Things Fall Apart: A Novel

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Description

This is Chinua Achebe's classic novel, with more than two million copies sold since its first U.S. publication in 1969. Combining a richly African story with the author's keen awareness of the qualities common to all humanity, Achebe here shows that he is "gloriously gifted, with the magic of an ebullient, generous, great talent." -- Nadine Gordimer

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One of Chinua Achebe's many achievements in his acclaimed first novel, Things Fall Apart, is his relentlessly unsentimental rendering of Nigerian tribal life before and after the coming of colonialism. First published in 1958, just two years before Nigeria declared independence from Great Britain, the book eschews the obvious temptation of depicting pre-colonial life as a kind of Eden. Instead, Achebe sketches a world in which violence, war, and suffering exist, but are balanced by a strong sense of tradition, ritual, and social coherence. His Ibo protagonist, Okonkwo, is a self-made man. The son of a charming ne'er-do-well, he has worked all his life to overcome his father's weakness and has arrived, finally, at great prosperity and even greater reputation among his fellows in the village of Umuofia. Okonkwo is a champion wrestler, a prosperous farmer, husband to three wives and father to several children. He is also a man who exhibits flaws well-known in Greek tragedy:

Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children. Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkwo's fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.

And yet Achebe manages to make this cruel man deeply sympathetic. He is fond of his eldest daughter, and also of Ikemefuna, a young boy sent from another village as compensation for the wrongful death of a young woman from Umuofia. He even begins to feel pride in his eldest son, in whom he has too often seen his own father. Unfortunately, a series of tragic events tests the mettle of this strong man, and it is his fear of weakness that ultimately undoes him.

Achebe does not introduce the theme of colonialism until the last 50 pages or so. By then, Okonkwo has lost everything and been driven into exile. And yet, within the traditions of his culture, he still has hope of redemption. The arrival of missionaries in Umuofia, however, followed by representatives of the colonial government, completely disrupts Ibo culture, and in the chasm between old ways and new, Okonkwo is lost forever. Deceptively simple in its prose, Things Fall Apart packs a powerful punch as Achebe holds up the ruin of one proud man to stand for the destruction of an entire culture. --Alix Wilber

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Customer Reviews

Things Fall Apart
A well written story of life in an African tribal village at the turn of 19th to the 20th century. Reads like a novel and provides insights into the cultural life of the tribe.

2010-07-15 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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On Humanity and Good Writing: Novels Fall Apart
I have just finished reading, after some effort to stay with it, Chinua Achebe's acclaimed 1959 novel Things Fall Apart, reputedly the most widely read African novel. Which is too bad, as it fails to achieve what apparently drove Achebe to write it: the desire to bring to life the ample humanity of tribal Nigerians at the time of British colonization. He did a much better job of it in his 1964 novel Arrow of God.

However, I cut Achebe some slack for Things Fall Apart, a training novel, as I see it, his first, when his craft was apparently still underdeveloped. Much of the important action of the novel comes in summary, that is, in his telling the reader what happens instead of developing full-blown scenes that put us there so we can see it, feel it and share in the emotion, as with the crucial accidental killing of a clansman by Okonkwo.

Most of the tribal characters remained unrealized and largely undistinguishable, serving as mere foils for Okonkwo, as with his three wives. Further, the novel fails structurally, there being not so much a plot with causality and reflective inevitability as chronological (largely) occurrences, often unrelated. Further, his seriously flawed protagonist Okonkwo is a hard one to love.

These weaknesses in craft and concept together undermine Achebe's purpose: to show his Nigerian ancestors as vital human beings deserving of our empathy. I found Okonkwo's ultimate downfall unmoving--less so even than Achebe's essays and lectures collected in The Education of a British-Protected Child (2009).

Those essays, albeit uneven, work to effectively remind us of the continuing horrors visited on Africa by slavery, colonialism and their aftermath. That said, Achebe misses the mark on his criticism of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, failing to distinguish the narrator Marlowe's observations from Conrad's, for one. But his overall posit about the distorted European narrative re Africa, which he documents, seems substantially on target.

