Things Fall Apart

By Chinua Achebe

Things Fall Apart I did enjoy this book - what else could I do! I have a great respect and admiration for Chinua Achebe. Because he was one of the few "privileged" to receive education and Christian teaching in early days he used this to share with others the life of his people before the white man came to "interfere" in his country . The last words in his book are "the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger "from the title of a book the "civilised "English District Commissioner intends to write . It is a final poke, after Achebe has used his considerable skills in a language not his own to share freely the culture of an Igbo village not yet contaminated by what the white man considers his superior civilisation! However he does not class all white men as the same :he points out the different attitudes and methods of the first missionary who came to them gently and cautiously and the later one who steam-rollered along believing his own way was the right one. It is a remarkable book to be written in the 1950s. Achebe has given a balanced story ,willingly sharing the bad things as well as the good in his own people. It is also interesting to note that the village was self sustaining. the community helped any poor and deserving person and there were no cases of starvation. Only the lazy were hungry. A serious thought :how much have our greedy western ways disrupted communities that were self maintaining and brought about the situation of refugees and starvation? Can we call what we have superior "civilisation "? I would recommend it to anyone going to live and work in another country 10/10

It did not keep me interested. It was well written - evocative of the time and country but nothing really to get a grip of. The Nigerian words even with a glossary didn't enhance a smooth reading so really the book disappointed me. 5/10

It was about African folklore and I thought the author described the village and clan life so well. I could visualise the characters and learnt so much about their lives. Although it was political in its conclusion this didn't deter from the story. I also enjoyed the stories of the tribes ' gods and the traditions they had to observe. What a wonderful character Okonkwo was. I did feel for him on the changes that he observed and had to endure. Like many others he preferred his "past" life but knew that change was inevitable. A memorable read! 8/10