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Things Fall Apart (Penguin Red Classics)
 
 
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Things Fall Apart (Penguin Red Classics) (Paperback)

by Chinua Achebe (Author) "Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond ..." (more)
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics (26 Jan 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141023384
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141023380
  • Product Dimensions: 18 x 11 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 543 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #1 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > A > Achebe, Chinua
    #22 in  Books > Fiction > By Period > 20th Century
    #69 in  Books > Fiction > Contemporary Fiction: 1970 Onwards

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
One of the most widely read novels from Nigeria's most famous novelist, Things Fall Apart is a gripping study of the problem of European colonialism in Africa. The story relates the cultural collision that occurs when Christian English missionaries arrive among the Ibos of Nigeria, bringing along their European ways of life and religion. In the novel, the Nigerian Okonkwo recognizes the cultural imperialism of the white men and tries to show his own people how their own society will fall apart if they exchange their own cultural core for that of the English. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description
Okonowo is the greatest warrior alive. His fame has spread like a bushfire in West Africa and he is one of the most powerful men of his clan. But he also has a fiery temper. Determined not to be like his father, he refuses to show weakness to anyone - even if the only way he can master his feelings is with his fists. When outsiders threaten the traditions of his clan, Okonowo takes violent action. Will the great man's dangerous pride eventually destroy him?

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Customer Reviews

60 Reviews
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3 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (60 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars from Keyne Readers, 17 May 2006
There was unanimous agreement in our Book Group that we had all enjoyed this book. We mostly came to it not knowing what to expect, and enjoyed the perspective it gave us into a completely different society and way of life.

The way in which the first part of the book was written helped us to see how the tribal system worked and what the old beliefs were, it made us a part of the village and you saw life through their eyes and their values. It enabled you to accept, for instance, the polygamy, the treatment of women, and the killing of twin children without condemnation. It was this description of the tribal life that helped us to see, in the second part, what a devastating effect the arrival of the missionaries had on the tribe and how it gradually divided them and changed their way of life for ever.

Okonkwo makes an unusual 'hero' or main character. We sympathise with his continual fight against his childhood circumstances, but this makes him ignore advice, arrogant, and unnecessarily brutal. He sees himself as cerebral, regarding passion as a weakness, so it is when he does demonstrate love and passion it stands out more starkly.

Chielo the priestess is interesting, both a well-known and loved village member, but also the oracle at the cave. Both with her, and with the egwugwu spirits of the ancestors, the villagers show an amazing ability to suspend disbelief.

We thought that the building of the missionaries' church on the ground of the evil spirits was a clever device which allowed the 'white man' to demonstrate the weakness of the traditional religion. Nevertheless the end took us all by surprise, nothing had prepared you for it, as by this time you had identified with the life of the villagers. It was made even more poignant when you realised that the story would only merit a paragraph in the Commissioner's book.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Cultural Awakening, 20 April 2006
By Sancho Mahle (Charlotte, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Okonkwo epitomized a die-hard African traditionalist with a firm conviction in the destiny of his people, yet a man who failed to accept the inevitable changes in his world. Things fall apart exposes us to the culture of the Ibo people of Nigeria and brings out the characters to the understandable to the reader. In our own little ways, we are like Okonkwo, caught in a world where we have little influence. The lesson is that No matter how powerful we are, we should not impose our wills on others, especially a will that reflects our egos and not the interest of humanity. Clash of cultures is what this book tells us about. Just as in THE USURPER AND OTHER STORIES, NO LONGER AT EASE,THE OLD MAN AND THE MEDAL, TRIPLE AGENT DOUBLE CROSS, one gets a better idea of what Africans and other native peoples went through after being left with no choice but to accept the values and laws of the foreign powers that came into their lives.
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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A masterful account of the downfall of a civilisation, 15 Oct 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Things Fall Apart (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)
Ironically, I got turned on to this book by a piece of music. For years I'd marvelled at The Roots' album whose name, I recently found out, was taken from the title of this book. Having a degree in English Literature dominated by DWEM (dead white european males), Achebe's name had never even surfaced on my radar. What a travesty. Things fall apart is the perfect account of a dead civilisation, following a man, Okinkwo, as he battles with his culture, only to see it destroyed from both within and without by European colonialism. In contradiction to other accounts of Africa (such as Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'), Achebe's account is beautiful for its lack of Orientalist language and allusions, treating the complexities of indiginous Africa as both beautiful and, above all, natural. Neither the Africans, nor the collonialists, are treated as unusual oddities, instead the author manages to impartially portray people, events and traditions with astounding pragmatism, the simple, often abrupt language only reinforcing the novel's lack of sentimentality. A miraculous novel, Things Fall Apart not only paints a picture of Africa during its golden-age, but also demonstrates the ignorance and orientalism which led to its destruction. A true masterpiece.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Things Fall Apart - To fight or not to fight?
I orderd this book in response to a south bank show broadcast on Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; I was inspired to read Things Fall Apart. Read more
Published 6 days ago by D. Hendy

5.0 out of 5 stars Things Fall Apart- a warm and sensitive narrative
I started reading this with some trepidation, I warmed to this and could not put it down. I was transported into this other world with its customs and mindsets and felt the shock... Read more
Published 11 days ago by G. R. Hansford

4.0 out of 5 stars Tribalism of West Africa prior to the Christian Missionaries.
A well written book describing the extensive and extreme physical violence among the the primitive tribes of the villages of West Africa with fatalistic belief in Gods and the... Read more
Published 20 days ago by Dr. David Gateshill Hardy

5.0 out of 5 stars Chinua and his finest work
Written with such simplicity yet powerfull in it's cultural content. Certainly leaves one thinking about the great pride and indignation suffered at the hands of our so called... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ms. G. Taylor

4.0 out of 5 stars The God Delusion
This is a short, fascinating and influential book in the history of African writing. In the first half a detailed, colourful picture is drawn of life in a village with its... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. R. Hale

4.0 out of 5 stars A eye-opening book
This book is currently studied at AS Level for AQA and it thoroughly deserves that honour because it is a great book. Read more
Published 1 month ago by J. Blake

5.0 out of 5 stars Great literature by the standards of any culture
Read just the first paragraph of 'Things Fall Apart' and you will know that you are in the hands of an exceptional writer. Read more
Published 1 month ago by John Williams

5.0 out of 5 stars African literature
Set at the end of the 19th century beginning of the 20th it tells how African village life was at the time, rather brutal and riddled with superstition in fact but missionaries,... Read more
Published 2 months ago by P. GRESWELL

4.0 out of 5 stars The Subtle Erosion of a Way of Life
This story is told through the eyes of Okonkwo, an outsider in his tribe, he becomes a great warrior and begins to climb the path to the status of one of the tribal leaders. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley

5.0 out of 5 stars End of a civilisation, or just the beginning?
Achebe's modern classic, first published in 1958, tells the story of Okonkwo, an up and coming leader of an Igbo village in Africa. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Binro The Heretic

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