Rating: 
Summary: an excellent debut
Review: "Purple Hibiscus" is the debut novel from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It is the story of Kambili and her family. Kambili's father is a powerful force both at home and in the family. He holds fast to his Catholicism he views anyone who does not follow Christ as firmly as he does as a sinner and doomed to a fiery eternity. He is not simply the father, but the ruler of the household. Kambili's father sets a daily schedule for Kambili and her brother, Jaja, that they must follow to the minute and they are commanded to be the best students in their school. While Jaja has a strength to his character, Kambili is meek and has the sense of being emotionally beaten down, though she has a strong narration throughout the novel. The novel is set in Nigeria and it begins on Palm Sunday with a fight within the family. Jaja is disobedient to his father and this seems like the beginning where cracks start appearing in the family, but Kambili tells us that the true beginning of this story happens earlier than this. The second section of the novel is "before Palm Sunday" and is set an uncertain amount of time before Palm Sunday (at least, I didn't figure out exactly what the timeframe was). This section traces Kambili's family and extended family as it leads up the Palm Sunday event, and we learn that the fight was not really a beginning, but an ending, that the fight was the result of all of the time before and the changes that were made in Kambili and Jaja, and by extension - to the family. Section Three is "After Palm Sunday" and we see the ramifications of that fight and at this point it feels inevitable what happens next. This is a strong, powerful novel, and even though it is set in a location that I have no knowledge of, it is really a novel about a family and a 15 year old girl. Some things are universal, despite cultural differences. This story of Kambili and her family is one such thing. If you put the characters in a different setting (rural America, perhaps), the same story could play out with only a few differences. This is the power of the story, that knowing nothing of Nigeria, we can understand the story Adichie is spinning.
Rating:
Summary: Coming of age amid riches and abuse
Review: "Things started to fall apart at home when my brother, Jaja, did not go to communion and Papa flung his heavy missal across the room and broke the figurines on the étagère." This first sentence sets out all the main elements of this debut novel. Narrator Kambili, 15, and her older brother, Jaja, live a life of privilege in Enugu, Nigeria. Their father, Eugene, is not only a wealthy industrialist, and devout Catholic, but also publisher of an outspoken newspaper, critical of the repressive regime. But the glittering exterior hides a rotten core. Eugene, a religious fanatic and Anglophile who despises the old ways to the extent of repudiating his traditionalist father, indulges a sadistic abusiveness when his family fails to live up to his impossible standards. He is always sorry, afterwards, for what they made him do. Then her aunt and cousins visit. "Every time Aunty Ifeoma spoke to Papa, my heart stopped, then started again in a hurry. It was the flippant tone; she did not seem to recognize that he was different, special. I wanted to reach out and press her lips shut and get some of that shiny bronze lipstick on my fingers." And when Eugene is persuaded (against his better judgment) to let the children visit his sister, a new world opens to them. This is no surprise, but Adichie's portrayal of the awakening - amidst a time of political turmoil and fear - is halting and fraught with danger. Replete with beauty and horror, Adichie's novel of self-hatred, fear, and family, with its political/allegorical overtones, is a moving, sometimes breathtaking, debut.
Rating:
Summary: a remarkable, lyrical book- a must-read
Review: A journalist from the Times in London remarks that this is the best debut novel he has read since Arundhati Roy's 'The God of Small Things'. Indeed, this is a remarkable first novel by a 26 year author. Writing from the heart and no doubt using her experiences growing up in Nigeria, Adichie has produced a book that makes you intimately share every experience of Kambili, the narrator. You are enraged at the abuse she suffers from her father, a zealot who loves his children in his own twisted way while disowning his father for not converting to Catholicism. You feel the pangs of a first, forbidden love with her. You share her very existence as a girl who is perceived to be so rich and fortunate- but who cannot even linger to talk to friends at school or watch television or listen to pop music. This is a beautiful novel. The characters are complex and thought-provoking. I could not figure out the father character, how he seems to genuinely love his wife and kids and even suffer along as he inflicts terrible pain and torture on them. In contrast are his sister, Aunty Ifeoma, and her lively kids who may want for material things but whose spirits soar. In the background is the turmoil of Nigeria- the corruption, the politics, the shortage of fuel, the power cuts, the unrest. When I reached the end of the book, I found myself hoping for a sequel. What happens next to Kambili, Jaja and Aunty Ifeoma's family? Someone said that you know a book is good when you reach the end and feel you have lost a friend. I felt a bit like that on the last page. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting and satisfying
Review: Achingly beautiful language in a story with political, philosophical, and psychological drama and realism. At times I wanted to look away at the pain, but the excitement and depth kept me transfixed.
Rating: 
Summary: Great debut novel, and good story of Nigeria
Review: Adichie's "Purple Hibiscus" will join other notable first novels like "Things Fall Apart" in the canon of great African literature. It is a very good story of the stuggles within one Nigerian family, with a domineering father, a sad, submissive mother, a defiant brother, and a daughter who is torn between following her aunt or her father. I did like the aunt's perspective, but on the other hand, I don't like the insinoution that pagans are spiritually purer than Christians. I also thought that the book excused the mother a little too much for how she finally dealt the family problem.
Rating:
Summary: Great debut novel, and good story of Nigeria
Review: Adichie's "Purple Hibiscus" will join other notable first novels like "Things Fall Apart" in the canon of great African literature. It is a very good story of the stuggles within one Nigerian family, with a domineering father, a sad, submissive mother, a defiant brother, and a daughter who is torn between following her aunt or her father. I did like the aunt's perspective, but on the other hand, I don't like the insinoution that pagans are spiritually purer than Christians. I also thought that the book excused the mother a little too much for how she finally dealt the family problem.
Rating:
Summary: Great debut novel, and good story of Nigeria
Review: Adichie's "Purple Hibiscus" will join other notable first novels like "Things Fall Apart" in the canon of great African literature. It is a very good story of the stuggles within one Nigerian family, with a domineering father, a sad, submissive mother, a defiant brother, and a daughter who is torn between following her aunt or her father. I did like the aunt's perspective, but on the other hand, I don't like the insinoution that pagans are spiritually purer than Christians. I also thought that the book excused the mother a little too much for how she finally dealt the family problem.
Rating:
Summary: An Amazing first Novel
Review: Finally a contemporary Nigeria writer has emerge as I could relate to every single character in this great literary piece I can even name each character match within the soci-political arena of modern day Nigeria.
It very typical of the pretense of the post colonial Nigerian in the character of Eugene and yet so innocent in Kambili's character which made it all the more touching
a trully wonderful book
Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: I am a Nigerian myself and this book, Purple Hibiscus, captures all of the Nigerian aspects. Great book to read. Enjoy!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Dreary dark tale...
Review: I had every intention of wanting to love this book but will alone wouldn't suffice. It is dreary, seemingly long for it's relative size. Until the very end Kambali and her mother come across as weak and needy women enduring endless beatings while continuing to have a twisted reverence for their husband/father. The story has a depressing flatline rhythm. One that would be better to get from the library or wait for paperback.
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