Things Fall Apart

Read this because of the world literature course I'm taking.

To be honest, comparatively, if we are talking about works like this, Things Fall Apart is much better than Wide Sargasso Sea, as its take on history and those African customs are much more detailed and understandable.

The main character is so dislikeable, yet, in some way, the book is captivating on behalf on his take to oppose the coercion into transforming the faith of the indigenous people into one of theirs. The violence of the non-civilized versus the so-called civilized actually bears no difference at all.

It reminded me of Roots in the way that description of tribal life takes more space than plot (although this book is much more exaggerated in this count). Was this a literary device to give the reader the feeling that ancient tribal ways were destroyed quickly and fairly easily by Europeans? Or did the author simply run out of steam? In either case I enjoyed the book but would have enjoyed a more balanced and active version.

My husband and I decided to start a Christmas tradition of buying used books for each other's stockings. I've never read this before, and I was pretty blown away, especially considering it was published in 1959. It is startlingly relevant still and belongs on all the lists of important fiction. I was blown away by the richness of the world-building and the different perspectives it made me take. Glad to finally fill in this hole in my literature canon.

This has the narrative style of word-of-mouth story telling, which is totally fine in other formats. In book format, I find it jarring and annoying.

For instance, a single chapter might be seen as a single story. The next chapter will pick up another story at a slightly different point in time and will backtrack or fastforward to connect details to previous chapters. Sometimes, the recapping of particular chapters if verbatim. Sometimes you're just left thinking, “Oh, I guess this is a whole new story,” only to find out 10 pages later that the new “main character” is connected to the previous chapters' main character.

I will say that this book is pretty interesting in the sense of looking at colonialism from the side of the indigenous people. It reinforces the simple fact that indigenous people had absolutely no idea what they were agreeing to when agreements were made with European colonists. That is infuriating, of course.

So, anyway, this book is fine. I have zero temptation to read any others in the series.

This is for the “colonialism” requirement of the 2018 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge.

I've discovered while reading Nigerian authors that the vibe is really different from the books I'd read prior that are written from more Eurocentric schools of literature. The style is more matter of fact and deadpan, and the reader most look to nature and symbolism to extract the full intended meaning.

Okonkwo beats his wives, he can't express love, he can't give the child he loves most – his daughter – her due, and he betrays someone who trusts him. All he knows or understands is his place in his village and his need to be traditionally masculine.

I didn't like him much, but in the end I felt compassion for him. Everything changed that he relied upon to be constant, all the respect he valued was lost to him, the people he felt he could count on – in his mind – let him down. And after having a place, a life, an understanding of the world, and story enough to fill a novel, someone who can't begin to know him proclaims him worthy of perhaps an interesting paragraph. In his native land, a stranger dismisses the value of his life, and instead replaces him as the center of attention.

This is an example of a good story told poorly; what could have been a fascinating examination of the cultural dissonance between the Igbo tribe and English Imperialism is stunted by curt, short prose that stymies emotional investment. It is so interesting to see both sides have a point, have flaws, and Okonkwo - the protagonist of the novel - be a woman beater, child murderer, and still be a sympathetic character. There is no doubt that the ideas presented are enticing to discuss, but the discussion aspect is perhaps more interesting than reading it itself. There are no qualms with the story but rather how it is presented, with the content being glossed over or told so quickly that it doesn't allow for the reader to truly take in the depth of what the story is trying to convey.

More interesting to discuss than to read.

3.25
I enjoyed reading this, although I couldn't quite connect with it. Really liked the way it's written.
At the beginning of the book, Okonkwo is the greatest warrior in his village and then one bad thing after another happens. There is so much to unpack in this book: his problems with his father, his son leaving him, the way he was willing to fight and kill to protect his village but no one else was and then killing himself at the end... Things really did fall apart for him...

Things Fall Apart is the story of Okonkwo, a powerful man in his village in Africa. He has worked hard to overcome the family image his father ruined with his poor behavior, and he has had many successes in his life, but when he accidentally kills the son of another tribesman, he is punished by being sent away from his village for seven years. Then Christian missionaries arrive, and his entire village suffers an upheaval in cultural belief.

This book is an intriguing story of the way cultures can clash, the way conflicts between cultures can be resolved, and the way cultures change with the arrival of different cultures.

Bare with this book until the the very end because that is where it unravels. The Main Character Okonkwo tries to come in terms with the legacy of his father and with the arrival of the Colonial rule. Interesting Novel about clashing institutions and belief systems shown trough both, the colonial and native lense.

This book is interesting from an anthropological standpoint. I enjoyed learning about the customs and culture of the Igbo. However, as a novel this just wasn't for me. Each chapter is basically a small snippet of their lives before moving on in time in the next chapter to get another little window. Essentially it felt to me like a collection of short stories because of how it's structured and because it has no over-arching plot. There was just no tension, no buildup, just events that occur out of the blue and/or feel contrived.

The character side of things didn't have much on offer either as I personally found Okonkwo to be rather reprehensible. It is very difficult to empathize with a character who in most circumstances seems to be void of any empathy himself. It also was difficult to appreciate the culture at times because it was through his eyes.

I can actually see why it's often assigned to read in Highschool or University because there is an interesting conversation there to be had, but I can't say I personally enjoyed it as a story. 

Summary: Okonkwo is a respected member of an African tribe who has taken over the care of a boy that was given to his people in a settlement with another tribe. The book tells of Okonkwo’s life and culture and his relationship to the members of his family. At first, life seems to be going well for Okonkwo, but a series of unexpected occurrences soon upset the life of prosperity that he has lived for so long.

In sparse words Things Fall Apart tells the story of strong warrior Okonkwo and the cultural and societal customs in his village at the end of the 1800s in Nigeria. Okonkwo believes in his gods and the norms he's grown up to adhere. He strives for power and wealth and the old ways. He believes in evil spirits that return as children only to die again and again. He believes in the inferiority of women, beats his wives and uses “woman” as an insult. He believes in the laws that send him and his family into exile, despite the accidental nature of the act that triggered them. While other members of their village seem to develop doubts about the unnecessary cruelty of their gods and traditions (the “throwing out of twins”), Okonkwo stays strong, sheds a few tears when he has to kill a boy, but never wavers.

When the white men appear with their religion, claiming superiority over local gods, the village little by little falls apart.

The ending really took me by surprise and made me reevaluate the tale. It contrasts one man's inability to change with the sudden and harsh changes forced upon the natives by European colonialism. Adaptation vs tradition, monotheism vs polytheism, the masculine vs the feminine. I might even want to read the next one.

I felt like I had to re-read this book after half-heartedly reading it in high school.

Pros:
Better than I remember.
A lot to be learned from the book.
Well written and great poetry/songs within it.
A book about Nigeria by a Nigerian author.

Cons:
Constantly upset while reading because of the main character.
Pretty dry in Part 1 (picks up in Part 2 and 3).
The novel will constantly drag on for a bit then have an important plot point casually stated in a sentence.

Though some of things that happen in this book are quite terrible it is an amazing read. and even though it is fictional the story tells from a perspective that I haven't read before and it was enjoyable. The use of Ibo words throughout the story really helped to bring the world alive. And the description of tribal life, culture and belief was probably my favourite part. I also think that this story shares a piece of the history of colonization that is hunting and makes you reflective. Definitely will be reading more of his work.