'All Falls Apart' by Chinua Achebe

Hey!

So its been ages since I have posted, apologies firstly! I am just going to get to it.

A couple of weeks ago I read 'All Falls Apart' by Chinua Achebe. This book wasn't a book that actually appealed to me, it was actualy in my reading list for one of my modules. You can guess which module... yes you got it ! My postcolonial module, which is proving to be very interesting by the way (more on that module in future posts). So this novel is set in (what we assume to be) a time before colonisation in what in modern day would be called Nigeria. It is a novel which follows a protagonist named Okonkwo who inhibits many of the typical aspects of an african man ... or what society dictates as an african man. He is a great warrior with a huge sum of pride. The first half of the novel is centred around Okonkwo's past and present life with his wives and children. Whilst the second half is centred around the intrusion of the west into the village and the consequences.

I found this novel very interesting, it was also very easy to read. Whilst this novel proved interesting as it presented a history of (a part) of Africa prior to colonisation, which you rarely find in canonical literature. I found that ending distressing as the last word was given to the coloniser which I felt almost belittled everything the author had worked to achieve throughout the novel. As I said previously this isn't a novel which would normally appeal to me ( I am sucker for romantic plots) this novel in itself was educational and a nice change.

Anyways that was a short summary and review of this novel, I am hoping to blog much more than I have been in the past few months.

So watch this space

F.
12/11