Simona Hevešiová
In: Ars Aeterna. - ISSN 1337-9291. - Roč. 1, č. 1 (2009), s. 99-100.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Half of a Yellow Sun (2007).
The Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie cannot be regarded as a newcomer to the literary scene any more. Following the international acclaim of her debut novel Purple Hibiscus in 2004, her second book Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) has managed to amaze the world-wide readership as well. Growing up in the former house of one of the greatest African writers, Chinua Achebe, Adichie seems to be predestined to follow the same path bracing against her amazing gift of storytelling. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in
Being based on a historical account of the Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967-70, Half of a Yellow Sun recounts the individual narratives and traumas of people involved in the conflict. Adichie, born seven years after the war had ended, wrote the book because she “wanted to engage with [her] history in order to make sense of [her] present” (p. 2 of the P.S.) since she feels it is “still a potent political issue” (p. 3). Even though she has not experienced the conflict herself, Adichie stated several times that she regarded the war not as a history but as a memory. With the members of her own family being traumatized and haunted by the shadows of the war, Adichie felt an urgent need to reconstruct the destinies of ordinary people in a written form and thus reconcile with the traumatic legacy of her ancestors.
What is appealing about the novel is that it does not attempt to romanticize or idealize the past, nor does it provide a simplistic, black-and-white vision of the conflict. The narrative oscillates between the lives of three characters – Olanna, a teacher at Nsukka University; Ugwu, the houseboy of her lover Odenigbo and Richard, a British journalist and a great admirer of Igbo culture. All the characters are engulfed in the war and face almost unbearable situations. None of them is, however, heroized – Ugwu rapes a bar girl, Odenigbo impregnates a young girl and succumbs to drink, Olanna has sex with her sister’s lover and breaks the fragile bond between them, etc. Despite their lapses, the reader does not stop to feel compassion for them. It is the circumstances these characters find themselves in that challenge their very humanity.
Apart from the story itself, Half of a Yellow Sun excels in other aspects as well. Adichie’s amazing storytelling power results in a wonderfully paced story that combines history with the imaginative world created by the author. The vibrant narrative captures the reader’s attention from the first page to the last one, while the constant switches from one narrative perspective to another keep the story dynamic. There is no doubt that the novel has the potential to become a “literary masterpiece and a classic” as the front cover suggests.
Listen to Chimamanda talking about the novel on BBC World Book Club
Meeting Chimamanda in Washington, D.C. - July 2009
