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20,042 ratings,
3.62
average rating, 1,630 reviews
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published
December 1st 1994
(first published 1958)
by Anchor Books
binding
Paperback, 209 pages
characters
setting
Nigeria
literary awards
Margaret Wong Memorial Prize
isbn
0385474547
(isbn13: 9780385474542)
description
One of Chinua Achebe's many achievements in his acclaimed first novel, Things Fall Apart, is his relentlessly unsentimental rendering of Nigerian trib...more
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avg 3.62
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in January, 1993
I read this many years ago as a teenager, before it was as well known as it is today, and then I read it again in college. Readers often expect imperialism to be dealt with in black and white. Either the author desires to see native ways preserved and consequently views any imperial attempts as immoral and threatening, or he's a Kipling-style "white man's burden" devotee who believes non-European cultures ought to be improved by supervision from their European "superiors." Y...more
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How To Criticize Things Fall Apart Without Sounding Like A Racist Imperialist:
1. Focus on the plot and how nothing very interesting really happens. Stress that it was only your opinion that nothing interesting happens, so that everyone realizes that you just can't identify with any of the events described, and this is your fault only.
2. Explain (gently and with examples) that bestowing daddy issues on a flawed protagonist is not a sufficient excuse for all of the character's f...more
1. Focus on the plot and how nothing very interesting really happens. Stress that it was only your opinion that nothing interesting happens, so that everyone realizes that you just can't identify with any of the events described, and this is your fault only.
2. Explain (gently and with examples) that bestowing daddy issues on a flawed protagonist is not a sufficient excuse for all of the character's f...more
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7 comments
I was so bored by this book I cannot even describe it to you. This is spare prose that breaks your heart in a bad, bad way. (Effing Hemingway, this is what people like you lead us to in the end!) I did not feel any sympathy for the characters involved. I tried to work myself up to wishing fiery deaths on them all (as I was obligated to finish this, since we read it for class in high school), but I just didn't even care that much.
I am sorry I wasted any minutes of my young, healthy bo...more
I am sorry I wasted any minutes of my young, healthy bo...more
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21 comments
bookshelves:
2008,
adventure,
classic,
fiction,
historical-fiction,
literature,
worth-reading-over-and-over------
Read in November, 2008
recommended to booklady by:
Skylar
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold” is from Yeats's poem "The Second Coming". Fifty years after Chinua Achebe wrote this deceptively simple Nigerian tragedy, Things Fall Apart has never been out of print. It's hailed as Africa's best known work of literature and I can easily see why.
At the heart of the story is a strong man, Okonkwo, with an overwhelming need to prove himself--to himself and his tribe; he must overcome the bad reputation of his drunkard ne'...more
At the heart of the story is a strong man, Okonkwo, with an overwhelming need to prove himself--to himself and his tribe; he must overcome the bad reputation of his drunkard ne'...more
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Read in March, 2008
During the time period of 1967 to 1970 the Nigerian Civil War when Nigeria gain its independence, Achebe reflected back on his personal disappointment of this event. Although, this time should be a proud moment, his friend, Christopher Okigbo was killed during the Nigerian Civil War.
While this issue, this inspires him to write his first novel, Things Fall Apart in 1958. He portrayed the protagonist Okonkwo as a powerful leader in the Igbo society. He doesn’t have much troub...more
While this issue, this inspires him to write his first novel, Things Fall Apart in 1958. He portrayed the protagonist Okonkwo as a powerful leader in the Igbo society. He doesn’t have much troub...more
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I bought “Things Fall Apart” and was excited and eager to read it knowing that (1) it has sold millions and millions of copies since its debut in 1958, (2) has since stood as a symbol of a crown achievement of African literature, and (3) has sort of turned Chinua Achebe into a Hemingway of Africa. But as life has taught us many times before: great expectations come with greater disappointments. While “Things Fall Apart” never quite fell apart it never really took off either. But I sh...more
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Read in June, 2000
This is another classic example of "what in the world are you thinking assigning this to high school kids?" It's a pretty durned fine book, and there is much therein upon which to reflect, but I'm guessing the adolescent and recently-postadolescent crowd is going to feel a book like this is being rammed down their throats. And they're probably right.
Thankfully, I'm a year or so too old to have been assigned this in school, and I picked up a copy vaguely remembering classmates...more
Thankfully, I'm a year or so too old to have been assigned this in school, and I picked up a copy vaguely remembering classmates...more
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Achebe's acclaimed novel explores what happens when two cultures collide. In this case, western colonialism under the veil of Christianity confronting an animistic tribal system in a rural village in Nigeria. The result is a fascinating exploration of how one man, Okonkwo, who has invested his whole life into attaining a position of authority within the tribe, finds his whole world forever altered and his quest for achievement meaningless in this new Africa.
Okonkwo is not a man wh...more
Okonkwo is not a man wh...more
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Read in July, 2007
This has been on my list for a while. I enjoyed the economy of style and Achebe's choice of a decidedly unlikable protagonist, which was brave and made for a powerful rendering of a fascinating period of history. Chinua made a clever decision not to fall prey to the temptation to embrace a phony dichotomy - Africa good - Europe bad. He tells the story of the missionary and colonial movement in Nigeria in an unflinchingly dispassionate way. Okonkwo is an anti-hero, proud, cruel, misanthrope, ...more
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Like the bloom of Native American novels of the late seventies, this book does not come from another culture. It does not represent an original or alternate storytelling tradition. This is literature that has already been colonized. It has already moved from the oral to the written, even taking the form of the quentessential western novel.
