Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1) in Around the World

Oct 12, 2012 Dioni rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, guardian-1000-novels

First published at: http://www.meexia.com/bookie/2014/06/...

I’d been meaning to read Things Fall Apart for ages, and was glad when I finally got to it. There is always a kind of trepidation when facing a classic giant, as the book is often put forward as the epitome of African writing and colonialism, amongst many others. I was so relieved to find that I absolutely enjoyed it from beginning to end.

The central character of the story is Okonkwo, a revered man in a small village in Nigeria. He has ...more

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Dec 18, 2007 Krista the Krazy Kataloguer rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-iic, read-adult-fiction, read-classics

In some ways, this was not an easy read. Achebe assumes that the reader has a certain amount of knowledge; for example, what raffia is. Though it did include a glossary in the back, it didn't include all the words I wondered about. Reading this book gave me an idea of what if must be like for people in countries very different from ours to try to read fiction written by American authors. Nevertheless, it was a fascinating book because of its very foreign quality. Achebe depicted a civilization t ...more

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Sep 12, 2012 Addy rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2012, fiction, west-africa, great-african-reads-book-club, nigeria, africa, library-loan, contemporary, novel

At first, I didn't like it, it's very slow moving until the middle of the book. Then it starts getting faster. I'm glad I kept reading until I got to the middle of the book. There are foreign words, make sure to get an edition that has a glossary at the back. That really helped. I didn't care for the misogyny, but for some reason, I liked the abrupt ending. Mainly because I didn't like Okonkwo. My first piece of African literature and I'm glad it was this one. ...more

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Apr 22, 2010 Steve Kettmann rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-i-read-a-long-time-ago

I read this one more than 25 years ago, so won't comment in detail, but I loved the engaging and direct tone and felt at the same time that the book had a greater heft than its (as I recall) relatively compact size might have led one to believe. I remember how much reading the book made me want to visit Nigeria and talk to people there. Maybe it's time to give this one a reread - and finally to get to Nigeria. ...more

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