Rating: 
Summary: not too bad, but not good
Review: This book was one of the most average books I've read. The tribal life was very interesting, and the themes were significant, but I felt like it was too anticlimactic. I was still wondering about Ezinma and Chielo, and why she was taken for the night. Was it just to cure her, or is she going to talk to the gods? I hated the ending, but I agree that that is what should have happened. I only had an interest in Okonkwo part of the time. I did like how he was given flaws, though. I think it could have been a much better novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Compelling and dramatic
Review: I found this tale about the Ibo people in Nigeria, just before and during the arrival of white Christian missionaries and English colonialism, a compelling and dramatic read. Achebe does a superb job of appearing to remain outside the story while infusing it with deep sense of tradition and weaving a rich cultural tapestry. The characters created by Achebe to populate the villages of the Ibo people are so thoroughly well done that it seems he is relating an historical, rather than allegorical, tale. The story is seen through the eyes of Okonkwo, a proud and powerful figure in his village. His life unfolds as a parallel to the life of the Ibo people as a whole. A magnificent novel, beautifully yet simply written. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The Center Cannot Hold
Review: Achebes novel of life in an Igbo village is very enjoyable and interesting as it depicts characters with human qualites and flaws that are very recognizable. Especially memorable are scenes of a witch(who lives outside the tribe but is seen to be an integral part of it), the yam festival, and the way the tribe deals with imbalance within. The organic structure of the tribe is especially appealing and apparent as its self-regulating laws and beliefs are a built-in way of maintaining continuity with the past and maintaining a balanced way of life . What the tribe cannot portend is the arrival of the colonist.
Achebe said he wrote this, his first, book because he did not recognize his country in the way that white authors like Conrad and Joyce Cary depicted it. In fact in addition to being a novelist Achebe has achieved much notoriety as an essayist and spokesman for postcolonial peoples. One particular essay is often cited as a seminal text in the field,"An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness".
Also by Achebe: Man of the People, Arrow of God(these two, both written in the sixties, complete the trilogy begun with Things Fall Apart,1958). And the excellent, Anthills of the Savannah(1988)about a modern African leader who slowly becomes a despot and his group of friends which include a reporter.
Rating: 
Summary: Cultures and conflicts
Review: THINGS FALL APART begins fable-like, telling us a story of Okonko, who is almost a Homeric hero. Honor and masculinity are integral to his character, and what he perceives in his father as laziness and femininity no doubt plays a role in his concern for these qualities. Two major events cause a major change in his life. As a result of an accident, he is cast out of his village for seven years. The other event is the coming of Europeans and their spreading of Christianity.There is little idealized in the town of Umuofia, where Okonko lives. The lives of the portrayed characters is not shown to be either easy or humane. And the missionaries in this book don't bring pure evil. The converts are converted of their own accord, and due to a trading store, "much money flowed into Umuofia." This book is fortunately free of moralizing. Things fall apart, but new ways are formed, and these ways may be better or worse than the old ways. Still, Achebe's novel is not blind to the destruction that the missionaries bring, and the brutality of their increasing power, which is moving towards domination. Achebe shows skillfully the dilemmas and problems of two cultures clashing that misunderstand each other. I just watched Nicolas Roeg's film "Walkabout" a few days ago, and though they are quite different stories, they have many parallels, such as the curious ending scene. More importantly, the theme of the mystery of culture, and destruction and self-destruction remain the same. In an age where globalization seems to be the key economic topic, it is crucial that we understand the variety of life on earth, the histories we are involved in, and the need for communication and understanding.
Rating:
Summary: Damn Good!
Review: Just read it! Its a very surprising and interesting book. It points you in a different veiw. its Danm Good.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Achebe beautifully captures the life of the Ibo people in this novel. It deals amazingly well with English imperialism in Nigeria. It correctly describes the types of events and situtations that both the settlers, missionaries, and the native Ibo went through.
