Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart

[Bookmaniac]

I wouldn't say that I really enjoyed this book a lot but I would say it enlightened me to what colonists did to the African Culture. They took away what they thought important and implanted their own ideals. All in all I appreciate this book for the truth and partially a realistic vision.

 

[Daniel del Real]

I've heard a lot of praises for this book and I started wondering if this is truly that good. It is also a good way to evaluate Achebe as a writers since this seems to be his masterpiece.
2 years ago he received the international Man Booker prize, and I assume if he is as good as the first winner (Kadar?) he can be a great discovery for me.

You don't look too enthusiastic about this one bookmaniac, I guess I'll have to read it and tell you what I thought about it.

 

[matt.todd]

Things Fall Apart is surprisingly good. We are perhaps more used to African novels now than we were 50 years ago, but it holds up. More of my thoughts are here.

 

[Bjorn]

I liked it a lot. It's not without flaws - there are some timeline shifts that are a bit confusing at first - but Achebe does a great job of creating his characters, warts and all; Okonkwo isn't the most unproblematic hero, but he's a great character.

Given its reputation, I was half-expecting this to be "we Africans were living in perfect harmony until the evil white man came and massacred us", but it's very far from that. It's not so much about saying one side is completely right and one is completely wrong, but more of describing the effects of the much-bandied-about phrase "culture clash". Several of the Christian missionaries in the book come across as genuinely kind - if ignorant - people. At the same time Achebe is determined to kill the myth of "savage Africa"; the many details of daily life in the tribe serve up an image of a society which has a lot of faults - violence, superstition, generally a hard life - yet is in its way a well-ordered society with laws, traditions, friendships... And what kills it isn't gunpowder but the loss of hope; the last chapter is one of the most brutal sucker-punches I've read, but it makes perfect sense. And yet there's the defiance of the title, appropriating Yeats' quote for the Africans, turning it back on its home country.

 

[saliotthomas]

Just adding to what Bjorn very well sumerize,i found there was a fine sense of humour to it.When the tribe give the "haunted forest" to the christian to build their church thinking it a good trick,and it turn out that the "spirits" do not chase them away.
That is something i found lacking in what i read from Ngugi,a bit to serious,like a good student.Where Achebe shows originality and seems naturaly easy in his writing.

 

[Bjorn]

That is something i found lacking in what i read from Ngugi,a bit to serious,like a good student.Where Achebe shows originality and seems naturaly easy in his writing.

I just have to point out that based on the Ngugi books I've read - Petals of Blood and especially Wizard of the Crow - he does indeed have a fantastic sense of humour mixed in with the seriousness. I haven't read The River Between, but I'll get back to this when I have...

 

[saliotthomas]

And i have been looking for Wizard of the Crow but can't find it at the moment.I look forward to read more of his.

 

[nnyhav]

The Valve - A Literary Organ | Chinua Achebe and the Damnation of Faint Praise

& my short take

 

[Max Cairnduff]

I thought this was an excellent work, and it has one of the finest last lines in English language literature (though obviously I can't say why without utterly spoiling it).

The writing is of a very high standard, the loss of hope as Bjorn notes is what does for them, the ordered (but not idyllic) society they start with is destroyed but not by our guns so much as by our undermining of their culture.

Personally I'd hugely recommend it.

 

[promtbr]

Just read this. My first into to African literature...I liked the fact the narrative voice was tempered...As stated above, the tone nicely controled. The undertone of bitter irony was subtextual...I can see why Achebe is highly regarded. I am looking forward to reading Tutola and Thwong'o soon...

