There has been a lot of debate lately about the legitimacy of fiction depicting history Half of a Yellow Sun, is one such story which compels readers to ‘feel’ the facts of the Nigeria–Biafra war from 1967-70. This intimate and powerful, yet delicate novel focuses on the individual’s thoughts and emotions, the subtleties of human relationships and the psychological legacies of colonialism. The characters who deliver the story are: a young privileged middle-class Igbo woman, Olanna, a young servant village boy, Ugwu, and Richard, an English university lecturer. All are caught up in the unfolding political events of this time. The three main characters lives all intersect where they have to question their own responses to the vicious civil war that claimed more than two million lives (including the grandfathers of the writer among the many thousands of civilians dead).
Adichie’s father was Nigeria’s first university professor of statistics and the book's character of Richard is based on him.& The book opens with the young servant who longs to please the university lecturer to the point of ironing his socks - a domestic chore which goes horribly wrong resulting in the burning of the items. The lecturer recognizes that Ugwu is clever and deserves an education for which he is prepared to pay. A charming, lasting relationship is about to begin.
The backdrop of war does not overshadow the development of her characters with a detailed sketch of Nigeria as place: cashew trees, mangoes, mud walls, nouveau riche ostentation.
Adichie’s characters are disadvantaged by being themselves. She ingeniously uses their failings as a way of establishing a narrative tension and of creating comedy. Ugwu does not know enough; Olanna, beautiful and educated knows too much. These very different viewpoints puts the reader in the unique position of being able to see the effects of war on various levels of society. It is through this fictional account of such a war the reader can investigate the moral responsibility about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race and about the ways in which love can complicate all of these matters.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 29, won the 2007 Orange prize for fiction with this book. Adichie is a graduate of the African Studies program at Yale University. She does believe there is a long way to go before the new Nigerian novel can change the literary landscape of an impoverished country where bookshops are relatively few. Her novel has been the talk of middle-aged Nigerians and one such man described how the book had moved his wife to talk to him about her traumatic experiences four decades ago.
~Review by Melanie Pearson recommended by Dubai Women's College
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