From the Bookshelf of Reader with a Cause…

Purple Hibiscus

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Start date: September 1, 2014

Finish date: October 31, 2014

Discussion: Purple Hibiscus

Why we're reading this: A section from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED talk "We Should All Be Feminists" was sampled on "***Flawle…more
[close] A section from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED talk "We Should All Be Feminists" was sampled on "***Flawless," a track from Beyonce's latest album. We're curious to see what her writing is like.

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Purple Hibiscus

Environmental Changes
By NNEDV · 1 post · 17 views

last updated May 26, 2015 06:20PM

Public/Private Dichotomy in Purple Hibiscus
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last updated May 26, 2015 06:18PM

What Members Thought

Feb 18, 2012 Ebony rated it really liked it

Shelves: diaspora-fiction, fiction

I was biased towards Adichie as an excellent writer because that’s what people said. It wasn’t the book I originally was going to read by her but it was her first so naturally, I thought I would start at the beginning. I felt so oppressed reading the book but then I realized that was her genius. She never said the word oppression. For the first two-thirds of the book, she never described pain, but all the details made me feel like something was terribly wrong not just at home but also in the cou I was biased towards Adichie as an excellent writer because that’s what people said. It wasn’t the book I originally was going to read by her but it was her first so naturally, I thought I would start at the beginning. I felt so oppressed reading the book but then I realized that was her genius. She never said the word oppression. For the first two-thirds of the book, she never described pain, but all the details made me feel like something was terribly wrong not just at home but also in the country. The oppressive regime. The oppressive father. The oppressive religion. The oppressive heat. It sounds like a depressing story, but it’s not. A teenager finds her voice. She learns to laugh. She learns to run and play in a place where purple hibiscus grows. The balance is so joyous despite all of the terrible events that aren’t articulated but are still felt by the reader as if one were reading every word. I dug this book even though I didn’t understand most of what was going on. I’ve never been to Nigeria. I couldn’t pronounce any of the Igbo. I know little to nothing of the country’s history, language, and culture and I loved that she didn’t introduce me. It wasn’t a welcome to my world story; it was a slice of life that left it up to me to fit into her character’s lives. I enjoyed doing the work.

There are no literary flaws. The plot turns on a sentence. Tight. Concise. Complex characters. I loved the auntie because I wanted to be like her. I was curious about Jaja. I hated the Mom, but I sympathized with her. I hated the father more, but he was speaking truth for the country against the leadership and he fed so many people and he loved his family the best way he knew how, kind of. He was breaking them because he was broken. I understood why Kambili wanted to make him proud. He was cruel like the white men who had trained him were cruel. So much powerful stuff though such parsimonious words. So much feels so inaccessible for the main characters and for me and yet their narrative is so beautiful because of its simplicity. Not the thin volume kind of simplicity, but the carefully crafted simplicity that great writing is made of.
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Mar 19, 2014 Emily rated it liked it

Shelves: book-club, wost

This was a book club pick for Reader with a Cause.

It was a powerful book, but very hard to read in some spots. It dealt with and depicted domestic and family violence in a very realistic light - including the number of times that victims return to abusive partners and the confusion that families feel about disclosing the abuse - especially when the abuser is a high-standing community member.

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