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Product Description
Obi Okonkwo is an idealistic young man who, thanks to the privileges of an education in Britain, has now returned to Nigeria for a job in the civil service. However in his new role he finds that the way of government seems to be backhanders and corruption. Obi manages to resist the bribes that are offered to him, but when he falls in love with an unsuitable girl - to the disapproval of his parents - he sinks further into emotional and financial turmoil. The lure of easy money becomes harder to refuse, and Obi becomes caught in a trap he cannot escape.
Showing a man lost in cultural limbo, and a Nigeria entering a new age of disillusionment, No Longer at Ease concludes Achebe's remarkable trilogy charting three generations of an African community under the impact of colonialism, the first two volumes of which are Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God.
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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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I've acquired a taste for Achebe and his ways, but this lesser known work is the one that I've enjoyed most. The author has come under criticism from feminists for the relegation of women in his novels, but for me he is describing a reality rather than making value judgements himself.
Some of Achebe's literature is difficult for a twenty-first century Westerner to understand as it focuses so much on the traditional African ways of life, and perhaps this novel, set in the 1960's in the city of Lagos, is easier for us to comprehend. This book captured my full sympathies: it is easy to see the inevitability of corruption in the society Achebe is describing, and the reader is encouraged to journey on a downward spiral along with the protagonist. Thus the reader forms a bond with the youthful, intelligent and idealistic Obi and is left drenched with a sense of poignancy and anger.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
No Longer at Ease is beautifully written book about colonialism and the alienating influence it has on those Africans who lose touch with their roots as they try to adapt to the changing times. I enjoyed this rich, challenging and fascinating story. The Usurper and Other Stories, The Village of waiting, Disciples of Fortune, Anthills of the Savannah, Triple Agent Double Cross are some of the other African titles I enjoyed.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Chinua Achebe's has the supreme ability to tell a story. With Achebe, there is no high-minded judgment, no ascription of guilt, no rebuttal of colonialism, and no axe to grind. In this wonderful book, Achebe takes the reader on a journey, charting the inexorable descent of a dashing, idealistic civil servant in Colonial Nigeria.
The novel is set in the 1950s. The protagonist is the young, Western-educated Obi Okonkwo. Obi, the grandson of Okonkwo, the tragic protagonist of Achebe's great novel, Things Fall Apart, is sent on a scholarship to Great Britain, where he studies English. On his return to Nigeria, Obi is automatically catapulted into the elite ranks of the Civil Service; he receives a nice car and a posh apartment in a smart 'all European' neighbourhood in the capital city, Lagos. At the age of twenty-five, Obi, who was raised in a provincial backwater, seems to be on his way to the top.
However, all is not well with Obi. He struggles to reconcile his Western training and Christian upbringing with his native Ibo traditions. In time, Obi falls for the beautiful Clara and proposes to marry her. One small snag: Clara belongs to a cast of untouchables called the Osu. His parents, especially his dying mother, are dead set against the union. Moreover, the tactless Obi is beset by financial problems almost from the onset; he cannot seem to make ends meet even on his government salary. His problems are compounded by his mother's death and Clara's unexpected pregnancy. Reality slowly erodes Obi's idealism and he finds that he cannot resist the lucre that his Civil Service position offers. Alas, such ill-gotten wealth is a poisoned chalice. Our hero is caught accepting a bribe, and this rising star declines ignominiously.
No Longer at Ease is perhaps the most accessible of Achebe's writings, as it is set in the 1950's (mostly in Lagos). It features an interesting range of characters. They include Mr Greene, Obi's paternalistic 'old school' colonial boss, who cannot stand educated Africans and is disappointed that his mission to `civilise the African' seems to have failed; Ms Tomlinson, the attractive English spinster doing a stint in the Colonies; and Isaac Okonkwo, Obi's father, whose unflinching practice of Christianity has alienated him from his native traditions.
