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Summary: One of the Best Books Ever Written - Great African Novel!
Review: I was required to read this book in a college literature class and actually dreaded reading it because I really had no interest in Africa. After reading this book by the amazingly talented Chinua Achebe, I became more interested in Africa than I would have ever thought possible! Achebe has masterful skill in portraying African culture to the readers. He colors Africa in a magnificent yet somewhat tragic shade.I wrote an essay in college based on the Nigerian folktales in this book and received a 100% from my professor. This book has the power to touch lives and I recommend it to absolutely everybody on the planet. I have given my copy to my brother in hopes of educating one more person in this world on African culture. If you think this book is just for African Americans you're wrong... I am caucasian and this book has become my absolute favorite ever! Please buy this book and when you've read it pass it along to someone else. This book really enlightens people and makes the world more aware of the great and slightly overlooked continent of Africa - and in particular, Nigeria. I will travel to Africa someday solely because of this book!
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Summary: Read This Book
Review: The first two-thirds of "Things Fall Apart" is an affectionate description of the culture of an Ibo clan told from an insider's viewpoint, focusing on the life of Okonkwo, one of his tribe's most respected leaders. The customs and religion of the Ibo village are described with sympathy and simplicity, creating a sense of nostalgia for a way of life completely exotic to Western sensibilities, but making the reader feel the force and logic of a traditional culture seen from within. This idyllic description is clouded by the reader's awareness of the culture's fragility, a foreboding sense of pity and of looming disaster. Disaster comes, of course, in the shape of white missionaries. In the last part of the story, evangelizing Christians and English colonial administrators establish themselves in the Ibo village, and act to corrode and unravel the traditional life of the Ibo people. An escalating series of misunderstandings and conflicts between the whites and natives lead to the inevitable tragic ending. In the last paragraph of the novel, the perspective shifts suddenly to that of the English colonial adminstrator, and ends with one of the most powerful and affecting last lines of any novel I've read. This book was thoroughly enjoyable, and I recommend it unreservedly.
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Summary: A masterpiece
Review: Chinua Achebe delivered the goods with this one. This ought to be read by everyone. Highly recommended
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Summary: Clashing of Cultures: An Individual's Rise and Fall
Review: While this novel is not a "page turner", the latter part of the book and the significance of the ending are both testaments to the cherished beliefs of cultures. Okonkwo, the book's main protagonist, is determined to stray from the lifestyle and eventual degradation that his fathered suffered in life due to laziness and debt. He is an African tribe man who is hard-hearted and stern towards his family because he wants to become something great in life (although some may view him as a chavanist). The tribe's rituals are followed with grave tradition, and Okonkwo seeks for ways to better his personal status (although not a literal translation, one's fate is referred to as "chi", meaning "personal God.") The story is divided into 3 major sections. The first section deals with mainly Okonkwo's family and tribal background; we get a first hand look at their beliefs in marriage and status of tribal leaders. The 2nd part shifts into Okonkwo's removal from his village, and his eventual progression back into his society. Finally, the most compelling part of the tale, the third section highlights Okonkwo's orientation back into his village as well as his and other tribes' encounters with the new community which has brought Christianity into the region; subsequently, there is a clash of power between African religion and culture and the Christian believers. Several points may make this book less than appealing.
One of the more exasperating aspects of reading this type of novel is getting acclimated to the Ibo vocabulary and expressions (although in this version, there is a glossary included in the back index). There are relatively trite topics included, such as a chapter on the process of harvesting yams, but my belief is that these chapters are mainly to get the reader accustomed to the values and background of African tribal life. It is necessary to read this book with a certain degree of respect for different cultures and the rituals they share. Although it moved a little too slow at the beginning, the eventual story of Okonkwo's rise and fall becomes more intriguing as the reader moves on. Not only is Achebe's novel a commentary on the ills of clashing religions and cultures, but the reverence placed on position and status in individual tribal communities. This is an excellent read for those who want to get a sense of tribal life or religion in African cultures. For those who just want a leisurely read, it may take some patience getting into this novel.
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Summary: A World Classic
Review: In this compact novel, Chinua Achebe has packed a story on the level of Greek tragedy, of the tipping point in African tribal life when the white man comes, from the perspective of Okonkwo, a man for whom tribal life has worked seamlessly. Achebe devotes the extended first part of the book to episodic accounts of village life, portraying a very complex agrarian culture with remarkably integrated economic, social, religious and political systems. Okonkwo is the ambitious son of an unambitious man. He overcame his inauspicious birthright and lives prosperously with three wives and several children. Their daily life is rendered vividly in Achebe's rhythmic, economic style. Misfortune befalls Okonkwo in a moment's accident at the end of part one, but tribal custom has a way of taking care of him, sending him and his family in exile to his mother's village for seven years. He spends the years anxiously awaiting the time to return to the life he enjoyed, ignoring the harbingers of change that arrive in the person of the first missionary. When he at last returns to the life he left behind, it is no what he had remembered, understood and cherished. For this contemporary reader, THINGS FALL APART served as a fine contemplation of character and conflict, of an international historical phenomenon from the individual's experience, of the problems of change and chance. It also offered a fresh reading of Yeat's poem, "The Second Coming," from which the title is taken. I regret this was not assigned in my education; I hope educators are encouraging high school and college students to read it today. It's the type of book that makes you love literature and reading.
