FABClub (Female Authors Book Club) discussion

This month we turn to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, which is set during the Nigerian Civil War, or the Biafran War, of the late 1960s.

I'm really looking forward to this! Has anybody started it yet?

I've made start & am enjoying it so far. The characters are so beautifully drawn, it's wonderful.

Oh goodie!

I have only read Purple Hibiscus, which I absolutely loved, so definitely picking this one up.

I have started it. I am enjoying it so far. Very well written. I really loved Purple Hibiscus also.

I am just over half way through now and still loving it. Adichie's writing is amazing - she isn't overly, obviously descriptive but I still come away feeling that I can see and smell and hear the sounds of Nigeria in the 1960s. And although it's set leading up to and during a civil war it doesn't feel like a book *about* the war, so much as about the relationships between the characters and how outside tensions affect those relationships. I am loving it.

I am about a third way in and very, very invested in these characters. There is something about her writing that just draws you in with such ease..Beautifully developed, fully-fleshed out characters that I am very invested in without being told I should care for them.

I was finally able to start this - and now I'm fascinated and can't put it down - something about her storytelling completely engrosses me!

Glad you're enjoying it Alexa. I'm looking forward to discussing it, once everyone is done.

I agree! Her writing is amazing. I also like how her characters are never one-dimensional - they may be good people but they still do bad things.

I'm still completely immersed in this, it's hard to even come up for air long enough to make a comment! I particularly like the way she uses the descriptions of Richard's book as foreshadowing - it was really difficult, in the first part of the book, completely enjoying the characters and yet knowing what they were about to be caught up in.

Wow! I just finished it! Oh my goodness, but that was brilliant! And now I can see why my last comment made you jump up and ask for spoiler threads! (Which I think would make sense for the future.)

There are two occasions where she quite deliberately fools us - but it all makes sense.

Oh the pain of this, and yet they are all such real people! I'm kind of speechless with appreciation here.

Viv wrote: "I am just over half way through now and still loving it....it doesn't feel like a book *about* the war, so much as about the relationships between the characters and how outside tensions affect those relationships...."

I was completely agreeing with this statement up until the very end, and yet the moment I closed the book I realized how completely *about* the war this was. It was only because she took so much time letting us get to know the characters, that we could then so fully feel their suffering. The war (all wars) happened to millions of absolutely real people, but it is so easy to depersonalize them, to not feel their pain, even as we look at Life Magazine pictures of them. Adichie won't let us do that, she makes absolutely sure that we are completely in their shoes.

She also, very artfully, leaves us hanging, time after time, as she switches perspectives, unknowing about whether people will survive those particular circumstances. There are an awful lot of almost-deaths here, all the ways that people were indeed dying.

And yes, it is so, so right that (view spoiler)[Ugwu is the one who tells the story. He's the true listener, the true observer. (hide spoiler)]

Alexa wrote: "Viv wrote: "I am just over half way through now and still loving it....it doesn't feel like a book *about* the war, so much as about the relationships between the characters and how outside tension..."

Yes I agree that it did become much more *about* the war once we reached the end of the book. The middle section was very much allowing us to get to know the characters and their personal dramas, so that the unfolding of the war became so much more personally relatable. For me, Ugwu was the character that had the most emotional impact - (view spoiler)[when he raped the girl in the bar, I cried. Both for her and for him. I think it perfectly summed up the dehumanizing nature of war and how good people can do horrible things in challenging circumstances. It was a brave scene to write, I felt. (hide spoiler)].

Yes absolutely! And then his horror when he learns about (view spoiler)[ his sister's rape and watching how it has scarred her. And the fact that his sister was raped by the "enemy" while in his case it was his own side. But that she can write that, and yet have us be so completely in his shoes. Wow! (hide spoiler)]

And then there's Kainene. I liked her soooo much. Yet we never see through her eyes, we only know her through Olanna and Richard and their relationships with her, so she's always a bit of a mystery.

This was so beautifully written!

I agree with you, Viv, about Ugwu. (view spoiler)[I was so shocked by his actions, as I never saw it coming. To the last sentence I thought he will actually prevent the rape of the girl, not partake in it... He remains the most complex character for me. I like that Adichie included his sister's rape as an indirect retribution for his actions, because we never saw the bar girl again. The entire book raised the question - how do people manage in extreme situations, like during war, and whether the lines between "good" and "bad" are as clear anymore... (hide spoiler)]
I really enjoyed the mystery of Kainene. Her seeming detachment and matter-of-fact involvement in the refugee camps was a nice balance to the ideology of the others as doing the right thing in the struggle for self-determination of their people, especially Odenigbo's. Kainene just got things done.

They all had their blind spots, about the course of the war, about the so-called saboteurs, about whether a given city was about to fall - in many ways Kainene was the most clear-sighted, the least wrapped up in the emotional fervor. And in many ways Richard was the least clear-sighted, the most blinded by his patriotism. Ugwu had a certain childlike blank-slateness about him, a willingness to let the war experience be written upon him. Yes, he was a good person, but he was also still a child (well, sort of, 19 maybe?), but susceptible to the power of expectations and peer pressure (as really, most of us are). I particularly liked the bit, after he was conscripted, where he admitted to himself that he half-way wanted to be there - a young man eager to be a part of the war, just like the boys with their toy guns. That explains why he had been so lax about keeping to their room. As if he was daring them to catch him. These are all such complex, real people!

Yes, Kainene was definitely the most pragmatic of the bunch I think.

I liked that Adichie showed us such a variety of ways people deal with the horrific reality of a situation like this - it makes you wonder how you would deal with it if you were in their shoes. And there's definitely no clear good/bad, right/wrong going on here. Such a complex book, so many thoughts to keep coming back to!!