This book is an account of the warrior Okonkwo who lives in an African village in the beginning of the 20th century. The story describes how this prideful man in essence "falls apart" after he is exiled for accidently killing a man and finally returns to his beloved village only to find that the traditional way of life is gone and the British have converted many of his friends to Christianity, a religion Okonkwo abhors. His old friends having turned their backs on him and his way of life destroyed, there is nothing left for the once proud and vicious warrior to live for.

The ironies spread throughout the novel were fascinating. I also liked the proverbs that Achebe used constantly. And every now and then there would be a really beautiful quote as he described the feeling of grief or love.

Most of this book. The plot took far too long to get going and the first half was exposition, describing the African lifestyle. Okonkwo was purposely made to be unlikable and at times, almost evil (atlhough an occasional soft side of his personality is revealed) and the hatred of the main character made this book hard to get through.

Praise the lord that it was finally done with. The ending was so predictable that I could have read the first chapter, nothing more, and have known exactly what would happen throughout the rest of the novel. This was a typical book that is given to poor highschool students like myself to read.

At points, I felt touched and almost sympathized with some of the characters. But for the most part I was bored with Okonkwo's constant whining and blaming other people for problems that he brought on himself. All in all it was a good book to read in bed because no matter how wide awake I would be when I started it, I would be asleep within five pages.

Chinua Achebe's writing is beautiful. The way he wrote simple things like clouds of locusts covering the sky brought out the splendor of the english language. However, the beauty is only apparent in a few passages of the novel because the plot is so horrible. If he had actually written a good book (or maybe if I was just more interested in African history and sexist male pigs) I would probably have loved this book.

If you're a Chinua Achebe fan, you'll love this book. If you like African history, or just history in general, you'll find it brilliant. If you want something interesting, you'll be sadly disappointed.

I'm sure that there are countless millions of people out there who love this novel and would mob me if they knew what I thought of it, but I really didn't like it. It's not my type of literature; it read too much like a history text book mixed with a dull soap opera. If you like books with happy endings and definite conclusions, you won't like it either.

These are just my opinions and maybe if I read the book again in 10 years I would look at it differently and love it. My english teacher is passionate about it, but then again he's passionate about all African literature. So really if you've read this book, and you think all the stuff I've said about it is a bunch of crap, I'm sorry, I just don't like it. And the seven page essay I have to write about it certainly doesn't help either. If you're thinking about reading it and reading my review of it has suddenly changed your mind, then that's one more soul I've saved from this cruel work of torture.

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Created Feb 22, 2003 at 10:43pm • Submit your own review...