2010-06-25 (Key West) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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How it is and was
Other reviewers have given excellent synopses, so as someone who has lived in Nigeria, I'll just give an opinion. This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand how life was and to a great degree still is, in rural Nigeria. It is wonderfully written, stark, brutally honest and making no excuses because that is how life is.

2010-06-20 | traveller (Africa) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Why a classic? Let me count the reasons
I picked this for my book group because I had never read it while every high school student I know has. Marooned in the early chapters, one of my book group friends asked, "Why is this considered a classic anyway?" I could see her point. Especially at first, it does not exactly pull you forward with compelling narrative flow. In fact, as you read about food preparation and the yam harvest, you may think to yourself, "Hmm -- do I really need all this detail, and why?"

But keep reading!

Here is why "Things Fall Apart" is rightly a classic: 1) It is easy to read. (Think Hemingway.) 2) It is really informative about a not well known (to most of us) time and place - turn of the 20th century Nigeria, its ways and customs. 3) It raises fundamental questions that cut across cultures about people. (Among them: How are the sins of the fathers visited upon the sons? What happens when two cultures with widely disparate technological achievements meet? Is technological achievement really the measure of a culture's worth?) 4) It doesn't deliver simple answers. 5) It is politically correct -- fostering appreciation of what we now call diversity, but meaning in this case traditional African culture.

Sometimes easy to read books that are assigned in high school end up under-estimated or even resented. This one really deserves the accolades.

2010-06-13 | Mom/Writer/Teacher (state college, pa USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Under promised, over-delivered!
Used book was in perfect condition and arrived prior to promise date. I could not have had better product or service!

2010-06-01 (Leesburg, FL, USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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No Longer at Ease (African Writers Series)

Description

The sequel to the classic, Things Fall Apart, tells of a troubled young African whose formal education separates him from his roots and makes him part of a corrupt ruling elite he despises. Reprint.

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Customer Reviews

Not Achebe's Best, But He Remains a Must-Read Author
This novel (published in 1960, the year in which Nigeria gained its independence) is a sequel to Achebe's powerful and deservedly-famous first novel (1958), Things Fall Apart. The protagonist is Obi Okonkwo, the grandson of the proud, confused, and tragic Okonkwo of the earlier novel. And times have changed. Obi, son of Isaac (whose conversion to Christianity was one of the turning points of the earlier novel), has returned to Nigeria and a post in the senior civil service after studying in London for four years. His parents are still Christians, but Obi has lost whatever Christian dedication he once may have had. Indeed, it seems that he has left even more than that behind, and it is difficult to know what his values are, except for vague ideas about a more sophisticated, modern, independent, and corruption-free Nigeria. I had hoped for a more nuanced treatment of the tensions that Obi experienced as a foreign student in the UK and the colonial context within which he received his higher education, but there is very little other than a brief mention of Obi's joy when he would encounter another Ibo-speaking student in London, and his discomfort when he had to resort to English--the language of Nigeria's colonial masters, and in those masters' own country--when he spoke with a Nigerian from a different tribe. The tensions between Nigeria's past and its future, between subservience and independence, and between generations with competing priorities, all resolve down to Obi's struggles with his job, his fiancé Clara, his finances, and his family. But as a character to drive a novel, Obi does not have the same strength or presence as the character of his grandfather did in the earlier novel. Partly as a result, this one seems less concerned with issues of fundamental importance, and therefore less profound. There is not much question of where Obi is heading; his guilt on the charge of accepting a bribe is announced in the first two pages, and all that follows is the story of how he came to this pass. But the unhappy conclusion to Obi's career in the civil service comes across largely as the result of the listlessness, confusion, and lack of determination of a young man whose dreams overtax his capacity. Perhaps, in the end, that is part of what Achebe was trying to say about Nigeria. This novel is worth reading, especially if you have read the earlier one, but it lacks the power of its predecessor. Achebe remains, however, one of the most important voices in African literature I know of.

2010-07-17 (Dubai) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Ethnographic Fiction
A realistic, nearly panoramic, ethnographic fiction of Nigerian culture. It is at once historical (abundant local slang and explanatory passages about local customs) and fictional (sufficiently exotic imaginaries of both London and Lagos, from opposing perspectives). Overall, an enjoyable read, but the obsessive ethnographic details wear it down.

