Book review : Purple Hibiscus

Purple Hibiscus

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

Hello Charlie, It has been a long time ! 

I'm come back with a new article about a book I really enjoy and I wanted to share. 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a fabulous Nigerian writer who wrote "We should all be feminist", which I strongly recommend too. 

Before beginning, "We should all be feminist" and "Purple Hibiscus" are available at the school library, so do not hesitate to borrow it. 

Let's discover Purple Hibiscus !

« An intoxicating story that is at once distinctly feminine, African and universal » Observer

From the beginning, I was caught up by the authenticity of this univers and I was fascinated by the Nigerian culture. I thought the book mixing politics involvement, religious belief and family as a community or as a tyranny, has to be fascinating. As the Observer told it, Purplus Hibiscus is an universal story in which everyone can identify itself. 

The book is told through the perspective of a fifteen-year-old girl, Kambili. She is a young girl, quiet but an excellent student who idolizes her dad, an authoritarian violent Catholic patriarch. She is living in Enugu, Nigeria with her father, her submissive mother and her withdrawn brother, Jaja. A family, based on discipline and religion. Lost between fear and admiration toward their dad, Kambili and Jaja are not safe in their home since their dad makes them suffer from violent punishment. Thus, to protect them, they go to Nsukka, their Aunty Ifeoma’s home. There, Kambili discovers the real world, with its freedom and its joy. Kambili and Jaja are surprised by Ifeoma’s poverty and this new way of living, such as speaking freely at dinner time or the constant laughter in the house.

The character of Papa-Nnukwu is very important in Kambili’s evolution of thinking. When he moved to Nsukka because of his bad health, she first fears him as a « heathen » but she comes to know him and loves him as a grand-father, full of old traditional rituals and stories to tell. Him and his death are one of the striking events that contributes to Kambili’s open mind. 

In my opinion, Papa-Nnukwu represents the Nigerian roots which Papa wants to forget. Through this book, colonialism is treated on a personal level. Papa is described as a « colonial product » : a black man who wants to assimilate the white culture, its modernity and its way of life, to obliterate his own origin. On the other hand, his sister Aunty Ifeoma’s struggles for racial equality and rejects the idea of whiteness-equals-superiority. 

Furthermore, the fight of Nigeria’s independence could be a metaphore to Kambili’s growth. As she has to embrace her own culture and independence to grow up, Nigeria has to learn to become self-governing and autonomous.

Another very interesting character who supports Kambili in her progression is Father Amadi. I really loved him because he inspired me peace and calm and his presence created a feeling of protection. Kambili feels good with him and seems finally safe. Kambili fall in love with this young, handsome priest who gives her self-confidence and self-esteem. 

The most memorable moment of the book is when she laughs for the first time thanks to Father Amadi at the stadium. The scene was forceful because I feel extremely good as if I was sharing this moment with them. When Kambili finally laughed, I feel relieved and joyful. 

« Because Nsukka could free something deep inside your belly that would rise up to your throat and come out as a freedom song. A laughter. » This sentence told by Kambili at the end proves the importance of this new way of expression and her evolution about her behavior. 

I was really struck by her impressive evolvement through the story, as she grows up, she becomes mature and she finally thinks by herself. 

Some rough events forced her to move forward, her Aunty’s leaving to America, her dad’s death and her brother’s imprisonment. These lost are in reality the way she can finally progress by her own, making her personal choices, judging by herself, as an independent woman. 

I really enjoyed reading this book because I felt immersed in Nigeria’s atmosphere and culture which I didn’t know. Moreover, the characters often speaks their native language, Igbo, what makes the story more reliable, authentic and realistic.

To conclude, I will try to explain the title of the book, which I found very meaningful. The hibiscus is a flower growing in Aunty Ifeoma’s garden, as Kambili grows up, the flower blossoms. This symbol represents the freedom and individuality Kambili has to reach. Finally she is the one who blossomed throughout the book.

I hope you enjoyed it and it made you want to read it ! 

If you already read it, do not hesitate to share your opinion in comments.

Bye Charlie !

Book review : Legend of a Suicide

 Hi Charlie ! 

Today I am going to write a book review (yayy :D). The book I chose is Legend of a suicide, which was written by David Vann in 2008. It’s a story collection composed of five short stories and a quite long novella. The book is a semi-autobiographical tale about the impact of a father's suicide on his teenage son. The author, David Vann, represents his fictional self as Roy Fenn, and his father as Jim. The story is however a fiction and not a real autobiography, but as the author said, « Every fiction has its part of truth ».

What made me choose this book was the title of course (:D). I wonder why a suicide would make me want to read a book, but that’s one of the reasons why I did ! The other reason was (more understandable lol) it’s cover. It’s honestly very beautiful, a fish is basically represented by multiple little drawings, and the vivid colours caught my eye. 

Legend of a Suicide tells the story of a young man named Roy trying to contend with the pain of his father’s suicide. The book is an exploration of the tragic gaps between a boy and his father.

The first story is Ichthyology. Roy remembers his childhood in Alaska, where his father was a dentist. When Roy was about five years old, his father had an interest in women other than his wife. The marriage then breaks up and Roy moves to California with his mother.  After this event, Jim, the father, bought a fishing boat to wander lonely in the sea.

Rhoda is the title of the next story or chapter and the name of Roy’s new stepmother. Jim married Rhoda but it also ended with a divorce.  

A Legend of Good Men relates how Roy's mother was desired by many suitors after her divorce.

In Sukkwan Island, Jim decides to take his son to this island, to live in an isolated cabin for a year. It’s a wild island in southern Alaska, accessible only by the sea. Because of several personal failures he has done before, the father sees this as an opportunity to make a new start and to reconnect with his son, that he actually doesn’t know that much. The harshness of this life and the failings of the father who didn't prepare well for that stay and despite his confidence, has not any experiment in this domain soon turn their trip into a nightmare, and the situation quickly becomes hard to manage. 

In Ketchikan, Roy, who is now thirty, returns to the town of his early childhood, the place where his father had first gone astray. In Roy’s opinion, that’s the place where he should finally leave his father to eternal rest despite his grief.  

The last story, The Higher Blue, is a mixture of fantasy and narrative reality. They’re comments about Jim made by Roy's mother serve to bookend the novella.

I think the first word that comes to my mind when I think about this book is unforgettable. It brings very strong emotions and puts the reader face to face with the dark side of human nature. It’s difficult to read not because of the vocabulary, but because of the heavy atmosphere, the dark images, which make the book impossible to put down or to forget. The writing, intimate and, at times, painfully honest, takes the reader by the feelings by giving a lot of details about the situations. According to the author, the writing was supposed to be simple and to the point, while I only had this impression when it wasn’t omitting upsetting and dark details. The writing might be simple, but the meaning is hard to understand in the first place because of the complicated story.

Sukkwan Island, the novella in the heart of the book, was actually the most striking part. The other stories give a sort of context, a certain setting to the novella even though trying to link them is quite complicated (don’t make the understanding more difficult or your brain will explode lol). These stories also provide a framing to the main novella, which is told with the third-person while the others are told with the first-person through Roy’s point of view.

To conclude, I would vividly recommend this book. However, I would not advise it to the faint of heart, some moments are really hard to take and to imagine and the subject of the book treats a quite sensitive subject ( come on, it’s easy to get with the title lol ). I really liked the book anyway, the stories are very short (about 20 pages each), but Sukkwan Island is quite long (about 200 pages) . The book in the school’s library, do not hesitate to borrow it if I managed to convince you ! 

Have a good day ! 

Mélissa :D