HOAYS: Part 1, Early Sixties

[Melissa_W Moderator]

Please use this thread for discussion of Part 1 of Half of a Yellow Sun.

[Peppermill]

Not certain Rex Larson's High Life music is in Part One, but since I have found a popular You-Tube listing, I'm going to post it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFilIFOlZe8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN3Odkz60NI&feature=related -- Hail Biafra recording

Bobby Benson's "Taxi Driver" is mentioned on page 46:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j466IYKzva8

[Peppermill]

I am truly amazed at the number of characters Adichie introduces and NAMES.  I got to 35 beyond the main characters in Part 1 and quit!

I am still trying to assess the impact and meaning to the novel -- one "theory" is that it reflects the community-like nature of the Nigeria and its cultures.

Here is a link to the University campus at Nsukka:

http://doc.unn.edu.ng/landing/tour/unn_virtualTour/

Those hills in the background fascinate me.

[Fozzie]

---

Peppermill wrote:

community-like nature of the Nigeria and its cultures.

Here is a link to the University campus at Nsukka:

http://doc.unn.edu.ng/landing/tour/unn_virtualTour/

Those hills in the background fascinate me.

---

It looks primitive and like something out of the1960's!

[Fozzie]

I spent this first section of reading absorbing the place, the times, and the culture of the book.  I also was a bit puzzled as to the attraction between the members of the couples of Olanna and Odenigbo and Kainene and Richard.  Everything felt foreign to me, in an interesting way, not an off putting way.  I wanted to read more about these people, their time, and their place.

[Peppermill]

---

Fozzie wrote:

I spent this first section of reading absorbing the place, the times, and the culture of the book.  I also was a bit puzzled as to the attraction between the members of the couples of Olanna and Odenigbo and Kainene and Richard.  Everything felt foreign to me, in an interesting way, not an off putting way.  I wanted to read more about these people, their time, and their place.

---

Given some of my encounters with professors in undergraduate school, I almost assumed (without thinking about it) they reflected Adichie's experiences at Yale -- but sort of as reversed in a mirror and transported to Nigeria -- the attractions and repulsions of intellectual ponderings in an environment both removed from and immersed in everyday (political) life.  These were well educated, wealthy, attractive (if not equally beautiful) women who had placed on them many of the pressures and opportunities of at least two worlds.

I hadn't thought about the possibility of it being one novel of a series, but I can see that.  You did notice  the earlier novel Danielle read? 

Thanks for posting!

[Fozzie]

---

Peppermill wrote:

---

I hadn't thought about the possibility of it being one novel of a series, but I can see that.  You did notice  the earlier novel Danielle read? 

---

I thought Purple Hibiscus was just the author's previous book, not having anything to do with this book.  I do plan to read Purple Hibiscus though, and the book by Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, too.

[Peppermill]

---

Fozzie wrote:

---

Peppermill wrote:

---

I hadn't thought about the possibility of it being one novel of a series, but I can see that.  You did notice  the earlier novel Danielle read? 

---

I thought Purple Hibiscus was just the author's previous book, not having anything to do with this book.  I do plan to read Purple Hibiscus though, and the book by Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, too.

---

Your right, Purple Hibiscus is an "independent" book, but Danielle did write that reading one provided perspective to the other:

chadadanielleKR wrote:

"Since there is another book from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in my little local library (in French) I read it also and enjoyed it very much:  Purple Hibiscus. It might be not as brilliant as Half of a Yellow Sun but it is definitely worth reading.

"I also recommend it because since it is an earlier book, it better puts the second one 'Half of a Yellow Sun' in perspective and gives the reader more information about Nigeria, which is, by the way, one of the most heavily populated countries in Africa.

"The style is the same but the historical setting is different (the war is over but many problems remain), the geographical setting is partly the same (the university area of Nsukka), the main characters belong to the educated middle class community as well but they are not equally wealthy, the main character is a 15 y old educated young woman and the disruptive element of the story is not war but religion..."

[chadadanielleKR]

Hi,

Sorry, I was away for two weeks and I just read your posts.

No connection between the two books: they are dealing with different subjects and and different sort of characters, however both stories are taking place in Nigeria in Igbo families.