Things Fall Apart

This is a wonderful novel, with excellent incite in the the Igbo tribe in Nigeria at the beginning of colonization.

The book is an easy read, but well written. It reads like a spoken tale which makes it quite unique.
Though some may have trouble understanding or sympathizing with the characters, as some of my classmates did, one must realize how much a culture affects its members, and that, were we in the same culture, would likely follow the customs as well.
The end IS abrupt, but look closely--you will see why.

A very interesting story about what life was like in Africa before colonization and how it changed after it.

I purchased this book for my niece for her English Comp II course in college. She loved the book has read it once already and is re-reading it again.

A story about the tragic loss of a proud man and his culture. In the beginning of the book, Mr Achebe provides a narrative of the cultural practices and norms in this Nigerian society. These characters are not necessarily painted with a sympathetic brush and many of their cultural practices seem to be arbitrary, capricious and harmful. What is amazing about the first part of the book is realizing how variable the fabric of different cultures can be and wondering how certain cultural practices came to be accepted as obvious. The characters themselves often wonder at the reasons behind these practices but they are seen as being as fixed as the African soil where their feet tread. Regardless of your sympathies, the reader can't help but get fully absorbed in the communities involved and mourn the loss of a once proud man Okwonko. Okwonko is a man who is wholly invested in tribal life. His life's ambition is to be accepted in to the culture as a well-respected man. He buys in to the rules and thinks he has a lucid path to success. This is no different than the person who seeks power and prestige in any society. Rules and customs are laid down and there are many folks who make it their life's goal to be successful in that society. Tragically Okwonoko is denied his long sought after success two times. He is first banished from his village by accidentally breaking one of the rigid, somewhat arbitrary, unquestioning rules he has so much faith in. When he has finally climbed his way back in to the society, he finds that things have changed as white christian missionaries have infiltrated his clan. The clash of these civilizations is illuminated in the differences between their courts and a humorous discussion of monotheism vs polytheism. These missionaries are treated sympathetically by the author when they end the practice of abandoning twins and banishing castes of people to the fringe of society. They are treated less sympathetically in the description of their mock courts which ultimately causes the final tragedy to unravel. It is this final denial of Okwonko's dreams that is the most tragic because he has lost faith in the tribal society he was once so proud of. He is left a shell of a man whose dreams and vision of the world and his place in it have evaporated. When his tribemates are unwilling to fight for their way of life in the teeth of encroaching missionaries with a vastly different way of doing things, he has no other choice but to end his life.