- Paperback: 120 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Classics (28 Jan 2010)
- Language Unknown
- ISBN-10: 0143026232
- ISBN-13: 978-0143026235
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 1.2 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 527,367 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
This is the classic collection of Chinua Achebe's short fiction, written over twenty years and drawn from literary journals and magazines, to be made available to the wider public. The earliest, 'Marriage is a Private Affair' (1952), dates back to his student days at Ibadan, Nigeria, while the latest, 'Vengeful Creditor' and 'Civil Peace' (1971), are stories of the Nigerian civil war. 'Girls at War', the title story, is about the tragic effects of war on the civilian population, in particular on one girl, who sets out with high ideals which vanish as the war drags on and the need for food replaces the need for ideals.
This collection provides an interesting cross-section of Achebe's work and the development of his key themes and distinctive style against the significant historical and political backdrop of Africa in the decades between 1952 and 1972.
About the Author
Chinua Achebe was born in Nigeria in 1930. He was raised in the large village of Ogidi, one of the first centers of Anglican missionary work in Eastern Nigeria, and is a graduate of University College, Ibadan. His early career in radio ended abruptly in 1966, when he left his post as Director of External Broadcasting in Nigeria during the national upheaval that led to the Biafran War. Achebe joined the Biafran Ministry of Information and represented Biafra on various diplomatic and fund-raising missions. He was appointed Senior Research Fellow at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and began lecturing widely abroad. For over fifteen years, he was the Charles P. Stevenson Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College. He is now the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and professor of Africana studies at Brown University. Chinua Achebe has written over twenty books - novels, short stories, essays and collections of poetry - and has received numerous honours from around the world, including the Honourary Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as honourary doctorates from more than thirty colleges and universities. He is also the recipient of Nigeria's highest award for intellectual achievement, the Nigerian National Merit Award. In 2007, he won the Man Booker International Prize for Fiction.
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3 reviews
44 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Great stories by a master writer
8 Dec 2000
Format:Paperback
This is an impressive collection of short stories that covers a twenty-year period of Achebe's writing. They also cover a period of history in his native Nigeria that spans from the late colonial period to the Biafran war. In them Achebe explores various aspects of a predominant theme in his work, i.e. tradition vs. modernism in his country (as introduced by British colonial administration). The various stories offer glimpses into the lives of people from various classes and walks of life. Achebe has a concise and eloquent writing style; he has an almost singular talent for making very pertinent observations in an extremely pithy fashion. Thus, for example, in the few pages of a story like "Dead Man's Path," Achebe brings to life the problems which ensue from the drive for quick modernization, the desire to adhere to tradition and the hypocrisy of Nigeria's colonial administrators. Also impressive is Achebe's mastery of narrative styles, i.e. first person, omiscient, etc. These stories can be read on their own, or as a supplement to Achebe's similarly powerful novels.
17 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Learn about Nigeria
6 Dec 2004
Format:Paperback
Did you know that free schooling was only briefly offered in Nigeria? There's a poignant story about it here.
I learned a lot about Nigeria from these stories. Sometimes, the stories seemed to end a little too abruptly, but I guess that's part of the story format: it has to end sooner than a short novel, anyway.
Mr. Achebe is a fine storyteller and he has many interesting things to say about the people and customs of Nigeria. I recommend this book, but only after first reading his classic novel about 19th century Ibo tribe people, Things Fall Apart.
After reading these stories, I was both attracted to Nigeria and repelled by it (I've never been to Africa). Achebe does a good job of capturing the ambivalence aroused by Nigeria's exotic nature (to Americans) mixed with its societal dysfunctions.
Diximus.
I learned a lot about Nigeria from these stories. Sometimes, the stories seemed to end a little too abruptly, but I guess that's part of the story format: it has to end sooner than a short novel, anyway.
Mr. Achebe is a fine storyteller and he has many interesting things to say about the people and customs of Nigeria. I recommend this book, but only after first reading his classic novel about 19th century Ibo tribe people, Things Fall Apart.
After reading these stories, I was both attracted to Nigeria and repelled by it (I've never been to Africa). Achebe does a good job of capturing the ambivalence aroused by Nigeria's exotic nature (to Americans) mixed with its societal dysfunctions.
Diximus.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Good one
7 Jun 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Very impressed. I am glad I read it again after all these years. The story of the Mad Man is very funny. I was cracking up while reading it.
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