked 'Literature' peaked an interest in me far beyond that which should have come about by looking at such a plain green sign. I thought back to a critical reading class I had my sophomore year in college, and amongst a number of angst-filled ____-studies type books, only one stood out in my memory as anything less than dreary. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart had st...more After finishing another read, I was wandering around a bookstore looking for something interesting. As I walked by, the sign marked 'Literature' peaked an interest in me far beyond that which should have come about by looking at such a plain green sign. I thought back to a critical reading class I had my sophomore year in college, and amongst a number of angst-filled ____-studies type books, only one stood out in my memory as anything less than dreary. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart had struck me as a genuine piece of art. Naturally, I had to look around for other works by the author.

I was pleasantly surprised when I read No Longer at Ease. I suspected that the bad impression I had gotten from the other books in that critical reading class had perhaps imbued Achebe's work with an inappropriately amplified sense of quality in my memory. After three days of reading, No Longer at Ease was behind me, and I had outed my suspicions, convicting them of being the work of paranoid ideation.

The common thread between the two Achebe works I have read is that his use of language produces a narrative that flows like water. Rather than attempting to create a canonical novel in a typical Western style, Achebe seems only to want to tell a story. As I am the type who relishes sitting down across from a soul and learning intimate details about the different facets of a life, Achebe's story-telling style attracts my curiosity.

This story-telling style, while making for a more entertaining and simple read, should not be construed as any type of weakness; no, Achebe manages to weld together his easy-to-read style with a startlingly deep complexity. Making up for what isn't written, Achebe manages to touch to the heart of various matters with a few simple words in context. Whether it's an Igbo proverb or a description of a character's thoughts, Achebe aptly illuminates the paradoxes created when modernity meets tradition, all in the context of one man's story. (less)

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Oct 27, 2008

Ben J. rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Chinua Achebe’s second novel, No Longer at Ease, published in 1960, is a then contemporary story of modern Nigeria. It is a Nigeria of contrasting religions, where modernity is in competition with tradition, a land of political corruption and western night clubs. Into this fray walks Obi Okonkwo, an honest man with an English university education, seeking to improve himself and his country, full of optimism and infused with pride, he knows how life should be. But this is 1950s Lagos, where eve...more

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May 22, 2008

Emily rated it:

Read in May, 2008

So apparently I've been reading books I should have read in high school. This is the sequel to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart which I read in high school. I have to admit, I had to skim through online reviews of Things Fall Apart because I couldn't remember how it ends.

You don't actually need to have read Things Fall Apart to understand what's going on in No Longer at Ease. It begins with a trial of a young Nigerian man, Obi Okonkwo, who has been accused of taking a bribe. Then ...more

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Jan 26, 2009

Cdh0061 rated it:

bookshelves: social-commentary

Read in January, 2007

The plot appeared to be far removed from the events of the previous saga, "Things Fall Apart." The plot was well conceived, but slow moving. The tone came off very near to existentialist. Existentialism causes an emotional reaction in this reader, perhaps it clouded my perspective. It was definitely a fine showcase of how people fall to temptation.

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Nov 25, 2009

Keith Davis rated it:

(review of isbn 0435905287)

Read in January, 1993

Obi Okonkwo returns to Nigeria after attending school in England and goes to work in the public service. At first he is contemptuous of the rampant government corruption, but constant money troubles and debt gradually erode his convictions. An interesting look both at life in colonial Africa and at how corruption happens gradually in slow steps and often accompanied by high moral intentions.

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Apr 23, 2009

Hollis rated it:

(review of isbn 0435913514)

bookshelves: literary-fiction

Read in April, 2009

In the introduction to this edition (AWS Classics) Simon Gikandi argues that this book is a classic of the stature of Achebe's previous work 'Things Fall Apart'. That is a slight exaggeration but I still think this is one of the founding texts of African literature and it would have been recognised as such immediately were it not for the long shadow of TFA.

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Nov 09, 2007

Chris rated it:

Read in July, 2008

This doesn't have the emotional punch of Things Fall Apart, but I don't know that that makes this story of a young Obi Okonkwo--the grandson of TFA's protagonist--trapped between his Igbo heritage and English education any less tragic. It feels far more inevitable than its predecessor as we know how Obi will fall from the opening pages, and as such it feels tidier, less open to interpretation, perhaps even more didactic. Chaucer said a tale should deliver both sentence and solace (roughly inst...more

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Aug 19, 2008

Lamski Kikita rated it:

Read in September, 2008

recommended to Lamski Kikita by: Professor
recommends it for: political science freaks, those interested in African lit

Written with perfect British English and yet so simple in narration and meaning.
Achebe tells the story of the constant quarrel between one's moral code and the pressures of life. Obi is a young and educated Nigerian who has always condemned and was disgusted at all forms of corruption and bribery practiced by government officials. After he loses his mother, gets stuck with so many bills that he cannot pay, and faces the scrutiny of his community which condemns his plans to marry a woman of...more

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Apr 16, 2008

Amanda rated it:

Read in April, 2008

recommends it for: people who are stuck

I read this during jury duty. It was good. The main character asked for a loan from his village council to attend European university. When he comes back to his country he gets a job. But then he is expected to fulfill a certain status role. He has to live in the city and drive a car and eat meat in his soup, etc. But all the time he is becoming more and more in debt, and he can't marry his love because she is from an undesirable social class. Also once he has an education and a job, his ...more

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Aug 28, 2008

Kathryn rated it:

(review of isbn 0435913514)

bookshelves: african-lit

Read in March, 2009

recommended to Kathryn by: Shep
recommends it for: those who read Things Fall Apart

I found this book even more moving than Things Fall Apart which it is a sequel to. It is the story of Okinowo's (the main character of Things Fall Apart) grandson Obi and how his time in England seperates him from his Ibo, Nigerian roots, and yet how he does not fit in to English culture because of his Ibo, Nigerian roots. I think the tragedy of his and Clara's love story as well as his relationship with his family is especially tragic.
Obi becomes a person without a place he truly belongs,...more

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3 comments

Aug 28, 2009

Kaitlyn rated it:

bookshelves: books-read-in-2009

Read in January, 2009

His first novel. I loved it. Like his other books the first 50 pages are tough to get through because it is very confusing. But it was amazing. He is one of my favorite authors.

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Nov 24, 2009

Sara rated it:

This is a book I plan to re-read. I read it several years ago and as an African it was wonderful to read novels by African authors for the first time in my life.

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May 13, 2009

Jared rated it:

Anything but enjoyable. I read it because written by Nigerian author but I found the description on the back to be more interesting than the actual story.

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