Review: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

In this novel Adichie follows the lives of Biafran people in the late 1960s, as they attempt to declare their independence from greater Nigeria and form a country of their own. She traces the lives of "real people" from all different levels of life: middle class, servants, government leadership, etc. Also, by incorporating the relationships of her main characters with people on the "other side" of the war, we see people on both sides of the fighting as they deal with the horrors of war and the losses associated with it.

I really enjoyed this novel. I think I learned a lot about a topic that I didn't see a lot in my history classes in college. In the late 1960s, the Igbo-led Biafra (in southern modern Nigeria) declared independence from the mostly Muslim Hausa-led north. The civil war leads to the separation of once-strong friendships and threatens the way of life of the intellectual middle class in Biafra. Adichie traces how the war changes people's lives. The characters are believable; each has personal flaws but enough humanity for me to absolutely fall in love with them. I cared what happened to the main characters...and the minor characters, which I think is a huge success for Adichie. I cared about the Igbo people, and I wanted them to win.

In addition to the characters, I think that the author did a fantastic job describing the horrors of war, not just the fighting, but the "collateral" damages caused by civil war: hunger, starvation, suspicion of neighbors. Adichie tackles the issues associated with the "saboteurs," or the other minority non-Igbo people in the south, who were often accused of helping the enemy. She also describes other "side-effects" of war: rape, theft, disease. But she does this in a way that allows the reader to understand some of these terrible actions in the context of war. The reader can criticize the action and the war without necessarily finding people (namely Ugwu) personally culpable for these issues.

There were some issues with the novel. In the beginning, Adichie switched back in forth in time unnecessarily. While it formed some mysteries that kept me reading, I think the novel in chronological order would have provided the same readability without creating confusion with the time lapses.

Still, in general, I think this is a fantastic novel. I would recommend it to anyone! It's also advanced my relative obsession with reading about Latin America and Africa recently. There's just something about the voice of the authors, and the heartbreaking stories they often tell that keeps me reading novels like these over and over.

My rating: 9.4/10

Source: Borrowed from my step-sister

Other reviews:
A Guy's Moleskine Notebook
Kiss A Cloud
Farm Lane Books Blog
Ramya's Bookshelf...

Up next: Whatever I decide to download with my new Kindle!!!!!!!

Review: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point is a book mixing together sociology, psychology, marketing, education, etc., etc. to create a thesis: small things really do make all of the difference. He uses just about every example possible to support his ideas, including Paul Revere's ride, Blues Clues, and the New York crime wave. Quite simply, ideas, trends, and social movements do not become popular because of their own merits; rather, they catch on because a few very important people (whom Gladwell calls connectors, mavens, and salesmen) are drawn to the idea and spread it.

I think that Gladwell does a very good job explaining his ideas, and the sheer breadth of the examples and case studies allows nearly every reader to find something that they can understand/connect with in the book. For history nuts (like me!), there's Paul Revere's ride; for amateur sociologists, there's an examination of the New York crime rate drop-off; for parents, there's Blues Clues and Sesame Street. This, however, does bring up one fundamental flaw in the book; the thesis is argued through case study. Although Gladwell alludes to patterns to look for in examples not included in the book, they're not set out in a way that can be experimented. This lack of "academic" arguments does, however, make the book much more accessible for the non-academic.

All in all, I think this is an excellent book to make you think and reconsider what you currently think to be true about popular ideas; it's not the merit, it's the people involved in spreading the word about the idea and their skills in harnessing the power of communication. It raises some important questions: do we elect presidents because of our personal support of their policies, or is it because we managed to meet and talk to someone particularly effective at spreading the word about said candidate? Can we encourage children to go to school and study hard simply because of the possible rewards of doing such a thing, or would we be fighting a losing battle against a charismatic classmate that argues for the fun that comes with skipping school? Can we fight childhood obesity by using celebrity spokespeople and warning about the health risks, or do we need to search for a particular person particularly good at persuading children that exercising is "cool"? Even if you're not a "non-fiction reader," I would suggest this book. It's accessible, and the ideas are really worth reading about.

My rating: 9.2/10

Other reviews:
Liv's Book Reviews
Dog Ear Diary
Book Addiction
A Reader's Journal

Up Next: Fury by Salman Rushdie