One of the best debut novels I have ever read. And I find it strange that I found it in british council and I was not surprised to see that author was not British. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
, a Nigerian by birth, has written her first novel so eloquently that you sometimes wonder how somebody could picture the life so well.
Narrated by a girl of 16, kambili, about her family whose patriarch is staunchly catholic, the story takes you through the crumbling social and economic environment in Nigeria. Papa(kambili's) is a generous business man with a strict devotion to the lord but he fails to keep his warmth with the family. Kambili and her brother leads a time-table life which is immersed in fear and an unpleasant eagerness to please their dad. Every thing changes when they get a chance to be with their aunt Effoma, whose place is filled with loud laughter and haughty air of frankness coupled with freedom.
A nice read, which you will enjoy on any given day.
Thumbs up for this one!
, a Nigerian by birth, has written her first novel so eloquently that you sometimes wonder how somebody could picture the life so well.Narrated by a girl of 16, kambili, about her family whose patriarch is staunchly catholic, the story takes you through the crumbling social and economic environment in Nigeria. Papa(kambili's) is a generous business man with a strict devotion to the lord but he fails to keep his warmth with the family. Kambili and her brother leads a time-table life which is immersed in fear and an unpleasant eagerness to please their dad. Every thing changes when they get a chance to be with their aunt Effoma, whose place is filled with loud laughter and haughty air of frankness coupled with freedom.
A nice read, which you will enjoy on any given day.
Thumbs up for this one!
1 comment:
Purple Hibiscus is so stunningly good it is hard to believe that its author was just twenty-five years old when she wrote it. Her debut novel proves beyond a doubt that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the most powerful young voices to recently emerge from Africa.
A blurb on the back cover of the book says that Purple Hibiscus is one of the strongest debuts since Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. I agree. However, Roy, it seems, has found Small Things a difficult act to follow up.
One hopes that Adichie doesn’t find a fresh start quite so daunting a task. We need to hear from her; time might indeed heal all wounds, but we need to hear that Kambili is better now. What a treat it would be to know that Kambili has now savored true freedom for a while —that freedom for her, is no longer a rare, fragrant, purple hibiscus.
abhimanyu
Living on... www.onloose.com
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