 

[Jan Mbali]

Interesting to consider the implications on African thought that wherever English is taught in African schools (and in translation elsewhere) this book is almost invariably on the high school syllabus. Very often alogside the classic Gods bits of wood by the more obviously radical Ousmane Sembene who turned film-maker at age 40, and a brilliant one at that. It is about a dockers strike he took part in. Also a standard in schools that deals with colonial/ post-colonial culural conflicts are the long satirical poems by the Ugandan Okot P'Bitek (Song of LAwino is one) and the wonderful biography of the South African Ezekila Mphahlele (Down Second Avenue) and Ngugi's lyrical "The River Between", a short early novel but my favourite. Teachers are forced to force endelss essays out of the kids, comparing and contrasting, but a rich literary tradition enriching young and not so young minds nonetheless. Some good discussions, where you can get away with it. All the above comes from my having taught in Africa, several decades ago. Not sure what has been added to the syllabus since. Oyes, I have used extracts of one or two of the above books in afirst year sociloogy lectures. So much better than dust-dry academic droppings.

 

[David J]

This was the first African novel by an African novelist that I've read. I dont have much to contribute except to say that I enjoyed it a lot.

I really liked the texture of the novel which seemed to me indicative of the sophistication of the society Achebe is describing.

Someone said (cant remember who) that Achebe's writing is much influenced by the Greek and Roman poets. I'd agree. The clarity and directness of his writing reminds me of Homer, as does the emphasis on the daily rituals of life.

Plus, what a great title!

I'm looking forward to reading more of him. Arrow of God is next on my reading list. Does anyone have anything to say about this novel? It would be appreciated.

 

[mimi]

Re: Chinua Achebe: A MAN OF THE PEOPLE

A MAN OF THE PEOPLE
My favorite novel by Achebe is his least celebrated. Achebe is a master in portraying Nigerian (can also read as African and sometimes black) society in transition, amid corruption, violence all within the emotional crescendo and parlaying tensions of ethnic hatred, political ineptitude and greed. Written in first person, it is a satirical account of Odili and the corruption of power in a newly emerging African State (read Nigeria). Often comical and amusing, it has periods that leave you spell bound in deep thought. This book begins the second stage of Achebe's writing (now brilliantly viewed through the lens of historical prognostication) devoted to the meltdown of his nation Nigeria, now forty years on, at the precipice of collapse, and considered a likely candidate as a so called "failed state."
Just brilliant

 

[gonfler]

Re: Chinua Achebe: A MAN OF THE PEOPLE

I liked Things Fall Apart for the clarity of writing and the simplicity of style.

I also like the theme. Although, I am not from Africa, I am from post-colonial Third World country. I can relate to the sentiments of cultures clashing, the confusion and misunderstandings.

*****

 

[chika]

TFA is a classic for many reasons. For starters, it was the first book of fiction from Africa where the writer was not copying the colonial masters but fusing his language and the colonalist's (which he must, for practical reasons, use) and coming up with a language that is unique, deliciously rich and yet very African. Achebe is the ideal we look up to when we - as Anglophone African writers- write in English but want to retain the nuances, the flavours of our local languages.
His protagonist, Okonkwo, is a feminist's nightmare, but he is true to his times
I liked Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah

 

[anoush]

I wouldn't say that I really enjoyed this book a lot but I would say it enlightened me to what colonists did to the African Culture. They took away what they thought important and implanted their own ideals. All in all I appreciate this book for the truth and partially a realistic vision.

I have to say I agree with your assessment. I think the book is worthy of it's reputation and it is an important and enlightening book. I also think it's subtle in it's structure. On a personal note, I just did not find it absorbing enough and it inspired no passion in me. In contrast though, I actually love Achebe's essay's they are witty and not as 'dry' as some academia can be.

anoush

 

[sumaira]

hi.being a new one..i could hardly read first post of this topic.so i am making my own reviews here.
"Things Fall Apart" is the most beautiful novel i have ever read.when i was reading that novel, i couldn't help myself thinking:
Things fall apart when an outside force gets into their circle.
Things fall apart when old versions of dogmas and beliefs and faiths get expired.
Things fall apart when unity is dispersed.
agin here m adding more to the posts..that this novel is, too, not based only on colonial system.this book reveals the truth of pacification of tribe within their own system.
one thing i liked the most that is Chinua Achebe's impartialism towards both tha black n the white race.