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May 06, 2008

Ben rated it:

Ben
Ms. Houseman
World Literature
5/5/08
Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
Purple Hibiscus
New York: Anchor Books, 2003
307 pp. $15
1-4000-7694-3
Book Review

“Purple Hibiscus”, written by contemporary Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, tells the story of a lonely and reclusive 15-year-old girl, Kambili, in present-day Nigeria. The tumultuous social, political, and religious climate, typical to that time in Nigeria, permeates every aspect of K More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Aug 10, 2011

Lisa rated it:

A father/husband who is physically abusive, extremely authoritarian, rigidly Catholic, yet extremely generous toward his community drives the action of the novel. When his children, Kambili (the narrator) and Jaja, go to live with their aunt they witness and begin to experience autonomy.

Nigerian political strife is merely a backdrop in this novel. Eugene, Kambili’s father, runs a paper and finds himself having to take his printing underground to escape the authorities; Ifeoma, Kambi More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Pam rated it:

This is a fantastic debut novel by a young Nigerian-born writer. This is a YA novel, but has very heavy material. Kambili is a 15 year old Nigerian girl born into privelege in her war torn country; however, her life is not what it seems. Her father, a wealthy business man and philanthropist, is also an abusive tyrant. The juxtaposition of the wealth of the ruling class and the abject poverty of the masses is paralled by the two faces of the family. The writing is beatiful and vivid. Becaus More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2011

Nicola rated it:

I really, really loved this book. The very first chapter captivated me and the book held my attention right until the last page. The writing was good- using the exact amount of description needed to bring the book to life. The characters all felt very real and believable. The story was intriguing and emotional. I definitely did not predict the ending and it was very fitting. All in all, a very enjoyable read and one of my new favourites.

For more of my reviews and recommendations, vis More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 22, 2009

Carol rated it:

Purple Hibiscus takes place in Nigeria, a country that I was unfamiliar with. The story is told through an endearing character, Kimbilli, a teenage daughter in a prosperous Nigerian household. Despite their apparent affluence, their life was anything but comfortable. The father was a cruel and narrow minded patriarch of the family. He had rejected his native religion and roots, including his own father, a traditionalist,in favor of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church was portrayed as a More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Oct 15, 2008

Diane rated it:

Purple Hibiscus, is a wonderful piece of literary fiction. It is a coming of age story, a story of domestic violence, and a look at freedom. The characters are well-developed.

Fifteen year old Kambili, lives a life of privilege in with her parents, and her brother Jaja in Nigeria. The father, Eugene is a wealthy businessman, a religious fanatic, and a strict disciplinarian. His family is the recipient of his cruel and unusual forms of punishment. The book opens on Palm Sunday, with th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 13, 2008

mark rated it:

I have been interested in Nigerian popular cinema (Nollywood) for some time, so when I came across this book, written by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie it immediately caught my attention. All in all it did not disappoint. There is a certain dispassionate tone about the narration, and the dialogue seems stilted at times, but this is somehow appropriate and in character in the voice of Kambili the 15 year old girl who is the main protagonist and narrator of the story. Kambili's narrative More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 24, 2008

Lindsay rated it:

Although this book was overall pretty enjoyable and a quick read, I kept feeling like there was something missing. Some of the characters felt kind of "flat" to me--there were very few surprises in their reactions as new events arose. Also, even though Nigerian social/political issues ran throughout the book, I felt as if they could have been more pronounced. That could be just my own preference--so far, from reading a book set in another country and culture usually during tumultuou More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 31, 2008

Lola rated it:

What a compelling character Adechie has created in Kambilli, i was pulled into her reclusive world, her shyness was so well illustrated it brought me back to my own adolescence when i so desperately wanted to comment on the world around me but my voice wouldn't come. Adechie's talent for using clear cut simplistic writing to depict complex situations was brilliant. Purple Hibiscus is filled with so many themes and well thought out contrasts that i cannot imagine readers walking away from this w More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Sep 15, 2007

Cecilia rated it:

The book was fascinating because it depicted a Nigeria I’m not particularly familiar with, e.g., people who live in cities and have electricity (sort of) and running water (only a few). My relatives largely live in villages without those two conveniences of modern life and with a well and a generator, we make life in the village somewhat “normal” by Western standards.

