Rating: 
Summary: Things Fall Apart
Review: Things Fall apart was a great book with some confusing names however. This didn't take away from anything. I liked the culture discussed. It seemed like I was a part of the tribe. The end is great. Don't give up on the book because you'll miss it.
Rating: 
Summary: Simplistic
Review: I thought this book was very simple. True, there's a lot of symbolism and deep thoughts between the lines, but I was not impressed. It was, however, a great African look at an African life, which is unique. It doesn't deserve to be called a classic, but the story is pure and a great experience to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Greek tragedy, African style
Review: This is another classic example of "what in the world are you thinking assigning this to high school kids?" It's a pretty durned fine book, and there is much therein upon which to reflect, but I'm guessing the adolescent and recently-postadolescent crowd is going to feel a book like this is being rammed down their throats. And they're probably right. Thankfully, I'm a year or so too old to have been assigned this in school, and I picked up a copy vaguely remembering classmates below me had had to read it. Perhaps my lack of memory about much of my high school and college days is a good thing, because I went into this novel without any preconceptions. I also went into it having read a few books from Heinemann's African Writers Series over the past few months, so I have something of a grasp on what African novelists were doing in the late fifties. (Not a bad idea, actually, since the "storytelling" nature of such tales can be jarring to someone who's used to modern American lit-- for example, your typical high school student.) All this being the case, Things Fall Apart, considered by many western critics to be the premier work of African literature of this century, may be quite deserving of its laurels. Okonkwo is a tribal elder in Umuofia, a large village in southern Nigeria. He's the very essence of a self-made man, having inherited nothing from his father. Of course, events can't just go on day to day as we want them to, and a series of stumbling blocks face Okonkwo after he is given the care of a teenager the village has taken as a spoil of war. The book is compared to classical Greek tragedy, and there are certainly elements of it here. However (remembering recent reading in Abel), to cast this as a true Greek tragedy would force a reading that says the tribal gods sent Christian missionaries to Umuofia in order to punish Okonkwo for various transgressions. I'm about halfway to accepting that this is what Achebe was after, actually. Otherwise, one is forced to read this in kind of the same way as the old joke whose punchine is "Job, something about you just sporks me off." One way or the other, the writing is fluid, easy, and captivating, and the storytelling style is one I've always been drawn to (as opposed to the missionaries-- one white person, at the very end of the book, thinks to himself that one of the most annoying things about the tribe is their "superfluity"). I liked this one, surely more than my schoolmates who were assigned it. Those of you who were, and hated it, might want to try cleansing your palates with something by, say, Cyprian Ekwensi, or a different, lesser-known book by Achebe (A Man of the People would be a good start). Then tackle this one again. It's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: While collecting works concerning the nature of man, I stumbled upon Chinua Acebe's THINGS FALL APART. This work, in one word, is a masterpiece. THINGS FALL APART incorporates several elements. First, the setting, rural Nigeria, reveals a sense of the traditional, dynamic cultures of this region. One would expect that these native peoples are simple in respect to government, economics, social customs, and savage in religion. However, Mr. Achebe presents the truth of these peoples. Their cultures are actually very complex and rival the operations of Western Civilizations. The author goes so far as to demonstrate Africa's superiority over the Western habits of missionaries and colonists. The story also operates upon another premise that every intellectual will appreciate. Many who claim to have resolved the question concerning the nature of man cite examples and then make their conclusions from these situations. However, Chinua Achebe indirectly resolves the debate over human nature by describing the behavior of the main character, Okonkwo, during moments of sadness, anger, vengence, loss, and joy. From this he leave the reader to make their own conclusion. Essentially, Mr. Achebe's tale can be manipulated such that the story itself is the proof to any astute conclusion about the nature of man that the reader ascertains. From the perspective of literary value, I can see why the College Board often uses this work in their AP English (Literature) tests. It is apparent that Mr. Achebe's style conveys every emotion with such energy that it is uncommon not to understand the character's feelings. The writing style makes the reader comfortable while emersing himself in a foreign situation--I doubt many people identify with a tale from Africa before they read this book. The book teaches a lesson: troubles to the Queen of England are the same in magnitude and emotion as to a native of Africa. I was merely disappointed with the multitude of characters whose names, being foreign and difficult to pronounce, were often easy to confuse and forget after each chapter. This, however, does not at all diminish the essence and message of the story. For this book to operate on so many levels compells me to rate THINGS FALL APART as a five-star masterpiece that is certainly an asset to literature and a window to our own human nature.