2009-07-22 (UK) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Insightful African story that transcends Africa
As a post-graduate student preparing for diplomatic assignment to Africa, my African history curriculum includes a number of Achebe stories. I particularly appreciate "No Longer At Ease." While many point to "Things Fall Apart" as the masterpiece, I find Achebe's later works more engaging due to deeper character colorization.

Style-wise, "No Longer At Ease" has strengths and weaknesses. The dialogue is alive, the descriptions are vivid, the flow generally smooth. However, the pacing is a tad slow and I'm not sure if the non-linear sequence is the best (story opens with endgame and then flashbacks the preceding events that lead up to it). Female characters are shallower than male, which seems to be consistent in Achebe's earlier works.

Substance-wise, there is a universality to the story that makes it very powerful. The timeless themes of individual will vs mainstream collective, love vs cultural/conventional taboo, opposing pulls from different societies, and tragic fall from grace; all would make Shakespeare proud. Thus, while the setting is southern Nigeria a few years prior to independence, the story is as much a statement(s)about human struggles as it is about African struggles. Not that the latter is neglected. The beauty of this story is that today in 2008, the same contradictions, challenges, and problems are just as relevant as they were pre-1960. In fact that is what makes this fiction more than fiction for those seriously interested in Africa and West Africa in particular.

Some additional comments & observations:
- Globalization didn't just start in the 1990s. The dynamics of modernism from the West merging with urbanized and rural societies of Africa is starkly prevalent. Different segments of society take the changes in stride to vastly different degrees. This phenomenon is in no way restricted to Africa in the 1950s. My own family has varying levels of comfort with technology and communication changes over the last decade or so.

- The Africans in the story place an incredible premium on status. Education is valued not for intrinsic reasons (e.g. become an engineer in order to build things) but as a vehicle to elevated social status - which translates directly to opportunity for prosperity via civil service. "To occupy a 'European post' was second only to actually being European. It raised a man from the masses to the elite..." Africans apparently learn the lessons of the West all too well, that is, with an unhealthy over-emphasis on how "learned" someone is and what credentials one has, rather than practical ability to do productive work. Perhaps it is purposeful Achebe brilliance in that characters (African and European) in the story are perpetually busy with work yet they never seem accomplish anything meaningful; there is merely a ballet of self-supporting bureaucracy.

- The main character, Obi, is a trailblazer reminiscent of Jackie Robinson. His gifts don't free him to simply play the game, but burden him with special wider responsibility. Obi never does succeed in reconciling the traditional demands of his people and those of the colonial establishment and modernizing world. This is in fact the root of his tragic fall.

- Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the story is the reminder of the intelligence and sophistication on the part of the Africans. Isn't it easy to observe the end product - corrupt and dysfunctional governments in Africa today - and "logically" work backwards to deduce that the reason must be personal/individual inadequacy? This self-attribution error is hard to avoid. Don't we think in this vein about our own earlier generations? We imagine them as less shrewd and capable. However did WWI spark off, for example? It's too hard to imagine - people must have been more ignorant or less clever then, no?

2008-11-02 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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Plenty of Ease, Apparently
I read this book with great anticipation, as "Things Fall Apart" is probably one of my favourite books of all time. I was sorely disappointed, both with the poor quality of the characterisation, the glacial pace of the plot, the 50 or so pages that could have easily been left out, and the overall not-so-subtle blaming of all life's ills on the white man. Achebe gives the impression that things in Africa would've been just fine had the white man not intervened and gummed up the works. As we can see with the disasters in present day Zimbabwe and Sudan, Africa has long had its own set of problems long before British colonialism.

"Things Fall Apart" was crafted so perfectly that it read like a song...a sad one, but a song nonetheless. "No Longer At Ease" repeats so many of the same parables, so many of the same ideas that it seemed almost made up of things that Achebe couldn't find a place for in its prequel. It also seemed to be written in a hurry and skimmed the surface of so many deeper issues one of left pondering in "Things Fall Apart".