The story itself - a sort of coming of age story of a very sheltered teenager - is interesting more because its perspe More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2011

Neeraj added it

The story told by a young Nigerian girl who grows up in a strictly religious household where Papa commits tortures his children in the name of love of God – and love for them. All the riches and ‘comforts’ cannot compensate for the terror in which the Kamibili and Jaja and their mother live. The contrast with the happiness that pervades the family of Papa’s sister is unmistakable to the two children. Eventually, the children rise, like a lone purple hibiscus among others of a different colour.

Th More...

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Nov 20, 2008

1morechapter rated it:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has really impressed me with her writing abilities. Purple Hibiscus was Adichie’s first novel. I read her second book, Half of a Yellow Sun, last year and it was in my Top 20 for 2007. Although some have stated that Purple Hibiscus was not as good as Half of a Yellow Sun, I disagree. I think it was just as well-written, and in fact I may prefer it.

Kambili and her family are of the wealthy upper class in Nigeria. Her father owns several factories and is a More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 17, 2008

Peg rated it:

First novel of C. N. Adichie, who grew up in Nigeria where she attended med school for two years at the University of Nigeria before coming to US. The book won the 2003 O. Henry prize and was short listed for the 2002 Caine Prize for African writing.
Book well written and provided insight into family life,politics, and political unpheaval in Nigeria. However, I was upset by the violence of the abusive father's behavior and would not recommend the book to anyone as squeamish as I am on the s More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 13, 2012

Soledad rated it:

Esta impresionante novela marcó el debut literario de Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977), la nigeriana que el 2007 obtuvo el prestigioso premio Orange por su segunda novela Medio Sol Amarillo y que a sus 30 años y sólo dos novelas publicadas no ha parado de recibir condecoraciones y buenas críticas.
Narrada por su protagonista, una tímida niña de quince años de nombre Kambili Achike, La Flor Púrpura (en inglés, Purple Hibuscus) cuenta la historia de una familia acomodada de Enugu, que bajo un More...

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Nov 17, 2011

Eeh rated it:

From the first page to the last, I was sucked in and won over immediately. The way Adichie weaves a tale, with her lush language that captures both a stifling, forcibly silent atmosphere where the religious father Eugene dominates the family with an iron fist, to the stark contrast in wealth and family bonds that aunt Ifeoma presents, the reader follows along breathless as Kambili blossoms from a restrained and suffocating teenage girl into her own self. The way Adichie can turn phrases and sent More...

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Oct 13, 2011

Chelsea rated it:

Kambili Achike is a 15-year-old Nigerian girl whose father is, essentially, the head of the local church. Along with her brother and mother, the family lives in an almost constant state of fear because, in addition to being devotedly pious, Kambili’s father is also emotionally and physically abusive. For a period of time, Kambili is sent to live wither her aunt who is a university professor and who, along with her three children, teach Kambili what it means to laugh, to love, to have fun and to, More...

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Oct 02, 2011

Lynn rated it:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian-born writer now living in the US. Purple Hibiscus was her first novel, in which she explores the struggle of an adolescent girl to find her identity and a connection to the culture of her own people in post-Colonial Nigeria. Kambili, fifteen and so shy she can barely speak, lives in a compound with her mother, brother, and wealthy father who is a cruel, fanatically religious tyrant. He has attempted to wipe nearly all connection to native Nigerian culture, More...

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Sep 25, 2011

Sam rated it:

After reading and loving Half of a Yellow Sun (my review), I promised myself I would read more of Adichie's work. Purple Hibiscus was her debut novel and it tells the story of fifteen year old Kambili and her brother Jaja, who are growing up under the shadow of a strict religious father in politically unstable Nigeria.

It's soon clear that Kambili's father is abusive. The whole family walk on eggshells, scared to mispronounce a word during Mass, not look grateful enough whilst praying More...

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Sep 20, 2011

Nicole rated it:

“Purple Hibiscus” is Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s debut novel. After reading the works of fellow countryman Chinua Achebe, Adichie realized the Igbo culture was worth writing about. The influence of Achebe can be seen in the novel’s opening paragraph, “Things started falling apart…” (a reference to Achebe’s own work, Things Fall Apart). Gaining its independence from Great Britain on October 1, 1960, Adichie sheds light on the abuse by the British and Nigerian politicians that has o More...

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Sep 11, 2011

Lawrencia rated it:

Purple Hibiscus, Nigerian-born writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's debut, begins like many novels set in regions considered exotic by the western reader: the politics, climate, social customs, and, above all, food of Nigeria (balls of fufu rolled between the fingers, okpa bought from roadside vendors) unfold like the purple hibiscus of the title, rare and fascinating. But within a few pages, these details, however vividly rendered, melt into the background of a larger, more compelling story of a j More...

