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Half of a Yellow Sun

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Start date: August 1, 2018

Finish date: August 29, 2018

Discussion: Author's Pick

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What Members Thought

Sep 15, 2017 Christina rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, war, historical, cultural-africa, literature-african-literature, western-africa-nigeria

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Where do you start with this book?! I love the way Adichie writes her novels. She has very descriptive narrative which she tries to really engage the reader to be involved in the story... to care, to love, to hate, to despise, to loathe, to evoke some sort of emotion while reading about the story and/or characters she has developed. She does spend a lot of time developing characters and scenes, which could be cumbersome in some areas, but I've overlooked that because I like her style of writing. Where do you start with this book?! I love the way Adichie writes her novels. She has very descriptive narrative which she tries to really engage the reader to be involved in the story... to care, to love, to hate, to despise, to loathe, to evoke some sort of emotion while reading about the story and/or characters she has developed. She does spend a lot of time developing characters and scenes, which could be cumbersome in some areas, but I've overlooked that because I like her style of writing.

This story is about the Nigerian-Biafran war that occurred in the late 60's-early 70's. The book is split up into before, during, and after the war. What I didn't really understand was why she split the early 60's and late 60's in two to go back to a part of the story that was missing... it seemed disjointed there for a brief moment, then the reader gets back on track... maybe it was to make the story unpredictable or reveal a surprise she couldn't introduce any other way, but to me it didn't really make sense for awhile.

I also didn't understand what was going on with the books that seemed to be written during this time. At first it looked like titles that Richard was trying to write during the war to express what was going on at the time, but then by the end of the book it becomes Ugwa's story to tell... It left me wondering and curious to go back and re-read sections to understand those small but seemingly insignificant aspects of the book.

Adichie was brillant in her character development of all that was involved in the story... although I didn't quite understand some of their purposes, yet they still fit in the story somehow. Part of her character development always leaves you wondering more about some of the characters because it feels like she purposely leaves out things just so that you can wonder on your own about why there are in the story.

I now want to go look up the historical facts on the Nigerian-Biafran war just to get the real details of what happened. I was very intrigued about this book as I continued to read through.

Olanna - favorite and beautiful daughter (fraternal twin) of wealthy Igbo parents.
Odenigbo - her revolutionary lover who became all sorts of things during the war (he had many issues that provided a view on how war can disenigrate a person down to nothing due to destruction and loss).
Baby - the illegitimate daughter who never grows into her own name
Ugwu - the teenage houseboy who becomes a man through being conscripted into a war he never wanted to belong to
Kainene - the ugly fraternal twin sister of Olanna who has all power and authority that people admire and look up to
Richard - the awkward white man who is in love with Kainene and wants to marry her but because of his skin color and where he comes from, he's never given the opportunity to be who he wants to be in "Igboland."
Madu - the powerful commander who is connected to Kainene in such a way that Richard can't stand it.

I could go on and on, but I really enjoyed this book. The ending was devastating... it leaves you on a cliff hanger and that's torturous... but I guess that's the intent as there are some who come back from war intact and others who never do, and no one knows what happens to them...

I would recommend this to anyone interested in historical fiction; especially African historical fiction. Well done! ...more

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