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Purple Hibiscus

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Start date: July 1, 2018

Finish date: July 29, 2018

Discussion: Author's Pick

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What Members Thought

Mar 20, 2020 Puck rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: people-of-colour, historical-fiction, young-adult

An intense and moving coming-of-age story. “Purple Hibiscus” is Adichie's debut novel, and while her later books have more impact, this novel too tells a wonderful story.

You follow shy and naive Kambili who has grown up under her strict, religious father, and who gets introduced to a whole new world while staying with her liberal aunt.
I was reminded of Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain – the fathers in these books are quite similar – but where John was alone, I was so glad Kambili had her f ...more

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Apr 26, 2018 Kate rated it really liked it

This is not a book you can read quickly. It takes some time and effort to get into it, but I’m glad I read it. The author manages to tell a difficult story in a beautiful and thoughtful way. Kambili is a teenaged girl who grows up in a rather repressive house with a controlling father. She goes with her brother to spend a week with her aunt and cousins, and while there, discovers how life can be different and she starts to understand the feeling of love.

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Sep 25, 2018 Martha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bipoc-authors-black, needs-trigger-warning, fiction, would-read-again, read-2018, read-women-18, 2018-yorwoc

I've essentially worked my way backwards with Adichie's novels; this is my third and her debut, and I can say without doubt that she's one of the best writers working today. Purple Hibiscus tells the story of Kambili and Jaja, children of a religiously zealous father, Eugene. Early on, we meet their Aunty Ifeoma, and her increasing presence in their lives starts to broaden their horizons, much to the dismay of their inflexible father. The domestic terror that Eugene wreaks on his family in the n ...more

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Mar 04, 2020 Jaclyn~she lives! catching up on reviews~ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: country-africa

Adichie’s writing is evocative and filled with the scent of curry and frangipani trees and thick with the dust of the harmattan. The prose is poetic, hypnotic almost, and makes the events happening all the more affecting. I couldn’t help shaking my head in indignation, but recognizing that though this is fiction, it isn’t that far removed from reality.

Purple Hibiscus is a study on oppression and abuse. Adichie wrote a powerful story illustrating how toxic family, religion and power can be.

She Adichie’s writing is evocative and filled with the scent of curry and frangipani trees and thick with the dust of the harmattan. The prose is poetic, hypnotic almost, and makes the events happening all the more affecting. I couldn’t help shaking my head in indignation, but recognizing that though this is fiction, it isn’t that far removed from reality.

Purple Hibiscus is a study on oppression and abuse. Adichie wrote a powerful story illustrating how toxic family, religion and power can be.

She asks, what happens when your every moment is scheduled and parts of you have to be compartmentalized into tiny boxes to please someone else?
This is Adichie’s debut novel but it is tight, concise and doesn’t read like a first work.
The story begins with a line that is most likely a nod at another famous Nigerian Work “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe. “Things started to fall apart at home,”

This story is about pride and the paradoxical way that Papa behaves. He is a “big man” but acts small at home. He gives to the poor, the sick, the needy. But tortures his family in private, both mentally and physically when they fail to meet his unrealistic expectations. He is hyper religious and fixated on European white standards. He only wears white linens, their whole house is decorated in shades of white, and he takes a white name. He discourages speaking their native language Igbo, as it doesn’t sound as “civilized as English.” This is as much a novel about religious oppression as it is the impact of Colonialism on Nigeria.

The statue outside of the Nsukka University reads “To restore the dignity of man,” but when did they lose dignity? When they forget where they come from, and begin following the ideologies of another group (catholic European missionaries )? Papa Eugene would probably argue the opposite.

Things change for the family when their Aunt Ifeoma begins to make an effort to be more involved in their lives. Ifeoma is proud of her Nigerian Igbo Roots and makes no qualms in hiding this. Ifeoma empowers her children, and encourages individuality. Where as Eugene stifles his children’s individuality and encourages conformity.

Overall I highly enjoyed this one, perhaps more than Americanah.
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Aug 06, 2018 Megan rated it really liked it

An excellently crafted book about living with an abusive parent, and the dichotomy between the outer persona of the "perfect" family and the inner reality. Adichie captured the oppressiveness of an abusive household, and does some interesting mirroring with the state of Nigeria at the time. There's also lots of fascinating bits about typical family life in Nigeria, and the contrast between rich and poor, and open-minded and zealous. It's something of a coming of age story, as the main character ...more

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