Things Fall Apart: A Novel

As other reviewers have noted, it's usually not the best when you're being forced to read it for a class. But look at it this way: most books aren't. If you're in that situation, try to get past the coercion factor and the problem of grades, and read this book for yourself. It's a "classic" -- that's why they're making you read it -- and no one hates "classics" more than I, but THINGS FALL APART is much, much more than a "classic" work of fiction. It is a tragedy, deeply felt, that draws an unerring portrait of human nature and especially human conflict. It is a good story, and one beautifully told. It is an education you owe to yourself. And if that's still not enough: it's short.


Things Fall Into Place   September 21, 2004
 19 out of 20 found this review helpful


The more the reader thinks about Things Fall Apart, the more he becomes aware that the heart of a story is about the struggles of an individual and less about what is a compelling and unsentimental survey of Nigeria's Ibo culture just before the arrival of white settlers.

The story's protagonist is Okonkwo, who at first appears to be a model warrior and self-made man who slowly discovers that the attributes he believed would serve him well as an adult instead breed a fear of failure and profound frustration. He is a complex and heavy-handed head of his household who is at once sympathetic and cruel.

Most of the story is told before the actual appearance of the first white settlers, but their pending arrival hangs over the middle part of the book like a rain cloud. By the time it actually happens in the last 50 or so pages of the book, Okonkwo has been driven into exile, his life a shambles. He has only a slim hope of redemption, and that is shattered by the arrival of the settlers.

Okonkwo's story is a relevant one even at a time when cultural and political imperialism has turned away from Africa toward the Middle East, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. But more important than its relevance is its artistry: it is a deceptively simple epic tale somehow packed into just over 200 pages, and one of the most impressive first novels on record. Don't miss it.


Dull, unpleasant, and disrespectful to African culture   November 3, 2005
 19 out of 50 found this review helpful

Eyes have this odd tendency to skim across words without any comprehension when reading dull pages. This book, with its complete lack of plot, confusing character names, boring details, and unlikable characters, is the perfect example. You can read pages and pages of this book without absorbing a word. Both the poor writing style and context will turn anyone off.

The book has many flaws, the first of which is its inability to interest the reader. The storyline is lacking: boring, full of inconsequential details, ceremony after ceremony, none of which are given any significance in the book. The shallow, one-sided characters are impossible to relate to, and the main character, Okonkwo, is simply appalling. He beats his wife, kills his adopted son, and will do anything to preserve the image he wants to maintain. He and other characters are static, far too predictable, and lacking any sort of depth.

This book is often touted as an example of brilliant African literature, but rather than glorify Africa and Africans, it in fact degrades them. More detail below...

Disproving the Western image of Africans as savages is in fact one of author Achebe's purposes in writing the book (or so we learn in English class), but in his unbalanced portrayal of Ibo culture he in fact strengthens rather than weakens this stereotype. One of Achebe's first depictions of Ibo culture is when he illustrates how murder is perceived in Umuofia. He describes the honor and admiration that can come with it, such as the status Okonkwo gains with his "trophies" from war. These "trophies" may come as a shock to readers.

"In Umuofia's latest war he was the first to bring home a human head. That was his fifth head; and he was not an old man yet. On great occasions as the funeral of a village celebrity he drank his palm-wine from his first human head."

He shows the killing of other people as an honorable act in Ibo culture, even though he later changes his mind and attempts to claim murder can also be dishonorable. Rather than stressing the more peaceful aspect of their culture, Achebe paints an image distasteful to most Western readers. Drinking palm-wine out of heads? Certainly not a good way to destroy the stereotype of the bloodthirsty African savage.

But not only does he reinforce the stereotype, but Achebe also manages to show Africans as heathens. In the egwugwu ceremony (yet another ceremony), Achebe portrays the villagers as disbelieving in this own gods. At times Achebe gives examples to prove that the Ibo believe in their gods, but with much contradicting evidence, such as the fact the women recognize that their "god" is Okonkwo in disguise but say nothing), the claim is not very convincing. Instead, he shows how they cling to gods they know are false and thus insults the Ibo culture by portraying the people as disbelievers in their own gods.