Rating:
Summary: Things Fall Apart
Review: Chinua Achebe's 1959 novel, "Things Fall Apart" is an extraordinarily well written and moving work. It explores the traditions and cultural practices of the Ibo people of Nigeria in Western Africa at a moment of dramatic, astounding, horrific transition. Achebe provides us with a narrative seen through the perspective of Okonkwo, a man of quality and power in his village. At the same time, Achebe's deep knowledge of European and American literature and the effects of European cultures on the native culture of Nigeria courses through the novel. "Things Fall Apart" begins with the recounting of Okonkwo's history - his rise from a family with a poor, indolent father to being a wealthy and successful farmer, warrior, and leader. When a neighbouring village offends his own, Okonkwo represents his villages interests in a conference, in which retribution returns with Okonkwo in the form of Ikemefuna, who is sentenced to death, but forms a vital link in Okonkwo's strictly run household between himself and his own son, Nwoye. The action of the novel follows the ramifications of the culturally-demanded execution of Ikemefuna on Okonkwo and his family. Achebe's novel shows an astute sense of awareness of the various political structures of Ibo society. Particularly, gender relations are brought into high relief throughout the novel - the councils led by men; their rank and status signalled in part by the number of wives a man has; and by Okonkwo's insistent, but shielded love for his daughter Ezinma, whom he continually wishes was a man. Relationships between families are complicated with the coming of European colonists whose Christianity and industry endanger the Ibo way of life. With tightly controlled narrative and emotionally understated elegance, Achebe's novel presents a proud individual, Okonkwo, representing the final undisturbed generation of a long-lived people. His internal and external struggles are compelling and for the receptive reader, potentially devastating. A brilliant novel.
Rating:
Summary: Things may fall apart, but somehow this center holds
Review: Chinua Achebe is a masterful story teller.
In the Nigerian tradition, Achebe crafts a tale of Okonkwo, a strong man who cannot change. More than that, the reader is brought within the realm of pre-contact African society, specifically Umuofia.
Achebe drops his reader into the midst of this society often without explaination or apology, immersing him in a true 'sink or swim' environment.
Although this edition contains a glossary for the various Ibo words and phrases sprinkled throughout, flipping back and forth would disrupt the flow of the narrative and become rather annoying. Instead, I advise the reader to trust the author. Achebe is a talented man and you won't be left in the dark for long.
Achebe's diction and skillfull description make this a truly unique story and, understandably, a modern classic.
Rating:
Summary: Things Fall Apart
Review: This book is beautiful, both in the way it is written, as well as the story it tells. For anyone who has any doubts of the horrors that resulted from colonization, this book should clear up any misconceptions. Achebe tells the story with little or no bias whatsoever, and for the discerning reader who can distance him or herself enough from practices which seem almost barbaric in our new world, the overall meaning shines through!
Rating:
Summary: Things Fall Apart
Review: In Chinua Achebes novel Things Fall Apart, Achebe uses literary devices to tell the story a couple of devices she uses are tone, tense, themes, symbols and Foreshadowing, she uses them throughout the entire novel to explain here feelings. The climax of the novel was when the leader of the clan Okonkwo is murdered. The climax of the story was kind of sad because Okonkwo died. The narrator of the novel is anonymous but shows sympathy for some people. The narration is in the third person by an omniscient figure who is focused on Okonkwo but switch through many different characters. Chinua tone of the book was Ironic, she was sort of mocking the tone, almost fable like. She writes in the past tense. The falling action of the novel was when the villagers let the white governments messengers to escape and Okonkwo felt that is was a weakness the village. One of the themes of the novel was the fight between culture and change. Achebes uses some different symbols one was Fire, which represented Okonkwo's nature, a fierce, wild person just like a fire. She used foreshadowing in the book, it was when the locust arrive which symbolizes the arrival of the white men. Things Fall Apart is very good and I urge you to read this book.
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