Old English Rose Reads

Review: ‘Things Fall Apart’ by Chinua Achebe

Title: Things Fall Apart

Author: Chinua Achebe

Published: Heinemann, 1986, pp. 152.  Originally published 1958

Genre: African fiction

Blurb: The story is the tragedy of Okonkwo, an important man in the Igbo tribe in the days when white men were first appearing on the scene…  Mr Achebe’s very simple but excellent novel tells of the series of events by which Okonkwo through his pride and his fears becomes exiled from his tribe and returns, only to be forced into the ignominy of suicide to escape the results of his rash courage against the white man…  He handles the macabre with telling restraint and the pathetic without any false sense of embarrassment.

When, where and why: I bought this book because it was on a list of potential extra reading for a lecture on post-colonialism in my first year of university, part of a course introducing us to different literary ideas.  Evidently I decided post-colonial literature wasn’t for me, as I focused on different areas of that course for essays and exams and this book has gone unread ever since.  I decided to read it now as it’s very different from what I usually read (books by people who tend to be white, probably British and most likely dead) and I think it’s good to read outside my usual box from time to time.  It qualifies as book 26/50 for my Books Off the Shelf Challenge.

What I thought: I’ve already said that post-colonial literature isn’t really my thing, and this book sadly did nothing to change that.  I’m not denying that Chinua Achebe does accomplish what he sets out to do in Things Fall Apart by presenting an alternative view of the white colonisation of Africa, and I’m sure it’s very clever, but for me it wasn’t an enjoyable read.  Although there were some aspects that I really liked,  the vast majority was not to my taste at all.

What I enjoyed about the text was its presentation of Igbo culture and customs.  I think that the use of Igbo words is particularly effective in creating a sense of place, although I was very glad that I accidentally discovered the glossary at the back of the book as until that point I had felt rather lost.  There are some surprisingly humorous moments which serve to illustrate the differences between the expected norm of Igbo society and what an audience of western readers might assume, such as when a huge swarm of locusts arrives in the village.  To me, this suggested a plague of Biblical proportions and disaster for the village, but in fact the villagers are excited and pleased because locusts are a rare and tasty delicacy and so the swarm represents an opportunity for a welcome change in diet, and I really enjoyed this reversal of my expectations.  In a similar vein is the supremely logical explanation of polytheism by one of the villagers:

We make sacrifices to the little gods, but when they fail and there is no one else to turn to we go to Chukwu.  It is right to do so.  We approach a great man through his servants.  But when his servants fail to help us, then we go to the last source of hope.  We appear to pay greater attention to the little gods but that is not so.  We worry them more because we are afraid to worry their master.  (p. 129)

Unfortunately, while the setting and background of Things Fall Apart is an interesting departure from what I usually read, I found the story to be a disappointment.  The narrative is episodic, but these episodes often seem unfinished.  In one chapter, a child is sick and it is feared that she might die, but in the following chapter it appears that some time has passed and the child is well again although there has been no mention of a cure or recovery.  In another chapter, the poor weather means that Okonkwo’s entire crop fails leaving him near destitute, yet in the next one he is a rich, respected man with a successful farm and no indication of how he passed from one state to the other.  The resolution of important plot points that I expected rarely came, and I found this lack of completion increasingly irritating.  Perhaps the unfinished episodes are supposed to reflect that things are falling apart, but whatever the reason it isn’t for me.

Narrative aside, the primary obstacle to my enjoyment was the protagonist.  Okonkwo is utterly unlikeable, but isn’t the sort of interesting villain that I enjoy disliking: he is brutish, violent and pigheaded.  Although there are suggestions that Okonkwo does have feelings but society and cultural conventions force him not to show them because that would be weak, he seems unique in his brutality rather than fllowing an accepted trend.  Okonkwo beats his wives and even tries to shoot one of them, yet another man who does the same is condemned and punished by the tribe, so this casual violence cannot be an accepted norm.  I disliked him so much that I couldn’t bring myself to care when things fell apart for him, particularly as this was at least partially through his own actions.

Overall, I enjoyed this book as a presentation of a particular culture but not as a story, and I think it would have been more effective for me if both had been equally as good.

Where this book goes: Although this wasn’t my favourite book (to say the least) I’m going to keep it along with my other university books.  I consider them to be a physical record of what I have studied, good and bad, and even though I didn’t actually read this one until much later it still belongs with the rest of them.

Tea talk: I’ve been continuing with my little sample packet of Char’s Assam recently.  It has a much more robust taste than I tend to favour, but with practice I’m managing to brew it just right so it’s delicious to drink.  I’m tempted to order myself a larger tin of this soon, as I’ve only got enough left for one or two cups.

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