Reviews

An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma

emleemay's review against another edition

5.0

Agbatta-Alumalu, the fathers of old say that without light, a person cannot sprout shadows. My host fell in love with this woman. She came as a strange, sudden light that caused shadows to spring from everything else.

Wow. How do I even begin to review this book? All words seem inadequate. It is exceptional. It is beautiful. And it is unlike anything I've ever read before.

It's challenging, too. I don't want to sell it to readers who won't like it. It's a clever and dense literary work, heavily influenced by Nigerian cosmology. It takes some time to settle into the unusual narration - the story is narrated by Chinonso's chi (a kind of guardian spirit) - but once I did, I could not put it down.

She poked her hand into the dark and secret places of his life and touched everything in it. And in time, she became the thing his soul had been yearning after for years with tears in its eyes.

The strength of this novel, I feel, is that it is fundamentally an old and universal tale. A tale of a poor man who falls for a woman above his station and will do anything within his power to please her family and earn the right to be with her. These familiar concepts are given a distinctly Nigerian spin, making it stand out from the stories that have come before it.

As I said, it can be a tough read. The characters often switch between Nigerian Pidgin, untranslated Igbo, and the "language of the White man", but it is impressive how easily I understood everything without knowing a word of Igbo. I guess a huge part of it is the way that the author - through the chi - constructs each scene.

But it's tough for another reason, too. The chi's wisdom and wit add warmth to the story, but there is no disguising the fact that this is a dark book, full of tragedy and misfortune, including one instance of on-page rape. There is one particularly tragic event - you will know the one I mean - and it is made all the more disturbing because it is so obvious. The reader sees it coming long before Nonso does, and the way Obioma leads us up to the inevitable made me deeply anxious and upset. It is painful to witness.

Guardian spirits of mankind, have we thought about the powers that passion creates in a human being?

We are told in the beginning that Nonso's chi has come to plead for his host before the supreme Igbo god, Chukwu. We know instantly that this kind, laid-back farmer's life is about to unravel. And yet this, somehow, makes it all the more tense when we are led on the journey to find out what happened to him.

Gorgeous descriptions, Nigerian mythology, a love story that rips your heart out, and a complex and fascinating protagonist who we want so very very much to succeed-- all these things await the reader who picks up this book. If any book deserves to become a "classic", then [b: An Orchestra of Minorities|35003282|An Orchestra of Minorities|Chigozie Obioma|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1517039126s/35003282.jpg|56281537] certainly does.

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jslive's review against another edition

4.0

"An orchestra of minorities" by Chigozie Obioma is "epic" in more ways than one: long, wide-ranging and somewhat difficult to read because of the strange narrative structure. The story is crushing and the characters exasperating, but I'm glad I read it.

honeycomblibrary's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

happilyevelynafter's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

amrazik11's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

torihoo's review against another edition

2.0

A good story with moments of beautiful prose, but it felt about twice as long as it needed to be.

janetthetrigger's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

cc_loves_books's review against another edition

4.0

I thought this was a beautiful and compelling book, and was not bothered by the style of narration as some other reviewers seemed to be. It felt to me like a Greek tragedy, with the chi acting as the chorus.

I give the author the benefit of the doubt that he is calling attention to the toxic masculinity that brings downfall to his characters, rather than excusing it. I agree, however, that the female characters in this book deserved more attention and development, Ndali and the German nurse in particular.

I want to give this book five stars because of its beauty, it’s lush scenes, and imagery. It’s treatment of female characters earn it only three stars, however, leading me to settle at four.

scottxbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

blairmahoney's review

4.0

The second novel in a row that Obioma has made the shortlist for the Booker Prize for. He missed out again on the main prize this year, but I think this is an interesting novel with a unique perspective, narrated as it is by the 'chi' or guardian spirit of a young Nigerian man who falls in love with a woman seemingly out of his social class. The novel is billed as being some kind of a modern rewriting of The Odyssey but it's really not. The relationship is tangential at best. The main character strikes more more as a Job figure, subjected to endless misfortune and suffering which he mostly submits to meekly until he returns to Nigeria a broken man from his experiences.