Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Feb 08, 2019 Linda Martin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019, classics, historical-fiction, geo-africa, fiction, geo-nigeria

Chinua Achebe set us directly in the center of a primitive African village and introduced us to Okonkwo, his lazy father, his three wives and some of his children, and his friends and fellow villagers. We of course have no idea what we're getting into. We've never been to such a village and need to be slowly introduced to their customs and way of life including strange beliefs that go directly against everything we know to be true and good.

I knew, going in, that this book would eventually tell Chinua Achebe set us directly in the center of a primitive African village and introduced us to Okonkwo, his lazy father, his three wives and some of his children, and his friends and fellow villagers. We of course have no idea what we're getting into. We've never been to such a village and need to be slowly introduced to their customs and way of life including strange beliefs that go directly against everything we know to be true and good.

I knew, going in, that this book would eventually tell of the settlement of that area by Christian missionaries, but I didn't realize how the two cultures would interact and what the effects on the African village culture would be. I wondered if it would be one of those books that paints Christians as evil invaders and now that I've read it, I'd like to know more about Chinua Achebe and what his philosophies and religious beliefs were. He certainly didn't whitewash the problems within the primitive culture that Christianity sought to mitigate, and he stayed neutral on the benefits of Christianity leaving it to the reader to evaluate the two cultures and decide what might have been a better course of action.

Change is hard, and sometimes bitter. Those who resent and cannot accept the change with an open heart are sometimes broken by it, and that is the lesson this book clearly shows. This book will break your heart in so many ways, and open your eyes to the reality of the work of missionaries in situations of extreme societal change.

I can't end this review without commenting on a few negative reviews I read. I don't know why it is that some people diss a book based on their expectations, as if every book written should follow one cookie-cutter format. This is a remarkable book by a remarkable author. Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian man who studied English Literature at a Nigerian college. He then wrote his novels in English. This was his first novel. So who says a man's first novel should meet the standards of someone's inflexible ideas on what a novel should be like? This novel isn't like anyone else's novel. It was Chinua Achebe's first novel and he wrote it the way he wanted it. He introduced us to a vanishing culture we'd never before experienced, and did so in a fair and balanced way. I love that he did that. The book deserves it's place among the classics. ...more

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Jul 02, 2020 Missyjohnson1 rated it liked it

This is certainly a good book for a discussion group. So many topics to address. Imperialism, Patriarchy, Missionaries, respect of other cultures, customs, ignorance, knowledge, and lots of others.

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