Half Of A Yellow Sun

HALF OF A YELLOW SUN

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 

Award: PEN/Open Book Winner 2007, Women's Prize Winner 2007

 

Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2008, James Tait Black Finalist 2006, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2006

 

Date Read: November 14, 2021

 

Half Of A Yellow Sun isn’t a novel as much as it is a saga that will twist you up and wring you out. I am in awe of the detail, the heart, the honesty and the intensity that went into writing this. In a word, I am left speechless.

 

I never knew of the Nigerian-Biafra War and I once again marvel at human stupidity. I marvel at the waste of life and opportunity and humanity. I continue to be dumbfounded by the pettiness, cruelty and indifference humans can have for one another. Yet, I can’t imagine a world where these things do not exist. For there is no people, no country where this darkness is absent.

 

Olanna and Kainene come from a privileged background and already begin the war at the top of the pyramid. How far they have to fall is further than most. I began thinking they would be immune to the ravages of war but quickly realized how no one was immune, except for those who fled. And to be honest, the coward that I am, I would have fled. 

 

Olanna and her husband Odenigbo, their child Baby and Ugwu, their house servant that becomes like family, are constantly on the run, hoping for the success of the Biafran nation. Nigeria perpetrates the genocide of the Igbo people, (all of these characters are Igbo) making them not welcome in their own country. With tremendous loss the Biafra movement fails, leaving a destroyed nation in their midst and many loved ones missing.

 

The amount of twists and turns this novel takes are impossible to describe here but I was captivated throughout – the smells of the refugee camps, the excitement at potentially eating a lizard, the act of rape from the perpetrators perspective, the indifference to one’s own survival, the fleetingness of material things, the power of forgiveness. Regardless of the subject matter, Adichie approaches all of them with beautiful and haunting prose that puts you right in the middle of events.

 

I am truly gobsmacked and truly exhausted.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Gentleman In Moscow

Image
A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW by Amor Towles   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2018, Goodreads Finalist 2016, Kirkus Finalist 2016   Date Read: February 24, 2017   From Kirkus Reviews:   “Sentenced to house arrest in Moscow's Metropol Hotel by a Bolshevik tribunal for writing a poem deemed to encourage revolt, Count Alexander Rostov nonetheless lives the fullest of lives, discovering the depths of his humanity.   Inside the elegant Metropol, located near the Kremlin and the Bolshoi, the Count slowly adjusts to circumstances as a "Former Person." He makes do with the attic room, to which he is banished after residing for years in a posh third-floor suite. A man of refined taste in wine, food, and literature, he strives to maintain a daily routine, exploring the nooks and crannies of the hotel, bonding with staff, accepting the advances of attractive women, and forming what proves to be a deeply meaningful relationship with a spirited young girl, Nina. "We are bound to find comfo
Read more

An Island

Image
AN ISLAND by Karen Jennings   Nomination: Booker Longlist 2021   Date Read: December 10, 2022   A short but mighty novel, An Island explores the concept of home, family, identity, the impact of political upheaval and the immigrant experience, when one’s suffering is so intense they move from one shitty country to the next. Samuel has finally found a peaceful home on an island somewhere off the coast of Africa. He was hired as a lighthouse keeper and after a tumultuous life, most of which was spent in prison as a political prisoner, he has carved out a life for himself on this island, enjoying a tranquil existence that basks in the quiet tasks of daily living.   Only after exploring Samuel’s life does the reader understand why such an isolated, spare and lonely existence satisfy him, with no desire to escape but only to grow deeper roots. His life witnessed the end of the British occupation, the installation of a brutal dictator and yet another dictator after the first was poisoned. Sam
Read more

The Changeling

Image
THE CHANGELING by Victor LaValle   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2019, LA Times Finalist 2017, PEN/Jean Stein Finalist 2018   Date Read: July 21, 2024   From Kirkus Reviews: “A  tragedy thrusts a mourning father into peculiar, otherworldly corners of New York City. When Apollo and Emma have their baby, Brian, it feels like both reward and challenge for the new dad. Apollo, the son of a single mother, had been scraping by as a bookseller who hunts estate and garage sales for rare first editions, so even the unusual circumstance of Brian's birth (in a stalled subway train) seems like a blessing, as does the way Apollo stumbles across a first edition of  To Kill a Mockingbird  (inscribed by Harper Lee to Truman Capote, no less) shortly after. But after some young-parent squabbles and inexplicable images on their smartphones foreshadow trouble, the story turns nightmarish: Apollo finds himself tied up and beaten by Emma, then forced to listen to the sounds of Brian’s murder. LaValle has
Read more