I've heard Achebe recently interviewed on BBC Radio, and he is a joy to listen to. This book, however, is not his best effort by far. It was only out of loyalty that I finished it and promptly regretted buying it at all. I give it two stars because I like Achebe's style, but that's being pretty generous.

A great disappointment.

2008-04-21 | Yorkie (United Kingdom) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 2

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To he who is given much
I've read about a couple of recent novels published by Nigerian writers about Nigeria yet I've always wanted my first literary encounter with this contentious nation to be through the gaze of its most honored writer Chinua Achebe. In "No Longer at Ease", his second novel, Achebe explores the moral and cultural conflict that arises as the result of an often cataclysmic collision of European colonialism and African independence. Obi Okonkwo, the novel's main character, is a first generation English educated Nigerian. After college, Obi returns to a transitioning Nigeria, where one's options in life are still limited by the aftermath of British rule and the onset of Nigerian corruption (the later resulting in large part from the former). Upon his return, Obi is faced with the financial expectations of the tribe that helped sponsor his education, the ire of his family for his choice of fiancée and the assumption by many of his countrymen that, through his station with the Senior Service, he is capable of influencing (with a little financial motivation) the outcome of scholarships awarded to Nigerian students. As he navigates through each dilemma Obi must balance the ethical certainties learned through his western education with the cultural practices of his country. The results are at times noble at other times indictable.

Achebe is incredible at capturing the sounds and flavor of Nigeria. Even more remarkable is his ability to do so in English, a language not his own and vastly different from his native tongue. "No Longer at Ease" provides excellent insight into the struggles faced by those who transition from the old to the new whether in terms of educational advancement or socio-economic elevation. As a first generation college graduate I found the challenges and expectations faced by Obi to be quite familiar. I was able to connect with his thought processes and clearly understood the emotional conflicts. A relative once said to me that of he who is given much, much is required. I've learned, over time, that we should all do what we can when we can. This was a good read and the novel is as poignant today as it was when it was originally published over forty-five years ago. Enjoy!

2008-02-22 | mauricewms (Chicago, IL USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Home and Exile

Description

More personally revealing than anything Achebe has written, Home and Exile-the great Nigerian novelist's first book in more than ten years-is a major statement on the importance of stories as real sources of power, especially for those whose stories have traditionally been told by outsiders.

In three elegant essays, Achebe seeks to rescue African culture from narratives written about it by Europeans. Looking through the prism of his experiences as a student in English schools in Nigeria, he provides devastating examples of European cultural imperialism. He examines the impact that his novel Things Fall Apart had on efforts to reclaim Africa's story. And he argues for the importance of writing and living the African experience because, he believes, Africa needs stories told by Africans.

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Based on three lectures distinguished Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe gave at Harvard University in 1998, this short but trenchant work does not pretend to be a full-fledged autobiography. Instead, Achebe makes forceful use of his personal experiences to examine the political nature of culture. Born in 1930, the son of a Christian convert, young Achebe received a privileged colonial education and "was entranced by the far-away and long-ago worlds of the stories [in English books like Treasure Island and Ivanhoe], so different from the stories of my home and childhood." Yet he and fellow university students indignantly rejected Anglo-Irishman Joyce Cary's highly praised novel Mister Johnson, which bore no resemblance to their knowledge of Nigerian life. This encounter "call[ed] into question my childhood assumption of the innocence of stories," Achebe comments, using scathing assessments of white Kenyan writer Elspeth Huxley and Indian/Caribbean expatriate V.S. Naipaul to remind us that all literature reflects its creators' beliefs and prejudices. Achebe is not an enemy of Western culture; he merely asserts Africans' right to their own perspective and their own art, as exemplified in works like his groundbreaking 1958 novel, Things Fall Apart. Though blunt, his argument is tempered by humor and a passionate belief in "the curative power of stories." --Wendy Smith

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Customer Reviews

If you like Achebe, or care about indigenous literature
Since the book is already well-summarized above, I'll just give my own reaction.

