Rating: 
Summary: Universal Story
Review: "Things Fall Apart" is not just a story about African natives, it could be about anyone. Okonkwo, the protagonist is caught up in the massive social turmoil brought on by the British invasion, but that is nothing compared to the inner turmoil he faces within himself. The physical world that he knows falls apart despite his herculean efforts to stop it, and his weaknesses and failings cannot allow him to live in the new world.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent story of African life
Review: As a young Nigerian, I read this book as a child so many times and read it again in high school in Nigeria in the 1990s. This book is an evergreen that will remain a classic for years to come. Most of us didn't feel like we were being forced to read it. This might be partly because of the fact that sometimes, we are as much in the dark about the history of our own people and their traditions as much as non-Ibos or non-Nigerians because of the very changes that took place in Nigeria as a result of colonialism: one (but not the only) theme that plays out in Okonkwo's novel. It has always been a joy to read. This is a beautiful story that gave me insight into the lives that my ancestors had lived. It is unbiased and beautiful in the imagery it makes us visualize. For those who feel that it's another "look at our culture also" book, you need to look beneath and read between the lines. This book is really about man's everlasting struggle to preserve what he thinks is right as a way to foster the culture of his own people. This book helps us to see on a smaller scale, some of the reasons for why we have so much strife in the world today. Okonkwo is a tragic hero whose arrogance ultimately becomes his downfall.
Rating:
Summary: This was a moving book!
Review: This is one of the first books in a long time that I have gotten in the character. I am in 8th grade and I chose this book because I wanted to get away from English authors. First of all, I love to read and I get to choose my lit. books. This book explains African customs very well. I read that one reviewer could not get over the beatings. That is an African custom. Wives are treated more like property than people sometimes. Overall, I would recommend this book only to people who are willing to read this book. You can only enjoy a book if you are not forced to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: BAH!!!BOOOOO!!!!!:(
Review: All thumbs down I was supposed to read this book for ms. Pilat in Boston, but I didnt, I read two chapters and quit It was horrible, and I say BAH!!!!!!!!!BAH!!!!!!!and a BOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: A book about the erosion of values
Review: The greatest injustice that can be done to a writer is including his book in the syllabus and force students to read it and mug it up to get through their exams.The second problem is bad teaching, where the teachers themselves are ignorant about the beauty of literature.As I read through the reviews I found that most of the students hated it because it was a part of the school syllabus. The novel is excellent in the sense that it is gives a glimpse of the systematic erosion of traditional values that the west has inflicted.It is a death song of a tribe that took pride in its culture and traditions.The kids will not be able to understand it because they don't have such strong roots to their culture as the Igbo tribe has. When roots are eroded one is left in a void,defenceless against the big bad world as Okonkow is left alone.The novel is a sensitive portrayal of the predicament of a man who is seeing his world die an unnatrural death and is helpless to stop the onslaught of the world that is imminent.
Rating:
Summary: A Powerful Irony
Review: There are two problems with US education shown by these reviews. One is that so many high school and college students hated what is a seductively charming and moving novel because they were forced to read it. Educators should be thinking of techniques to get around this - perhaps allowing kids to select their own reading from a list of titles, rather than assigning them a particular title.A second problem is that none of the reviewers seems to even be aware that Chinua Achebe won the Nobel Prize for literature for this novel. The Nobel Prize doesn't make it a great novel - it recognizes that it is. Why didn't their teachers mention that to the reviewers? Last, none of the reviewers seem aware of the powerful irony of the subsequent history of the Ibo people. The new Ibo society that was beginning to emerge in "Things Fall Apart" attempted to secede from Nigeria in the 1970's, as Biafra. More people were killed in the resulting Nigerian civil war than in any war since World War 2, most of them Ibos. It was perhaps the most horrible war of recent history. The irony is that the Ibo people were massacred en masse, and Ibo society destroyed, not by European Christian colonialists, but by their fellow Nigerians, Muslims from the North. How could the teachers not have taught their students about this, preparatory to assigning them "Things Fall Apart"? Perhaps because they themselves didn't know?
Rating:
Summary: A GREAT book!
Review: As I read the other reviews many people claimed it was for high school students. I'm a 10th grader at RRHS this book was assigned as a reading assignment to my class. A majority of the class LOVED it! A selected few hated it, personally I believe those are the people who never read it cause it was GREAT. (and I'm not one for reading!) I learned sooo much from this book, more than a history book or class notes! READ IT IF YOU HAVE THE TIME!
Rating:
Summary: Great African-Tribal Read
Review: Chinua Achebe really brings you into the feeling and life of tribal Africa. This incredible novel gives you a new appreciation of primitive African culture. Although not the type of literature I usually read (being a caucasian teenage girl), I found this novel to be highly entertaining. I would recommend it to anyone; to diversify their literary and historical knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: I hated it.
Review: I had to read this book a couple months ago, and I hated it. It may have been that I was forced to read it but I don't think so. I couldn't get into any of the characters. They were all just so bland and unemotinal. Don't buy this unless you need it for some reason out of your control.
Rating:
Summary: An inspiring novel.
Review: The greatest book i have ever read! Left me stunned with it's incredible ending. Deep charachters and real plot, I bonded with the charachters. If anyone is looking for a good book to read, this MUST be it
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