Things Fall Apart

I just finished reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. It was certainly one of the more interesting reads I've had of late. The story is based in tribal Nigeria, centered upon a male character who strives for manliness above all else. He praises bravery, masculinity, strength, titles, self-determinism, and all things machismo. The whole story I was waiting for when he was "going to get it." When he was going to realize how ridiculous patriarchal society is. How destructive blood-thirst is. How treating women as inferiors is disgusting.

As a woman reading this tale, I'm not going to lie, many things made me angry twinged with sadness, and that is why I think Achebe told his tale quite well. Any author who can rouse such emotions (even negative ones) has a gift. There are many issues that popped up within his writing such as sexism, culturalism, imperialism, religion, story-telling, respect, war, justice, status, and so on. While I had trouble getting into the book because I thought the tale would be overly simple, I am quite pleased with array of questions and slice of African culture that this novel has to offer.