As a Nigerian, who was raised in Lagos, I thoroughly appreciated how Achebe captured the sometimes irreconcilable tension between traditional and modern values. One of the most poignant passages in the novel is a conversation between Obi Okonkwo and his father. Obi tries to convince his father that the fact that Clara is an untouchable should not matter since they are Christians. Obi says, "The Bible says that in Christ there are no bond and free". His father replies, "My son, I understand what you say but this thing is deeper than you think". Yes, Nigeria's glib acceptance of modernity belies a deep sense of dislocation from one's cultures.
Like a master painter, Achebe captures this sense of alienation and how it has transmuted into public apathy to - even disdain for - the institutions that pass for government in post-colonial Nigeria. No Longer at Ease, like Things Fall Apart and A Man of the People before it, deserves my five stars.
The novel is set in the 1950s. The protagonist is the young, Western-educated Obi Okonkwo. Obi, the grandson of Okonkwo, the tragic protagonist of Achebe's great novel, Things Fall Apart, is sent on a scholarship to Great Britain, where he studies English. On his return to Nigeria, Obi is automatically catapulted into the elite ranks of the Civil Service; he receives a nice car and a posh apartment in a smart 'all European' neighbourhood in the capital city, Lagos. At the age of twenty-five, Obi, who was raised in a provincial backwater, seems to be on his way to the top.
However, all is not well with Obi. He struggles to reconcile his Western training and Christian upbringing with his native Ibo traditions. In time, Obi falls for the beautiful Clara and proposes to marry her. One small snag: Clara belongs to a cast of untouchables called the Osu. His parents, especially his dying mother, are dead set against the union. Moreover, the tactless Obi is beset by financial problems almost from the onset; he cannot seem to make ends meet even on his government salary. His problems are compounded by his mother's death and Clara's unexpected pregnancy. Reality slowly erodes Obi's idealism and he finds that he cannot resist the lucre that his Civil Service position offers. Alas, such ill-gotten wealth is a poisoned chalice. Our hero is caught accepting a bribe, and this rising star declines ignominiously.
No Longer at Ease is perhaps the most accessible of Achebe's writings, as it is set in the 1950's (mostly in Lagos). It features an interesting range of characters. They include Mr Greene, Obi's paternalistic 'old school' colonial boss, who cannot stand educated Africans and is disappointed that his mission to `civilise the African' seems to have failed; Ms Tomlinson, the attractive English spinster doing a stint in the Colonies; and Isaac Okonkwo, Obi's father, whose unflinching practice of Christianity has alienated him from his native traditions.
As a Nigerian, who was raised in Lagos, I thoroughly appreciated how Achebe captured the sometimes irreconcilable tension between traditional and modern values. One of the most poignant passages in the novel is a conversation between Obi Okonkwo and his father. Obi tries to convince his father that the fact that Clara is an untouchable should not matter since they are Christians. Obi says, "The Bible says that in Christ there are no bond and free". His father replies, "My son, I understand what you say but this thing is deeper than you think". Yes, Nigeria's glib acceptance of modernity belies a deep sense of dislocation from one's cultures.
Like a master painter, Achebe captures this sense of alienation and how it has transmuted into public apathy to - even disdain for - the institutions that pass for government in post-colonial Nigeria. No Longer at Ease, like Things Fall Apart and A Man of the People before it, deserves my five stars.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
No Longer at Ease
Having just discovered Achebe and been bowled over by "Things Fall Apart", I thought at first that this lacked the former's authentic magic of the evocation of tribal life amongst... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Antenna
no longer at ease
No Longer at Ease (Penguin Modern Classics)
This book was the second in the trilogy ( although my book jacket stated it was the third) and i found this book not as engaging as... Read more
This book was the second in the trilogy ( although my book jacket stated it was the third) and i found this book not as engaging as... Read more
Published on 7 April 2010 by R. Abraham Fisher
Best suited for younger readers
This book is best suited for younger readers as it is quite small. It gave me an insight of Nigeria 1950's and 1960's but I finished it within two hours even though I took a break... Read more
Published on 12 Jun 2009 by Georgia Ugwu
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