I've read a number of Achebe's novels and one essay (the excellent critique of Heart of Darkness) and really enjoyed the "backstage" feeling of hearing the author's first person voice - an insightful and kindly voice. For me, the effect of Achebe's strong positions is heightened by the dignified presentation, and of course by the poignant and funny stories from his own life that he uses to illustrate those positions. As compared to one of my other favorite authors, James Baldwin, Achebe's writing includes less calls to action, and more explanation. For instance, even in his sharp critique of Vidiadhar Naipaul's novels, Achebe's first priority is to shine light on the processes that led to Naipul's failures of vision. I think people who have read Achebe's fiction or essays and liked it, or generally care about literature from an indigenous or "Third World" perspective will really enjoy this short text. Definitely worth the cost, and may be available from the library.

2004-10-05 (Brooklyn, NY U$A) | Helpful Votes: 7 | Rating: 4

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Long Live our blessed Statesman and elder
Long live the proud son of Africa and our respected statesman.
Achebe the honest and truthful dispenser of both sides of the story. Colonial griots (to borrow Achebe's words) such as Elspeth Huxley and other apologists have for too long been left alone to justify the dispossession of precious lands and cultures. Until the proud son of Africa made them eat their own words and exposed them for what they are. Dishonest griots deftly laying the groundwork for self-enrichment at the expense of peace loving and decent Human Beings.
Chinua Achebe as exemplified by his few but precious books writes not to make money but only when he must say something useful. Unlike modern day "authors" who are more about money than substance. I have no doubt Achebe can write profound and moving accounts of African and world issues at the rate of one book a day but he chose only to spend his time teaching.
It is obvious why the Nobel Prize went to Wole Soyinka instead of Chinua Achebe. Achebe refuses to write for a "foreign" audience and does not take his marching orders from anybody. He is his own man. Africans and honest people all over the world have in their own ways given Achebe the best prize in the world.
Continuous interest in his worthwhile classics such as Things Fall Apart,The Man of the People,No longer at Ease,Anthills of the Savannah, Morning Yet on Creation Day,Hopes and Impediments and many others.

Home and Exile may be a small book but has enough three pence (from Achebes "somebody knock me down and have three pence!") to liberate nations and individuals from the grip and stench of colonial and racist apologia masquerading as literature.

Long live Achebe, proud son of Africa and citizen of the world.
To know Achebe (by reading his books) is to know how to be an unassuming and proud Human Being who quitely and calmly states his truth for the benefit of us all.

2001-10-31 | xirsi (Ohio) | Helpful Votes: 19 | Rating: 5

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A Great Peice of Compact History
Achebe's work was informative, thought provocing, and at times amusing. His work is another example of how important it is for all people to tell their own story/history, especially people who were once disposessed. This little book inspired me to write a few ideas to prevent my experiences from being misinterpreted.

2001-01-20 (Mount Vernon, New York USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Insightful ramblings from the ascetic, Achebe
The physical brevity of Achebe's "autobiography" truly belies the intrisic wisdom he so effortlessly spews upon his listeners. Mr. Achebe sets out to deconstruct the manifold, post-colonial ills (endemic to the dispossessed of African diasopora) with the assistance of historical literature, creation fables, and his own personal memories. Indeed, a thought provoking manifesto for any fan of the great Achebe; one which will aid the reader to pursue further literature with a new sense of enlightenment.

2000-08-19 | Helpful Votes: 8 | Rating: 5

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Home and Exile
Excellent! Achebe has done it again. This is a must read!

2000-07-25 | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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African Short Stories

Description

A selection of the best African stories written between 1960 and 1985.

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Customer Reviews

Good selection
This book contains a good selection of stories written by esteemed African writers from various regions of Africa. The book is divided by these regions: East Africa, Northern Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa. Most of the stories are good little reads and offer insight into African culture. Overall a good book.

2010-01-29 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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A Worthy Introduction to African Literature
This is a great collection of stories. Too often the artistic talent in Africa is overloooked because of the turmoil in some parts of the land. This book is for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the African people and their lives that one cannot get from headlines.