Rating:
Summary: I can't stop thinking about it
Review: Things Fall Apart is a powerful epic story that follows Okonkwo, a member of the Ibo culture at the turn of the last century. He is young, ambitious, hardworking, and tough. About the only softness we see in Okonkwo is reflected in the treatment of his favorite daughter. We watch Okonkwo make some unfortunate choices and run into a long string of bad luck. Along the way we see him successfully fight to maintain his sense of personal and tribal pride. He is only beaten down toward the end of the book by the introduction of the English colonialists. While the story of this man is interesting, it is only the instrument of Achebe's parable. The first section of the novel introduces us to the system and culture of Umuofia (the name of the village). Achebe makes no attempt to portray this as Utopia, and deliberately adds large sections of what white westerners would perceive as atrocities. The village abandoned twins to die in the forest, men beat their wives, and the oracle ordered the ritual killing of a prisoner of war. I was quite literally horrified for more than half of the book. Slowly I was able to overcome my preconceived notions of a proper society and view this functioning system as different, but noble. Then, stealthily the colonialists came. The missionaries tried to correct what they consider to be defects in the current system. They save the twins and embrace the untouchables, two acts that westerners reading this welcome. Through their noblesse oblige efforts, however, they disrupt a working economic and social system. Over time the new culture invades and spreads like the locusts in the middle of this story. Seemingly minor "corrections" to this system eventually lead to major changes in government, the economy, and the existing tribal hierarchy. The local population was taken from within and before they realized that they were being destroyed it was too late. A proud respected tribal elder like Okonkwo has no place in the new society and the previous one no longer exists. The book is simply written, but the real strength in this powerful parable is its organization. I have found myself reflecting on this book since I finished it three weeks ago. As a white American this reinforces my belief that Western nations can't fix everything, and often things don't need fixing at all. Of course world politics aren't that simple. This book details the dangers of a clash of cultures from both the well-meaning missionaries, and the later oppressive imperialists. While he does a beautiful job of sensitizing readers of the west (is this why it was written in English?) he is smart enough not to try to provide any solutions. We are left only with questions, yet the introspective process can certainly be beneficial.
Rating: 
Summary: Easy read- but deeper meanings
Review: I liked TFA. I thought it was easy to read and it offered insight into African life. It also highlighted the terrible invasion of African tribes by whites. The book is an easy read, but needs time for further examination because there exists many differnt levels of interpretation.
Rating:
Summary: The center holds
Review: This is an amazing book that will be no doubt used as an educational tool in classrooms for many years to come. When reading this novel for a class try not to view it as an assignment, but more like an opportunity. This is your chance to not only get a deeper look into the effects of coloniolism, but to also see the many different aspects of the Ibo tribe. The book itself is very reader friendly and moves fast. It is a novel that will most likely stimulate the reader to find as much information as they can on African culture. I should know, as soon as I finished reading I found myself on the 'net searching for the Ibo tribe.
Rating:
Summary: Not only written well, but very informative too.
Review: This book I could not put down. It reads surprisingly fast for a book involving complex subject matter. My only regret about it is that schools shove it down students throats and force them to read it, rather than let people read it on their own. It is great to read a deep and thought provoking novel about a society plagued by imperialism other than North America.
Rating:
Summary: Potentially deadly, so be careful.
Review: Because it's easy to read but hard to interpret, Achebe's masterwork has become a fixture thoughout secondary and higher education. Unfortunately, its current status as a "classic text" as well as a multicultural icon threatens to make it merely another institutional artifact rather than the genuinely provocative text it is capable of being. Achebe does not gloss over the apparently savage, cruel, sexist practices of the Ibo people before the arrival of the white missionaries. Yet students are quick to overlook these tensions in the narrative, preferring to go for the "platitudes" about imperialism that they know are expected of them in the classroom devoted to assuring "diversity" is in the curriculum. The other "tension" that is often overlooked is one outside the text: respecting the autonomy and identity of an African country by staying out of its affairs vs. intervening to bring an end to mass genocide (Rwanda), starvation (Ethiopia), and enslavement of children (Sudan). Why is it a "moral imperative" for the West to interfere in Kosovo but not in Rwanda? If these tensions are not confronted, the novel is a well-crafted folk tale about a tragic hero, and also another occasion for student apathy. Achebe himself has invited strong moral judgements about his text by applying the same to Conrad's "Heart of Darkness."
Rating:
Summary: An excellent piece of Africian literature!
Review: I had to read this rather short novel several times until I began to enjoy it. But after that 'wearing-in' period it has become a book that I recommend to all my family and friends. The theme is so deeply hidden in the carefully constructed plot that you often miss it, or don't recognize it as a profound theme. Mr. Acabe is an excellent story teller who has weaved his own traditions and background into a plot and theme that, while we can not all relate to it, we can all feel empathy toward and immensly enjoy.
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