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Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1)

Chinua Achebe

Start date: May 1, 2023

Discussion: AFRICA

Discussion leader: Traveller

Why we're reading this: We're starting a new "Africa" venture, and this book is a good place to start, since it outlines a lot of…more
[close] We're starting a new "Africa" venture, and this book is a good place to start, since it outlines a lot of African culture and traditions. We'll be discussion it in the "Nigeria" topic in the "AFRICA" folder.

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Showing 2 of 3 topics — 20 comments total

AFRICA

General discussion: Africa
By Traveller · 11 posts · 9 views

last updated Apr 26, 2023 01:53PM

Nigeria
By Traveller · 4 posts · 6 views

last updated Apr 26, 2023 05:42AM

What Members Thought

Sep 20, 2016 Michael Finocchiaro rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, african-lit, fiction, nigerian-20th-c

Achebe's classic is a quick and interesting read albeit with a depressingly realistic end. My curiosity will most likely lead me to more of his work and I enjoyed the narrative style. The ambiguities of cultural clash with an obvious misbalance of power and the two different kinda of brutality in the conflict were thought-provoking and painful to read because they were surely even worse in real life. ...more

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Jun 10, 2019 Gretel rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: africa, african-history, colonialism, classics, imperialism, nigeria, african-literature

I find this book hard to rate.

Achebe wrote a classic. I like his style and there's something captivating and easy flowing in the way he writes. He makes me familiar with a culture I was completely ignorant about and I started feeling like I was part of Umuofia.
It takes more than 2/3 until "the plot" arrives. I can understand why for some people "nothing" happens and it becomes a waiting game and there were drawn out moments, some less interesting than others. But Achebe still managed to draw me I find this book hard to rate.

Achebe wrote a classic. I like his style and there's something captivating and easy flowing in the way he writes. He makes me familiar with a culture I was completely ignorant about and I started feeling like I was part of Umuofia.
It takes more than 2/3 until "the plot" arrives. I can understand why for some people "nothing" happens and it becomes a waiting game and there were drawn out moments, some less interesting than others. But Achebe still managed to draw me back in quickly and I think that the delay was effective. We dive into this rich world and when we feel like we live among the Igbo, White people come and fuck everything up.

However, what became difficult to stomach was Okonkwo's misogyny and abuse. Patriarchal structures are not unique to Europe and there were things in Igbo culture that equaly annoy my in my own society.
Okonkwo was particularly nasty, though. He would beat his wives to a pulp, almost shot his second wife, and abused his eldest son for being "too effeminate", thinking that cruelty and brutality would make him "a real man".
It was certainly an intentional choice by Achebe (at least I hope so) to depict how abusive systems are present in any culture and how religion is a collection of superstitions and that Christianity is not superior to Igbo religion but in fact quite similar, as religions tend to be.
Yet, there were moments I had to put the book away and take a few deep breaths. Okonkwo is an interesting character and I feel his pain at the end of the book but he was an absolute asshole and was abusive.

Nonetheless, the last two parts are painful to read. It's an insidious chipping away of identity, bonds and culture. The few little good things brought by White people (stopping the killings of newborn twins as they're seen as evil omens) do definitely not excuse everything else.
There's no excuse for colonialism and exploitation.

The novel delivers a narrative that contradicts Eurocentric interpretations of Africa, African culture and African history where Europeans and Whiteness are centered and seen as the deliverers of culture to "primitive" societies.

I'm unsure if I'll read the rest of the series. Maybe in the distant future. ...more

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Dec 04, 2022 Greg Hickey rated it really liked it

I found the first section of this book a little slow. It reads more like a collection of linked short stories rather than a cohesive novel. But these early events provide important insights into the beliefs, customs and morals of the Ibo people. By the time the Christian missionaries arrive, Achebe’s purpose is clear: why should the Ibo trade in their long-standing practices for a religion and laws which have no greater claim to authority? In the end, Things Fall Apart successfully illustrates a ...more

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