It is a tragic form of the monomyth, taking its cues from the Greeks, and from Shakespeare. I don't mean to say that it fails to represent the Afri...more
It is a tragic form of the monomyth, taking its cues from the Greeks, and from Shakespeare. I don't mean to say that it fails to represent the Afri...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
Everyone
The first three-quarters of Things Fall Apart is immersed in the clan culture of eastern Nigeria (we don't actually learn the specific setting - the events of the novel can presumably be transferred to any sub-Saharan pre- and post-colonial setting). The society that Achebe describes can be brutally violent and superstitious, and the protagonist, or anti-hero, Okonkwo is so single-minded and angry that it's difficult to sympathize with him. I think that Achebe chose to show the clan society wi...more
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This book was incredible and a great page-turner. It has relevance to a real tribe in Nigeria. Okonkwo, the protagonist of this novel, really brought the defintion of standing up for what you believe in. No matter how much his own people embraced the white man's culture, he stook to his beleifs. Okonkwo refused to show fear, for he feared becoming his father. I definitely recommend this book to anyone to anyone who enjoys history and controversy.
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It was good, but some things felt strange and inserted just for the author's purposes. Like inserting a rant; well, not exactly that since Chinua obviously doesn't rant besides about racism and ethnocentricism. It really did teach me about Ibo culture 'no hands barred,' at least, I think that's what you'd say. The characters were great. There were only two truly dislikeable characters, the later preist and the man who wanted to kill the snake. Perhaps it's because Chinua is part of both cultures...more
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4 comments
Very sad...that's about it. It's just a sad book.
I always wonder why authors have to write these types of books. I mean, after No Country for Old Men I had to lie down and take a breather. There are section of Blood Meridian that make me put the book down because it feels as though someone has been dragging me butt naked, at a snails pace, behind a gasy horse over sand in the scorching heat of the afternoon. I mean, yeah it's sand, it's soft, not to jaggedy, and it couldn't be ...more
I always wonder why authors have to write these types of books. I mean, after No Country for Old Men I had to lie down and take a breather. There are section of Blood Meridian that make me put the book down because it feels as though someone has been dragging me butt naked, at a snails pace, behind a gasy horse over sand in the scorching heat of the afternoon. I mean, yeah it's sand, it's soft, not to jaggedy, and it couldn't be ...more
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Read in April, 2009
I really love this book. It never gets old, even though I've taught it a few times now. The teens, however, are so resistant to it at first because the characters' names are difficult to pronounce, and they find it challenging to keep track of Okonkwo's many wives and children. The other day, though, I was reading an excerpt from it aloud in class, and I caught a teen boy loving it.
This particular teen, who is not such a fan of reading, made a comment under his breath about how h...more
This particular teen, who is not such a fan of reading, made a comment under his breath about how h...more
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I don't know if it is my western requirements or the book that is flawed, but I found this book sometimes maddening in the way it would introduce a story and then just abandon it. The most irritating to me was the story of Ezinma going to see the god in the cave. WHAT HAPPENED IN THE CAVE????? It just drives me crazy that we never got to hear what the girl saw/felt/heard on that night. Why was that story introduced and then never resolved? Like I said, maybe to people from a less western cul...more
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What you're supposed to get out of this book is how Christian missionaries from Britain essentially destroyed dozens of small villages in Nigeria with their white Jesus teachings. But instead I came away from this book with a new understanding of why Christianity can be so appealing.
In these Nigerian villages there was a custom of regarding as evil, women who had given birth to twins. Any twins who were born were immediately taken out into the woods by the villagers and left to die...more
In these Nigerian villages there was a custom of regarding as evil, women who had given birth to twins. Any twins who were born were immediately taken out into the woods by the villagers and left to die...more
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Read in January, 2005
recommends it for:
missionaries
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Read in March, 2007
I love the simplicity of this book. It so simply describes the pangs of being human, and that in experiencing these pangs it is part of what makes us human. The truth is that things DO fall apart, or, in plain American-English, "shit happens".
It shows over a period of time a cycle in the exchange of good and bad.
There's also a snippet dealing with Christian missionaries coming upon Ibo communities in Nigeria. Achebe is of Ibo descent and offers some interesting...more
It shows over a period of time a cycle in the exchange of good and bad.
There's also a snippet dealing with Christian missionaries coming upon Ibo communities in Nigeria. Achebe is of Ibo descent and offers some interesting...more
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Read in February, 2008
Things Fall Apart is a quick read and is packed with information about the Ibo culture, which I found very interesting. The main character, Okonkwo, has a tough exterior and is very well-respected in his clan, yet he constantly carries this internal fear of being thought weak and falling into the footsteps of his father - though he is far from it. He aspires to hate everything his father loved, from laziness to gentleness, which makes for a man who is quick to beat his wives and children and d...more
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quotes from this book
"Ogbuef Ezedudu,who was the oldest man in the village, was telling two other men when they came to visit him that the punishment for breaking the Peace of Ani had become very mild in their clan.
"It has not always been so," he said. "My father told me that he had been told that in the past a man who broke the peace was dragged on the ground through the village until he died. but after a while this custom was stopped because it spoiled the peace which it was meant to preserve.""
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