Half of a Yellow Sun

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Adichie's smiling face peers out at me from inside the front cover of Half of a Yellow Sun, her big eyes focused kindly on me. Somehow this picture of the author, and the fact that she was born in 1977, just one year before I was born, made a big impression on me.

This is a beautifully told, very moving story and is all the more impressive when I realise that the author wasn't born until a decade after the main events of the novel: the Nigerian-Biafran war of 1967-1970.

The writing is intimate -- each character lovingly formed. Adichie dedicates the book to the memories of her grandparents, only two of whom survived the war. Reading the afterword, it is clear that writing this book was a very emotional journey for the author.

And I couldn't help picturing Adichie in my mind's eye when reading about the character, Olanna. I'm sure Adichie didn't intend Olanna to be modelled on herself, but I just couldn't replace the face in my mind with any other. It just seemed to fit.

The alternating perspectives by chapter gave glimpses of post-colonial life in Nigeria at many levels: the young village boy employed as a servant; the radical professor; the upper class young woman used to a life of luxury; the Englishman with his eyes continually being opened to the ways his country was involved in the atrocities.

The English colonial legacy remains, like a residue, coated to everything Nigerian in the early 1960s -- from the language people spoke to the food they ate and the clothes they wore. Adichie portrays this legacy subtly but with more than a tinge of humor.

But then the horrific, shocking and unforgettable events of the war bear down on Olanna and the others, and life becomes simply a matter of survival.

Adichie creates some searing images that will remain burned into my memory, like the haunting photos that came out of Biafra after the years of mass starvation.

If, like me, you know little to nothing about events in Nigeria in the 1960s, this book will open your eyes and give you the feeling that you, also, had friends who lived through those times.

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I read this book for the People of Color Reading Challenge and as part of Orange July.

Oranges in July

It's July! Here is our weather for the month:



In addition to torrential downpours, this month is the month for reading Orange prize winners and nominees, hosted by The Orange Prize Project.



By sheer coincidence, I'm partway into Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the 2007 Orange Prize winner.

For the last couple days I've been occupied with trying to catch a cold from my sweetheart so I can stay home and read instead of go to work. So far, no such luck. Maybe I should go rummage in the hospital's dumpster.

Kidding! But I am enjoying the book.

Are there any other Orange books on my list for this month? I mentioned earlier that my Mom is now reading the Orange list, and she's picked out Zadie Smith's On Beauty, the 2006 winner, to follow Adichie's novel.

I think two Orange winners in one month will be pretty great! I'm still hoping to read To Kill a Mockingbird this month too, so I think that will just about sum up my reading for this month.

Oh, and the new issue of National Geographic.

Happy Orange reading, everyone!

The Road Home

The Road Home by Rose Tremain


My rating: 2 of 5 stars

From the jacket blurb, this sounded really promising. An important contemporary issue. Culturally relevant, immediate. Orange Prize winner.

"Like so many others, Lev is on his way from Eastern Europe to Britain, seeking work. He is a tiny part of a vast diaspora that is changing British society at this very moment."

I've been able to see first-hand some of the effects of the wave of Eastern European (mostly Polish) immigration here in Scotland over the past couple years. A Polish deli opened here in Oban and then almost immediately closed down again. People complained in the newspaper about the bus drivers not speaking English. English classes have been in high demand.

Many of these newcomers have now left, perhaps gone back home to families with some money in their pockets. I thought a fictional exploration of this widespread phenomenon could be very illuminating.

This book was disappointing on so many levels. There were the niggly little things that bugged me throughout, which a good editor should have eliminated. For instance, Tremain went to GREAT lengths to avoid giving Lev a specific country of origin. Every time he met someone 'from his country' (which happened pretty often) you could see Tremain doing an elaborate dance of avoidance around THE COUNTRY WHICH MUST NOT BE NAMED.

The list of unbelievable moments is pretty long, as is the list of unconvincing characters. Some examples:

• Newcomer Lev's mobile phone rings during the opening of a fancy classical concert; he runs away. Mortifyingly idiotic.
• Mole-faced compatriot Lydia totally repulses Lev; why then does he keep calling her?
• Sophie the Gorgeous and Sexy Vixen ends up being just as treacherous as Christy the Bitter Irishman had predicted. Go figure.
• Lev leaves London for a bizarre but brief interlude in the asparagus fields where he gets seduced by two indistinguishable, effeminate Chinese boys. No follow up to this; he goes back to London and carries on where he left off, training to be a chef. Whatever!
• Lydia becomes pampered mistress to ancient symphony conductor from 'their country' and never calls Lev back.

I did like some bits. The pompous, showy chef GK Ashe is hilarious as a portrait of the enormous ego you might expect to find behind a high-end urban restaurant. Kitchen assistant Simone's irreverent menus for the old-people's home made me laugh aloud for several minutes.

Creme brulee jacked... from a recipe at GK Ashe
or
Watermelon sorbet with no black seeds or rubbish in it

Overall, I found Lev's character too inconsistent to follow intimately. He was brilliant and talented one minute and then a blockhead the next. He also struck me as weirdly emotionless. The other characters, such as Rudi, made wonderful sidekicks, but I wanted Lev to call the shots. He's the chef, after all?

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