1999-09-20 | lalalarue (Boston MA) | Helpful Votes: 12 | Rating: 4

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Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: A Casebook (Casebooks in Criticism)

Description

Chinua Achebe is Africa's most prominent writer, and Things Fall Apart (1958) is the most renowned and widely-read African novel in the global literary canon. Translated into close to sixty languages, Things Fall Apart is the novel that inaugurated the long and continuing tradition of postcolonial inquiry into the problematic relations between the West and the countries of the Third World that were once European colonies. This collection explores the artistic, multicultural, and global significance of Things Fall Apart from a variety of critical perspectives. The essays selected for this casebook represent the most important and well-established critical work written on the novel to date. This volume also contains an editor's introduction, an interview with Chinua Achebe, and suggestions for further reading.

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A Man of the People

Description

By the renowned author of Things Fall Apart, this novel foreshadows the Nigerian coups of 1966 and shows the color and vivacity as well as the violence and corruption of a society making its own way between the two worlds.

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Customer Reviews

Probably my favorite Achebe
I haven't read all of Achebe's works, but so far this is the best. There are two main reasons: storytelling and insight to Nigeria, and by extension, Africa. If you're going to read one Achebe book, it should be this one (unless you're specifically interested in pre-colonial/early colonial setting which would be "Things Fall Apart").

Storytelling: Achebe's strengths are highlighted and weaknesses hidden in this tale. The plot is well-paced, taut and compelling. The style is sharp with a masterful balance of attention amongst setting, characters, and action. In short, "readability" or "page-turnability" is high. The pidgin English conversation may cause a few stumbles for the reader but overall it is more value-added than obstacle. Female characters are still rather more flat than males, which is usual for Achebe.

Insight: The beauty of the storytelling is matched by the contextual insight. In fact, this is the most important aspect of the story for me. One can look up Nigerian history and read that the First Republic lasted from 1960 to 1966, fraught with social unrest and ended by coup and Biafran Civil War in '67. Achebe fills in this time and place with living color - insight as to splits in society, individual motivations, and the legacy of colonial ideas mixing with traditional. He wrote the story real-time, that is, without big picture hindsight of the coup so as to align historical details. However, this makes his prescience all the more remarkable.

Specific observations:
- The single most profoundly insightful scene I've read by Achebe occurs with the post sex-with-Jean drive around Bori (a made-up name - all locations are thus as a means of self-preservation vs Nigerian state censorship and punishment). Though succinct, so much is illustrated about the contradictions inherent in post-colonial Nigerian society as people wend through the frustrating amalgamation of Western and traditional practices.

- Underlying themes are important. It is evident that things are getting worse economically only a few years after independence (1960). There is implication that Nigeria is living partially on the dole as colonial firms still have an important role in the economy. There is also an anti-intellectual movement underfoot. This may be a backlash from the lack of meritocracy and obsession with titles, status, and civil service wealth identified in Achebe's previous story, "No Longer At Ease."

- Achebe tells us that essentially, the second "Scramble for Africa" is INTERNAL. Nigerian elites are grabbing for positions of power and dedicating themselves to consolidating their status while giving lip service to nationalism. The ideals of democracy are trod underfoot by the traditional tendency towards "big man" patron-client apparatus development. The intensity of the struggle over power stems from the rigid assumption of a zero-sum game and lack of true national public interest.

- In Shakespearean tradition, the characters are vibrant and flawed. Hypocrisy abounds as personal agendas and ideological principles intertwine. The most cynical actors of all are the common people. They are so jaded about their leaders and politics that they have no expectations. Indignation about governance inadequacy is bearable; certainly there is no motivation to mobilize and force change - instead everyone remains preoccupied with myopic survival strategies to secure what crumbs that are available from the national "cake." However, this is no "Goodfellas" (the 1990 movie that most people think is brilliant but I absolutely hate because there is not a single redeeming character in it that one can empathize with). Achebe's characters cause head shaking but empathy at the same time. In particular, Eunice is perhaps a Weberian "ideal type" that provides sharp contrast - thoroughly admirable and uncompromising to the end.

- The violence and manipulation dominating elections is far from anachronistic; these details resonate as if written only a few years ago. Elections in Nigeria have changed little, even since the return to civilian rule after Abacha in 1999. The 2007 election, in fact, was judged to be arguably the worst EVER in post-colonial history. Achebe shrewdly and poetically shares with the reader the hints as to "why" the country has been this way.

