Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Readability/Enjoyability: I have conflicting feelings about this book. I really really wanted to like it - this is one of the few books widely read in high schools that was not written by an old white guy, it is about seriously important issues like colonialism, it is set in a fascinating time and place... and yet. If I'm being honest, I found it sort of repetitive and not that interesting. The style is very abrupt and descriptive - there are very few passages in which we find out the emotional impact of events or what the characters are feeling or thinking (although, I do like all the proverbs). It's like a documentary but without any voice-over. This book is interesting from a historical and anthropological perspective, but as a book just to read for fun... nope, I'm not going to tell my friends they should read it.

Best quote(s):

This is what Okonkwo (the main character) thinks about the world:

"No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man."

"The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart."

I just like this description:

"At last the rain came. It was sudden and tremendous. For two or three moons the sun had been gathering strength till it seemed to breathe a fire on the earth. All the grass had long been scorched brown, and the sands felt like live coals to the feet. Evergreen trees wore a dusty coat of brown. The birds were silenced in the forests, and the world lay panting under the live, vibrating heat. And then came the clap of thunder. It was an angry, metallic and thirsty clap, unlike the deep and liquid rumbling of the rainy season. A mighty wind arose and filled the air with dust. Palm trees swayed as the wind combed their leaves into flying crests like strange and fantastic coiffure."

Favorite character: Ezinma, the daughter of one of Okwonkwo's wives (he has three). He says all the time that she should have been a boy because he basically likes her best. She's not a central character but I like that she was an Ogbanje, "one of those wicked children who, when they died, entered their mothers' wombs to be born again." She's precocious and touched by magic, and is as strong a woman as anyone is allowed to be in the Ibo culture.

Least favorite characters: Just personally, I'm not real fond of Okwonkwo. I can even pinpoint when it started: at the very beginning of the book, when he lets a kid named Ikemefuna, who was stolen from a rival village, stay with him for several years, and then helps kill him with machetes. Not cool.

Recommended for: People interested in Africa, colonialism, and other cultures. People who like proverbs. And yams.