BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
(Available as Print: ©2/1/2010; PUBLISHER: Collins UK; ISBN: 978-0007345328; PAGES: 320; Unabridged.)
(Available as Digital: Yes)

*This version: Audio: ©4/25/2011; PUBLISHER: Recorded Books/Audible; DURATION: 10:53; Unabridged

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
I was reminded a few times of “A Thousand Splendid Suns” (Khaled Hosseini) and “The Poisonwood Bible” (Barbara Kingsolver), but this book isn’t those. It shares a character type; someone who strives to make the world conform to values and wishes who is prone to self-righteous violence, but if you’ve read those novels, I don’t mean to say you know what to expect from this. I liked the historical information about Nigeria, and the strength the main characters get from their poorer in material comforts but richer in Spirit aunt and cousins.

AUTHOR:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 9/15/1977. According to Wikipedia, Chimamanda “is a Nigerian writer whose works include novels, short stories and nonfiction.[5] She was described in The Times Literary Supplement as "the most prominent" of a "procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors [which] is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature",[6] particularly in her second home, the United States.
Adichie, a feminist,[7][8][9] has written the novels Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Americanah (2013), the short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), and the book-length essay We Should All Be Feminists (2014).[10] Her most recent books are Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017), Zikora (2020) and Notes on Grief (2021).[11] In 2008, she was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant.[12][4]”

NARRATOR:
Lisette Lecat. According to Goodreads, “South African-born Lisette Lecat has captivated scores of listeners with the adventures at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, where Mma Ramotswe parks her tiny white van. Whether describing bush tea or the wisdom of Botswanan morality, Lisette's reading enlivens author Alexander McCall Smith's keen understanding of "ubuntu"--loosely translated as "humanity towards others." Lisette shares a love of Africa in other resonant portrayals of African literature and history, including DON'T LET'S GO TO THE DOGS TONIGHT, and works by Nadine Gordimer, Nancy Farmer, and Caroline Alexander. While sub-Saharan locales may be a specialty, Lisette brings a nuanced familiarity with place to other settings as well, drawing on her world travels and her knowledge of Spanish and French. Lisette's narration is subtle and elegant, allowing the author's work to stay prominent while bringing vitality to each character and situation. Recent ensemble readings include A VENETIAN AFFAIR by Andrea di Robilant and Tracy Chevalier's FALLING ANGELS. Lisette is also an accomplished playwright, with a Broadway credit for The Scent of Roses starring Julie Harris. She is working on additional scripts, but audiobooks are (happily) a primary focus of her talents. She records for the American Foundation for the Blind, which accorded her the prestigious Scourby Award in 1999, and for Recorded Books.--2003 Narrator Yearbook”

GENRE:
Fiction; Literature; Historical African Fiction

SUBJECTS:
Africa; Religion; Family; Abuse; Caste

DEDICATION:
“For professor Grace Ifeoma Adichie, my parents, my heroes, ndi o ga-adili mma.”

SAMPLE QUOTATION: From Chapter One: “Breaking Gods”
“So when Papa did not see Jaja go to the altar that Palm Sunday when everything changed, he banged his leatherbound missal, with the red and green ribbons peeking out, down on the dining table when we got home. The table was glass, heavy glass. It shook, as did the palm fronds on it.
“Jaja, you did not go to communion,” Papa said quietly, almost a question.
Jaja stared at the missal on the table as though he were addressing it. “The wafer gives me bad breath.”
I stared at Jaja. Had something come loose in his head? Papa insisted we call it the host because “host” came close to capturing the essence, the sacredness, of Christ’s body. “Wafer” was too secular, wafer was what one of Papa’s factories made —chocolate wafer, banana wafer, what people bought their children to give them a treat better than biscuits.
“And the priest keeps touching my mouth and it nauseates me,” Jaja said. He knew I was looking at him, that my shocked eyes begged him to seal his mouth, but he did not look at me.
“It is the body of our Lord.” Papa’s voice was low, very low. His face looked swollen already, with pus-tipped rashes spread across every inch, but it seemed to be swelling even more. “You cannot stop receiving the body of our Lord. It is death, you know that.”
“Then I will die.” Fear had darkened Jaja’s eyes to the color of coal tar, but he looked Papa in the face now. “Then I will die, Papa.”
Papa looked around the room quickly, as if searching for proof that something had fallen from the high ceiling, something he had never thought would fall. He picked up the missal and flung it across the room, toward Jaja. It missed Jaja completely, but it hit the glass étagerè, which Mama polished often. It cracked the top shelf, swept the beige, finger-size ceramic figurines of ballet dancers in various contorted postures to the hard floor and then landed after them. Or rather it landed on their many pieces. It lay there, a huge leatherbound missal that contained the readings for all three cycles of the church year.
Jaja did not move. Papa swayed from side to side. I stood at the door, watching them. The ceiling fan spun round and round, and the light bulbs attached to it clinked against one another. Then Mama came in, her rubber slippers making slap-slap sounds on the marble floor. She had changed from her sequined Sunday wrapper and the blouse with puffy sleeves. Now she had a plain tie-dye wrapper tied loosely around her waist and that white T-shirt she wore every other day. It was a souvenir from a spiritual retreat she and Papa had attended; the words god is love crawled over her sagging breasts. She stared at the figurine pieces on the floor and then knelt and started to pick them up with her bare hands.”

RATING:
4 stars.

STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
1/30/2022 - 2/13/2022 ( )

Kurze Inhaltsangabe
Dieser Roman erzählt die Geschichte der 15jährigen Kambili und deren Bruder Jaja, welche stark und der Strenge und häuslichen Gewalt des Vaters Eugene leiden. Aufgrund politischer Unruhen entkommen Kambili und Jaja der Strenge und Gewalt für eine gewisse Zeit in dem sie bei ihrer Tante Ifeoma und deren Familie leben. Diese ist zwar im Gegensatz zu Eugene arm, aber dafür menschlich gesehen reich, da warmherzig und gütig. Die Protagonisten beginnen charakterlich zu wachsen und die häusliche Situation beginnt sich zuzuspitzen und endet tragisch. Adichie zeigt auf, welchen Einfluss die Kolonialisierung Nigerias (noch bis in die 80er (und evt. länger)) auf die Menschen hatte. ( )

This was very good indeed. Both as a weird-child coming of age, and as an exploration of Nigeria and her woes, it entertained and enlightened. As a metaphor for Nigeria itself, Kambili's family is a winner. The ending, whilst realistic, felt a little rushed and lacked some drama, but looking at the family as metaphor for Nigeria it works. ( )

Protagonista e narradora de Hibisco roxo, a adolescente Kambili mostra como a religiosidade extremamente “branca” e católica de seu pai, Eugene, famoso industrial nigeriano, inferniza e destrói lentamente a vida de toda a família. O pavor de Eugene às tradições primitivas do povo nigeriano é tamanho que ele chega a rejeitar o pai, contador de histórias encantador, e a irmã, professora universitária esclarecida, temendo o inferno. Mas, apesar de sua clara violência e opressão, Eugene é benfeitor dos pobres e, estranhamente, apoia o jornal mais progressista do país. Durante uma temporada na casa de sua tia, Kambili acaba se apaixonando por um padre que é obrigado a deixar a Nigéria, por falta de segurança e de perspectiva de futuro. Enquanto narra as aventuras e desventuras de Kambili e de sua família, o romance também apresenta um retrato contundente e original da Nigéria atual, mostrando os remanescentes invasivos da colonização tanto no próprio país, como, certamente, também no resto do continente.

True things about this book:

1. It is ~80% child abuse/wife beating
2. It is incredibly beautiful ( )