Happy reading!

2008-11-08 | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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timeless
very fascinating to read how the writer has captured situations forty years ago that are still so accurate today.

2007-05-14 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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A Man of the People
"A Man of the People" is another excellent and moving book by the world renowned Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe. His other classic books include: "Things Fall Apart" and "No Longer at Ease".

Chinua Achebe is a gifted story teller. From his writings, one can picture life in his native country and particularly of his Ibo clan. In "A Man of the People", Achebe depicts the life of a post-colonial African politician, who is part of the new elite that has replaced the former colonial masters. Just like the pigs in "Animal Farm by George Orwell", these political elite create a good life for themselves at the expense of the masses, the ordinary folk.

Achebe points out some of the cancer that has infected post colonial Africa of corruption, violence and unbridled greed, which created untold suffering and despair following the initial euphoria, high expectations and optimism that greeted independence. Achebe develops the story in a powerful, humorous, witty and masterful way that clearly shows why he is one of the greatest novelists to have graced the African continent. He is one of my favourite writers.

I recommend his collection of books to anyone who wishes to understand developments on the African continent as well as the high quality of African literature. The books ought to be mandatory reading for the English literature curriculum for schools and colleges in Africa.

2006-02-05 | Dr Elijah Chingosho (Nairobi, Kenya) | Helpful Votes: 8 | Rating: 5

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Perhaps Achebe's Best
I loved "Things Fall Apart", and it was what got me to fall in love with African literature in the first place-and download a list of Africa's 100 greatest works of literature in order to try to feed my passion! (I'm not sure how far into it I am now!) It is a masterpiece and so moving.

However, I have to admit there is something so perfect about "A Man of the People", so witty, so well-written, so perfect, so flawless, that it might be better than "Things Fall Apart". Since this book takes place during the post-colonial period, it has a completely different tone than Things Fall Apart. For one thing, it uses a smattering of pidgin (a Nigerian combination of indigenous words, English and slang), which is hard to understand for outsiders to the culture but fascinating-only a little is used and doesn't at all detract from understanding the novel if you're not a native speaker, and it adds a lot of flavor.

Achebe's masterful writing and talent at crafting stories-saying more with subtlety than many have said with bombast- is what makes this book worth reading if you're not interested in Africa in particular. If you are interested in Africa, this is an important exploration of the post-colonial situation. The narrator, part of the educated elite, becomes enamored of the so-called "Man of the People", a man who embodies a Nigerian postcolonial political leader of a certain kind-always ready to take a bribe, charming, populist, and utterly corrupt.

At first the narrator is intrigued by the Man of the People, and admires his style. The realization of what men like this are doing to his country forces the narrator to realize what is at stake when the nation allows itself to accept thievery as a cultural value. Although he is initially immature and moved to vengeance because the "Man of the People" beds his girl, he rapidly matures and comes to identify with his idealist friends, a couple who have not abandoned their optimism and compassion for the people.

A Must-Read, and one of my favorite books of all time.

2005-05-05 | Helpful Votes: 13 | Rating: 5

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CLASSIC ACHEBE, DEEP CHARACTER WITH DOUBTS AND DILEMMAS
Achebe is a master in portraying Nigerian society in transition, amid corruption, violence and the excitement of development. In this novel, Achebe portrays a schoolteachers that is first welcomed into a politician's home, then gets angered by him when the politician "steals" his girlfriend. The novel unfolds as the schoolteacher (Odili) enters politics as a way to avenge his poor fate with his girlfriend.

As with any Achebe novel, we are introduced in a developing society, still in the excitement of self rule after the British, but struggling to get set on a path towards development. Achebe is very ironic at time, and I think this novel especially shows his wry sense of humor. For example, the Minister of Culture is a rather cultureless man, put in that position through connections and bribery.

Overall, I recommend this book if you enjoyed Achebe's previous work (Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease are my favorites). At only 150 pages, it is the shortest by him that I have read, which makes it even more worth it. Would not recommend as your first Achebe.

2004-10-06 | Amazonia (Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil) | Helpful Votes: 6 | Rating: 5

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