[simpleazon-image align=”left” asin=”1400095204″ locale=”us” height=”500″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51t0Sk3VTML.jpg” width=”324″][simpleazon-link asin=”1400095204″ locale=”us”]Half of a Yellow Sun[/simpleazon-link] by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Half of a Yellow Sun is a fascinating book, but a lot to process if you come into it knowing nothing of Nigerian history. Complex politics involving tribes and nations in 1960’s Nigeria are sometimes difficult to follow and always hard to understand. The author explores the social, economic, and political issues of the time through complex and diverse characters and their experiences. Her way of personalizing the war and its horrors helps the reader to follow the unfolding civil war and its aftermath. The descriptions of the war were visceral and graphic and paralleled the passionate, violent, and even impotent sexual relations between the characters. This is not a light read, nor is it for the feint of heart. It is graphic in its violence and explicit in its sexual descriptions. This civil war had broader implications than most realized, and I learned a great deal. But, I couldn’t tell you who was “right” and who was “wrong” or who was to blame. The author offers up no true villains or heroes. Indeed there are none. Although, it did become clear that the persecution of the Biafrans was nothing short of genocide. Recommended for fans of historical fiction.

Quotes:

“Odenigbo will always be my name. Sir is arbitrary. You could be the sir tomorrow” (p. 13).

“It was like drinking glass after glass of water and still emerging thirsty, and with the stirring fear that he would never quench the thirst” (p. 65).

“This was love: a string of coincidences that gathered significance and became miracles” (p. 106).