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A review by karenluvstoread
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
4.5
There is so much that could be said about this book; but I will just mention a few in this review.
Things Fall Apart is very deep and layered; and there's quite a bit of things that could be discussed with this story. It is a very powerful read!
One of the things I appreciated about this book was how it gives the power of representation. Achebe said:
"The popularity of Things Fall Apart in my own society can be explained simply ... this was the first time we were seeing ourselves, as autonomous individuals, rather than half-people, or as Conrad would say, 'rudimentary souls'."
And the Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka described the novel as "the first novel in English which spoke from the interior of the African character, rather than portraying the African as an exotic, as the white man would see him."
In addition, the way Achebe structured this novel is so effective. The first part of the book is meant to immerse the reader in the village life of the tribe - its customs, government, community, etc. This part shows the holistic life of the village. That then gets contrasted against the Western culture that comes up later on in the book.
As far as the writing itself, sometimes it did feel a bit stilted or stiff so to speak. But this doesn't detract from the story as a whole. In fact, while there may be parts that feel a bit stilted, it also has a poetic aspect to it as well. In addition, some of the native language is included which allows readers to encounter the culture even more.
Here's an example of what I felt was more of the poetic writing:
"Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.” (p. 7)
Overall, this is a very powerful and moving story and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the books in this series.
Things Fall Apart is very deep and layered; and there's quite a bit of things that could be discussed with this story. It is a very powerful read!
One of the things I appreciated about this book was how it gives the power of representation. Achebe said:
"The popularity of Things Fall Apart in my own society can be explained simply ... this was the first time we were seeing ourselves, as autonomous individuals, rather than half-people, or as Conrad would say, 'rudimentary souls'."
And the Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka described the novel as "the first novel in English which spoke from the interior of the African character, rather than portraying the African as an exotic, as the white man would see him."
In addition, the way Achebe structured this novel is so effective. The first part of the book is meant to immerse the reader in the village life of the tribe - its customs, government, community, etc. This part shows the holistic life of the village. That then gets contrasted against the Western culture that comes up later on in the book.
As far as the writing itself, sometimes it did feel a bit stilted or stiff so to speak. But this doesn't detract from the story as a whole. In fact, while there may be parts that feel a bit stilted, it also has a poetic aspect to it as well. In addition, some of the native language is included which allows readers to encounter the culture even more.
Here's an example of what I felt was more of the poetic writing:
"Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.” (p. 7)
Overall, this is a very powerful and moving story and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the books in this series.