Half A Yellow Sun

Title: Half A Yellow Sun
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Pages: 560
Yearly Count: 63
Country: Nigeria, Africa.
Prizes: Orange Broadband Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, New York Times Notable Book, A People and Black Issues Book Review Best Book of The Year

Pretty impressive list of awards, and prizes, no? What more could I say about this book? Well, obviously I can't leave my review at that...so here it goes. Half a Yellow Sun is based on the Nigeria-Biafra War that happened in Nigeria from 1967-70. Adichie's writing is an intact narrative and description of the horrors that surrounded those years in Nigeria. Chiamamanda stunned me every step of the way. I loved/hated every second of reading this book.

Have any of you seen The Fifth Element with Bruce Willis? Well, if you have you will remember the fifth element girl Lulu (right?), and when she is watching the history of man through her neato tv-glasses. She watches, all the wars, genocides, hate crimes, shootings, rape and all the things man has done to each other at a warped speed and then she is so stunned by the atrocities that she rolls up into a ball and cries and does not want to help save mankind, because we are evil. (if you haven't seen it, do...I liked it) So that is how I felt, this is not a short book, it is 560 pages, and I felt constant drain on my emotions and intensity built up inside me, so much so that I still can't think of anything else. Mankind is bad. We have done such horrid things to each other. However even if I was crying in the corner, I know for sure that I will read every book she writes, as long as I can read a stupid book in between!!! (stupid as in brainless :)

Half A Yellow Sun will not hide grief or pain, it will not soothe over the bad, and only emphasize the good. Trust me on that one, or better yet: YOU READ IT!!! I did love/hate Half A Yellow Sun. I loved it because it is an amazing book, about an epoch in our history that we must not forget, and hated because after reading it I am no longer naive of the horrors that occured. To value our history is to not repeat it, right? Let's try that.

I figured all you bookies would enjoy this picture of the author, surrounded by books :)

Here are some videos of lectures by Chimamanda:


To continue on with this lecture:
Part 2
Part 3




Did you read and review this book, give me your link, I'll put it right here :)
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