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The Thing Around Your Neck
The Thing Around Your Neck
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie burst onto the literary scene with her remarkable debut novel, Purple Hibiscus, which critics hailed as “one of the best novels to come out of Africa in years” (BaltimoreSun), with "prose as lush as the Nigerian landscape that it powerfully evokes” (The Boston Globe);...  more » called her “the twenty-first-century daughter of Chinua Achebe.”  Her award-winning Half of a Yellow Sun became an instant classic upon its publication three years later, once again putting her tremendous gifts -- graceful storytelling, knowing compassion, and fierce insight into her characters’ hearts -- on display.  Now, in her most intimate and seamlessly crafted work to date, Adichie turns her penetrating eye on not only Nigeria but America, in twelve dazzling stories that explore the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States.
ISBN-13: 9780307271075
ISBN-10: 0307271072
Publication Date: 6/16/2009
Pages: 218
Rating:
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 2

4 stars, based on 2 ratings
Publisher: Knopf
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 7
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maura853 avatar reviewed The Thing Around Your Neck on + 542 more book reviews
Beautifully written stories that really capture the experience of living between two cultures. All beautifully phrased, and beautifully structured. Adichie captures the voices of very different characters so clearly and sympathetically.

If I had to chose a favorite, I would first have to pathetically say "all of them," because each one is so different, and so very well judged to achieve a clear and thoughtful narrative objective. And then I would have to 'fess up, and admit that the one that will linger in my mind is "Jumping Monkey Hill," which is a lovely, funny story that describes the creative writing workshop from Hell, with special African overtones. And does a lovely job of demonstrating that our first job, whether as an individual or as a culture, is to take control of the story. And yes, "... this ending, in a story, would be considered plausible."


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