Things Fall Apart

by Chinua Achebe
1958


Achebe is a Nigerian writer completely new to me.  This book is about a fierce, proud tribesman who sees his way of life being destroyed by white colonialists, and his own people complicit in that destruction through inaction.  At first I found it simplistic and shallow, but grew to appreciate the psychological subtleties.  Each portrayal of each character is full and internal to that character.  The story really begins halfway through, when the whites arrive.  The first half is character building.  A fine morality tale.

four stars