He describes all their cruel practices. For example, Nwoye has heard that twins are put in earthenware pots and thrown away in the forest, a practice not only repugnant to Western readers, but also mentioned in the context of faults with the Ibo culture. Leaving innocent babies to die in a forest has no excuses in Western culture; it is wrong. They not only would die a slow, painful death of starvation, but also face the risk of being eaten alive or brutally attacked by wild animals.

In a book little more than 200 pages, Achebe could have filled the pages with the positive - and lesser-known - aspects of the Ibo culture. Instead, he chooses to include all the values and attitudes that would appear immoral and criminal to Western readers. He shows that Nwoye does not agree with these brutal practices, but it does little help, since Achebe makes Nwoye renounce his old ways and become a Christian. This sends the message that the morals of the British are superior to those of the Ibo people, who are cast aside as heartless villains. Near the end of the book, Achebe suddenly attempts to make things fair; he portrays the British as unkind and merciless as well. However, this cannot make up for his consistent focus on more "savage" ways of the Ibo people. Therefore, Achebe simply reinforces negative and xenophobic stereotypes, not only of the Ibo - but of any culture that is different than one's own. Horror stories of African savages are nothing new to Westerners, and Achebe does no more than provide a few more, in the place of a fresh, enlightening view that would instead emphasize the best aspects of Ibo culture.

Please, don't read this book. Schools have not yet realized the truth about it and continue to portray it as a celebration of African literature, not the terrible piece of writing it is, so if you are forced at school to read, I offer my deepest sympathies. If, however, you wish to read it for fun, I warn you yet again: This is an awful book.


Okonkwo and lots of Mumbo-Jumbo   January 4, 2004
 18 out of 53 found this review helpful

This is one of those "politically correct" books they force you to read in school, in hope of "broadening our horizons" and "opening our minds."

Well, this book perpetuates stereotypes and re- inforces the idea that European colonists were "culture- destroyers"- despite the fact that they brought civilization to primitive people like those in this book that would be in the same condition or not even alive today if it weren't for advances brought by colonists.

Furthermore, the whole book is a completely ineffective argument against colonialism. Achebe spends the whole book convincing us with his vivid depictions of life in this villiage that these people are barbaric and simple- minded, and need civilization. Instead of showing us how they respond on an emotional and intellectual level like "civilized" people, and showing that their traditions have meaning, he gives us scene after scene of child abuse, wife abuse, primitive laws and what more.

Yet, after all that, he then portrays the missionaries as evil, as well! Pick one side and stick with it, Chinua.


Potentially deadly, so be careful.   April 27, 2000
 15 out of 16 found this review helpful

Because it's easy to read but hard to interpret, Achebe's masterwork has become a fixture thoughout secondary and higher education. Unfortunately, its current status as a "classic text" as well as a multicultural icon threatens to make it merely another institutional artifact rather than the genuinely provocative text it is capable of being. Achebe does not gloss over the apparently savage, cruel, sexist practices of the Ibo people before the arrival of the white missionaries. Yet students are quick to overlook these tensions in the narrative, preferring to go for the "platitudes" about imperialism that they know are expected of them in the classroom devoted to assuring "diversity" is in the curriculum. The other "tension" that is often overlooked is one outside the text: respecting the autonomy and identity of an African country by staying out of its affairs vs. intervening to bring an end to mass genocide (Rwanda), starvation (Ethiopia), and enslavement of children (Sudan). Why is it a "moral imperative" for the West to interfere in Kosovo but not in Rwanda? If these tensions are not confronted, the novel is a well-crafted folk tale about a tragic hero, and also another occasion for student apathy. Achebe himself has invited strong moral judgements about his text by applying the same to Conrad's "Heart of Darkness."