Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Title: Half of a Yellow Sun
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Date Finished: Sept 18, 2008 #54
Pages: 541
Rating: 4.25/5

I have been wanting to read this book for a long time--ever since Adichie was announced as the winner of the Orange Prize last year--so I jumped on the opportunity it read it with an online discussion group this month. For some reason I had it in my head that this was going to be a tough book to get through and I was going to need some motivation, but despite the week it took, I felt like I drank this book down quickly.

Half of a Yellow Sun is an incredibly emotionally moving story of the Nigerian-Biafran War during the 1960s. Oh how I am learning this year! I feel a little sheepish saying I had never heard of Biafra before reading this book and actually looked it up to see if this was a fictional war for the purposes of this story (eeks...don't tell anyone!!!). The book is steeped in post-colonial theory that I can't even begin to cover in this post, but basically the book deals with the after-effects of the Africa carving table and the country lines being drawn willy-nilly mostly by the Europeans (am I being unfair??). When the Igbo people began being targeted and massacred by the Northern Nigerians, they seceded to create their own country, Biafra, which existed for three years.

The book focuses on five main characters and how they and the people around them cope with terrors the war brings. The characters are all so different and Adichie develops them fully and beautifully. Olanna, who is elegant and desired, comes from a rich, educated, upperclass family. She and her lover, Odenigbo, have taken in Ugwu, a local village boy, first as a servent but later almost as their own. Olanna's twin sister, Kainene, makes a colorful contrast to Olanna's coolness with her sharp tongue and attitude. The final member of the cast of characters is Kainene's lover Richard, a British expatriate, who feels as Biafran as anyone else but struggles to prove himself to others because of his whiteness.

Each chapter shows a different side of the story as we see the effects of the war through Olanna, Richard, and Ugwu. Although they are not narrating their own stories, each perspective adds to the richness of the book. I have to be honest, though, that I had the toughest time with Richard's portions of the book. Because Olanna and Ugwu reside in the same house, at times it felt like Richard's story was something completely tangential and separate from the rest of the book. Also, the female characters in this book are so incredibly strong that Richard always seemed like a weak person--not really one who I always admired.

Overall I really liked this book. However, I think I set the bar pretty high with The God of Small Things and I really wanted this one to compare. Unfortunately it didn't for me--but in many ways I think I am being overly critical of the book. I didn't understand why Adichie jumps from the early 60s to the late 60s to the early to the late. I think one jump might have been effective, but by the time I finished the book I had forgotten much of the second portion except some of the foreshadowing effects that were used there. Also, some of the transitions in the book were a little off for me. For example, she would mention someone's death and immediately move on as if it didn't happen. It never really sat well with me and seemed too casual for the subject matter. Finally, I hated the ending. *Sigh* I was really caught up in "how the heck is this thing going to end!" and when it did finish, I couldn't believe that was it. Fell completely flat. BUT, other than those minor minor things, I really liked the book and recommend it wholeheartedly. :)

Don't believe me??...just check out what these guys thought:
Natasha; Gautami; Dewey; Literary Feline; Eva; Raidergirl3; Caribousmom; Jill; Marg
(my Google reader isn't liking me today and I had to dig for a few of these--so let me know I missed yours)

The Translator - Daoud Hari

Title: The Translator
Author: Daoud Hari
Date Finished: June 28, 2008 #36
Pages: 189

I don't really know how to explain a book when I can't understand the things that it tells about. Unfortunately I know very little about Africa--and I am trying to remedy that by reading about different parts of the continent--earlier this year I read A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (my thoughts here). And while this book takes place on the other side of Africa, the heartache it contains is the same.

The Translator--Daoud Hari--is from Darfur, a small corner of Sudan, which is directly south of Egypt. His country is torn apart by different rebel groups and it seems to me that the government supports a different rebel group on any given day based on whim. Hari, who is wanted by the Sudanese government, has retreated to Chad where he meets reporters from other countries. Using his knowledge of the Arabic and English languages he takes the reporters across the Chad/Sudan border so that they can interview villagers. Hari's main goal is to prove that genocide is occurring in Sudan--genocide is apparently difficult to prove. Natasha from Maw Books has written several posts about the genocide that is occurring in Sudan as well as other African countries--this is a problem that is prevalent and doesn't seem to be going away any time soon (the link for Natasha's blog will take you to her post about Genocide in Darfur).

What I can't understand is how something like this happens--how does a country continent become so torn--where people--kids even--are carrying around guns and machetes and killing others based on nothing (not nothing--but it seems that way). I don't think I'll ever really be able to understand no matter how many of these accounts I read. Hari's memoir was chilling and at times difficult to read, but like Ishmael Beah, he offers a message of hope as he continually reaches out to others in his cry for help.

I realize these books aren't for everyone, but I think it is important for us to be aware of what is happening in our world. It is unfathomable to me in every conceivable way, but that doesn't mean that genocide is not occurring every day in some corner of the world. In terms of the actual book itself--Hari's writing is very clear, even a little simple. Sometimes I was not always sure of the time frame as he seemed to skip around at the beginning, but he soon finds a rhythm and tells a strong story of his time as a translator to reporters. There is an incident in the second half of the book that gripped me as a reader and I couldn't put the book down until there was a resolution. There was a resolution, of course, but not the one that Hari is hoping for--not yet anyway.

Also reviewed:
Natasha at Maw Books
Debi at Nothing of Importance
Wendy of Caribousmom
Literary Feline at Musings of a Bookish Kitty
3M at 1 More Chapter
*let me know if I've missed you

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad: A Review

Title: Heart of Darkness
Author: Joseph Conrad
Pages: 96
Date Finished: June 30, 2007
Rating: 4.5/5

Don't let the number of pages fool you, this book is packed full--every word brimming with meaning. I don't pretend to fully understand this book, and I think that after reading it again (and again and again) I will still be able to pick up something I hadn't the first time around.

The tale begins with Marlow telling his fellow shipmates of his journey on the Congo River into well...the heart of darkness. Although this is a story about his journey, it is also a look into humankind, especially as Marlow is in search of the white trader, Kurtz, who seems to have crossed the line between civilization and savagery.

"They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity--like yours--the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar" (44).

Recommendation: I can't possibly do this book the justice it deserves. I would recommend this book to everyone. But, be prepared to pay attention. I can usually knock out 96 pages in a day, but I took three days to read this book, and still I wonder if I blew through it too quickly. The prose is so rich and beautiful, but also haunting. As Kurtz cries, "The horror, the horror." I will be revisiting this one again.