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

Apr 23, 2010 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2012-around-the-world, literary-fiction, novels, fiction, popular-fiction, classics, ebooks, before-i-die

I found this a smooth, good read. Absorbing, well-paced, engrossing and not at all long--novella length. Sad to say, I don't as a rule expect good reads in those books upheld as modern classics, but this pulled me in. Someone who saw me reading it told me they found the style "Romper Room" and some reviews seem to echo that. I didn't feel that way. I'd call the style "spare"--which befits a writer who when asked which writers he admired and who influenced him named Hemingway along with Conrad an I found this a smooth, good read. Absorbing, well-paced, engrossing and not at all long--novella length. Sad to say, I don't as a rule expect good reads in those books upheld as modern classics, but this pulled me in. Someone who saw me reading it told me they found the style "Romper Room" and some reviews seem to echo that. I didn't feel that way. I'd call the style "spare"--which befits a writer who when asked which writers he admired and who influenced him named Hemingway along with Conrad and Graham Greene. And I loved how Achebe wove in folk tales and sayings and Ibo customs into the narrative. Things Fall Apart is considered a classic in African literature, and according to the introduction, Achebe wrote it to rehabilitate and counter what he called "the tarnished image of Africa," to give human dimension to the colonized.

The first part gives us a nuanced and detailed picture of life in a pre-colonial Ibo village during the late Victorian era. To Achebe's credit, he doesn't present that life as idyllic and his central character, Okonkwu, who embodies the tribal values, is deeply flawed. Okonkwu equates manliness with violence, and has used violence on his own family. In an interview after the text, Achebe said his "sympathies were not entirely with Okonkwu." Achebe presents the ills that the colonists brought to the traditional village society--the division between families, the imposition of foreign rule, the corruption and brutality endemic in the system which even destroys an entire village in reprisal for the death of one white missionary.

But Achebe also depicts what attracted people to the Christian missionaries beyond the schools and the hospitals, the trade. Among the first and most fervent converts are Oknokwu's own son Nwoye, bitter that his father killed his childhood friend who had tried to flee his fate as a human sacrifice, a pregnant woman who had lost several children because of the practice of twin infanticide, and two people from a taboo caste who find their first respect and equal treatment among the Christians. Frankly--and I know this is as un-PC as un-PC can be--but given Achebe's depiction of the brutal, superstitious, misogynist tribal culture, I was finding it very hard to see its destruction as tragic. Although, given all the different iterations I've seen and read of the "Dances With Wolves" motif, I did appreciate Achebe's willingness to show the unattractive side of a traditional culture.

At the same time Oknokwu's friend Obierika says "the white man... has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart." And just as Oknokwu upheld that old center, when it falls apart he does too. And whatever ambivalence I might have felt for his fate and the values he stood for, few contemporary readers can read that last paragraph from the point of view of the white colonizing District Commissioner without disquiet or miss Achebe's sharp and bitter irony. ...more

48 likes · Like · see review

Sep 12, 2012 Addy rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2012, fiction, west-africa, great-african-reads-book-club, nigeria, africa, library-loan, contemporary, novel

At first, I didn't like it, it's very slow moving until the middle of the book. Then it starts getting faster. I'm glad I kept reading until I got to the middle of the book. There are foreign words, make sure to get an edition that has a glossary at the back. That really helped. I didn't care for the misogyny, but for some reason, I liked the abrupt ending. Mainly because I didn't like Okonkwo. My first piece of African literature and I'm glad it was this one. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Apr 22, 2010 Steve Kettmann rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-i-read-a-long-time-ago

I read this one more than 25 years ago, so won't comment in detail, but I loved the engaging and direct tone and felt at the same time that the book had a greater heft than its (as I recall) relatively compact size might have led one to believe. I remember how much reading the book made me want to visit Nigeria and talk to people there. Maybe it's time to give this one a reread - and finally to get to Nigeria. ...more

1 like · Like · see review