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Sep 04, 2011

Catty rated it:

I read this book for school and was shocked by the appalling quality in which it was written. I found it somewhat ironic that a book which is to be studied at GCSE level was not even written to a GCSE standard. Not only was it written with bad grammar and flawed plot lines. But as a practicing Catholic I found some of the views put across from a religious aspect were deeply offensive. I struggled to get through this book and had it not been homework I probably would not have reached the end. How More...

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May 17, 2011

Prerna rated it:

Purple Hibiscus is a beautiful story. The plot is based on a 14 year-old who grew up under the stifling patronage of a stern father. Her domineering father frequently physically abused his family alongside her, creating terror at home and stunting the psychological growth of his children. Against the backdrop of the deterioration of the socio-economic and political life of Nigeria as it undergoes a military coup, the life Kambili knows is shattered and she has to seek for refuge in the home of h More...

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Mar 28, 2011

Maureen rated it:

The words of J M Coetzee, “A sensitive and touching story of a child exposed too early to religious intolerance and the uglier side of the Nigerian state”.

Purple Hibiscus is so stunningly good it is hard to believe that its author was just twenty-five years old when she wrote it. Her debut novel proves beyond a doubt that Adichie is one of the most powerful young voices to recently emerge from Africa.

It is difficult to describe the oppression that haunts every page of the no More...

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Feb 02, 2011

Wfbcreeds rated it:

August 2010 - Penny
Purple Hibiscus, Nigerian-born writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's debut, begins like many novels set in regions considered exotic by the western reader: the politics, climate, social customs, and, above all, food of Nigeria (balls of fufu rolled between the fingers, okpa bought from roadside vendors) unfold like the purple hibiscus of the title, rare and fascinating. But within a few pages, these details, however vividly rendered, melt into the background of a larger, mor More...

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Feb 01, 2011

Elena rated it:

This is one of the best young adult novel I have ever read; not only does the reader follow the protaginist through her journey to grap an indentity for herself and her family, we are also invited to begin to understand the complex dynamics between modern and traditional life in Africa, and how these differing worlds effect people, both positively and destructively. The author brings the reader into this world with such ease and simplicy - creating situations with clear-cut moral rights and wron More...

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Jan 17, 2010

Ru rated it:

Maybe it was because I was reading Milan Kundera's IDENTITY and George Saunders' PASTORALIA at the same time as I was reading this - how much more divergent can one get, after all, than those three? - but something about PURPLE HIBISCUS rubbed me the wrong way. It's descriptions overwhelm the story and, in a country of much complexity, it seems that people are reduced to a metaphorical black and white. The daughter, Kambili, is used to highlight the "good" that the brutal, abusive fath More...

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Aug 04, 2009

Topher rated it:

When I learned that Adichie was on the list to be a PEN/Faulkner visitor, I immediately put her to the front of my reading list. I have wanted to read Half a Yellow Sun for a while, but just haven't got around to it. I went to the Chevy Chase library to pick up one of the only available DCPL copies, and saw this on the shelf as well.

The characters in this book are vividly if not a little flatly drawn, but, just as with Abani's Graceland, there is an education in itself here. Each pa More...

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Apr 24, 2009

Milan/zzz rated it:

One of best reads 2006
Reading this book has been actually very hard because it was just as she described my country's recent past. I was there in every single sentence when she described situation on University; government's repression; political murders; corruption on every level of society; killing free press; endless waiting in a front of embassies; disregard of international community; "For them, I'm nothing more than black gorilla who knows to read" (said University professo More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 21, 2009

Jessie rated it:

While I really enjoyed this book I found myself constanly comparing it to the authors ladder novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, which I read prior to reading Purple Hibisicus. Like I said it was a great novel, but it didn't have the charachter development, the historical references or as good of a plot as Half of a Yellow Sun. You could tell that this was an earliet novel building up to a greater book.

Regardless of not liking it as much as the later novel, Purple Hibiscus is still a w More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 27, 2011

Karen rated it:

This is a coming of age story of Kambili, a fifteen-year-old Nigerian girl. Her father runs a newspaper and they have wealth among many who do not. Her father presents himself to the town as a generous person who is involved politically for the good of the community, when at home he is a religious fanatic and abusive to Kambili, her brother Jaja, and her mother. To keep them safe when Nigeria falls under a military coup, Kambili's father allows her and Jaja to stay with their aunt who is a pr More...

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