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Summary: Things Did Fall Apart
Review: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe was a wonderfully as well as enlightening novel. It was well composed and deeply compelling. The story of the Igbo Village and the main character Okonkow and his family presents a sweet yet chilling interpretation of the European Colonization of Africa. The in depth details within the novel of the Igbo beliefs and rituals draws the reader into a world that he or she has never experienced. The story of the life of this particular ethnic group is presented in the context of the idea of things falling apart. The title is an omen within the story the keeps the reader reading and helps create a deep sense of loss at the end of the story. This is a marvelously written novel that evokes joy, tears, and deep contemplation on the apart of the reader. It may just be the best book I have ever read and I would venture to call myself well-read.
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Summary: Heinemann edition doesn't add much to the novel
Review: While the story of Okonkwo is a powerful one, and reading "Things Fall Apart" certainly enlarged my perspective, Achebe's writing style is poor indeed. He must have assumed an audience of dumb white people who needed to have things explained to them to such an extent that they needed to be hit over the head with it. Achebe writes in the opening lines of the novel that "proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten." It's too bad he didn't write more in this manner for the extent of the novel. As a result, we are subjected to such wasted sentences as, "Unoka was a failure" and "Okonkwo was choked with hate." Obviously, Achebe never learned the adage, "Show, don't tell." The only reason he can get away with this style of writing, I imagine, is that there is such a dearth of African literature to begin with. He pales miserably in comparison with the writer whom he loathes, Joseph Conrad. This Heinemann edition adds little to the text. The so-called glossary explains to you that a harmattan is "a cold, dry wind that blows from the North," even though the text reads that a "cold and dry harmattan wind was blowing down from the north." Gee, that's a helpful gloss, not to mention the poor editing that capitalizes the N in the glossary but not in the text. Much more valuable than useless definitions such as these would have been a guide to pronunciation and the meanings of the names, such as those provided in Austin Shelton's Modern Language Quarterly essay, "The 'Palm-Oil' of Language: Proverbs in Chinua Achebe's Novels." The Suggestions for Further Reading includes only one reference to criticism, C. L. Innes' and Bernth Lindors' "Critical Perspectives on Chinua Achebe." It doesn't even make reference to Achebe's famous essay on "Heart of Darkness" or the criticism in response to it. Overall, this is a book you rather have to read as a literate person, but the potential remains strong for much more rigorous writing in this field. In addition, this particular Heinemann edition adds little to the novel itself.
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Summary: CAPTIVATING NOVEL ABOUT A MAN'S STRUGGLES AMID COLONIALISM
Review: In Things Fall Apart, Achebe writes a masterpiece that depicts pre-Colonial Africa not as a romanticized place, but rather as a strongly traditional land with certain violent customs. He then proceeds to introduce the beginning of colonialism, which disrupts the fine balance that had been achieved previously. Such story is told through the life of Okonkwo. Okonkwo is depicted as a violent man with a strong temper. However, the readers can help sympathizing with him as we follow his life's story and his deep fear of failure, which he gained from seeing his father fail his entire life. Okonkwo became a strong leader in his tribe Umuofia (in Ibo, Nigeria). His fear of failure and weakness extend to his son, who he considers similar to his father. He begins his undoing when, afraid to seem weak, he is forced to slaughter a boy that lived in his house, Ikemefuna. He then proceeds, through bad luck, to be banned from the tribe. As he is returning 7 years later and looking forward to his old life, colonial life appears. The changes that occur between old and new, especially those related to religion, lead to his downfall. Through his downfall, Achebe represents the downfall of an entire society. It is a deeply moving work, one that will leave you wanting to read more of Achebe's books. I recommend following the series with No Longer at Ease next, it is very interesting as well.
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Summary: things fall apart
Review: Things fall apart is book I recomman for people who would like to travel to Nigeria and learn the culture of the Nigerian people .It potrays the culture and practices of the people of Nigeria during the colonial rule.It also teaches that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.It talks about Okonkwo who was great and wealthy man in his village.As a result of this Okonkwo thought the whole world was his.After returning from exil to his village after five years at his mothers village,Okonkwo comes to find out that the "white man" had come to occupy his village with his rules and western culture.Out of his pride okonkwo with his wealth vowed to fight the white man to the end.Unfortunatelty the white man was more powerful than okonkwo.Finally okonkwo had to commit suicide by hanging himself to avoid tne embarrassment he was to go through in the hands of the white man after taking the law into his own hand y killing one of the white man's messengers.
Rating:
Summary: things fall apart
Review: Things fall apart is book I recommand for people who will like to travel to Africa and learn the culture of the African people to read.It potrayS the culture and practices of the people of Nigeria in West Africa before the colonial rule.It also teaches that people who live in glad stones shouldn't throw.It talks about Okonkwo who was great and wealthy man in his village.As a result of this Okonkwo thought the whole world was his.After returning from exil to his village after five years at his mothers village,Okonkwo comes to find out that the "white man" had come to occupy his village with their rules.Out of his pride okonkwo wealth he vowed to fight the white man to the end.Unfortunatelty the white man was more powerful than okonkwo.Finally okonkwo had to commit suicide by hanging himself to avoid tne embarrassment he was to go through in the hands of the white man after taking the law into his own hand and by killing one of the white man's messengers.
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