Robert M. (shotokanchef) reviewed No Longer at Ease (African Trilogy, Bk 2) on + 813 more book reviews
An Ibo community sends a local man to be educated in England to return and become a member of the senior government service in Lagos. This at a time when England still had control and the give and take of bribery was expected. He resists as long as he can, yet the inevitable happens. One bribe taken deserves another until he is caught. Not unlike politics and big business as we know it today. This is a real slice of life, no matter the setting. Read it!
In Obi Okonkwo, we meet a hero whose foreign education has separated him from his African roots and made him part of a ruling elite whose corruption he finds repugnant. The agony of choosing between traditional values and the demands of a changing world is dramatized by Achebe with unequaled clarity and poignancy. This is a story of both personal moral struggle and turbulent societal conflict.
