Book Review: Purple Hibiscus

Book Description:

Fifteen-year-old Kambili’s world is circumscribed by the high walls and frangipani trees of her family compound. Her wealthy Catholic father, under whose shadow Kambili lives, while generous and politically active in the community, is repressive and fanatically religious at home.

When Nigeria begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili’s father sends her and her brother away to stay with their aunt, a University professor, whose house is noisy and full of laughter. There, Kambili and her brother discover a life and love beyond the confines of their father’s authority. The visit will lift the silence from their world and, in time, give rise to devotion and defiance that reveal themselves in profound and unexpected ways. This is a book about the promise of freedom; about the blurred lines between childhood and adulthood; between love and hatred, between the old gods and the new.
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"Purple Hibiscus" is a novel in the Literary Fiction genre by author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

If I had read Purple Hibiscus before "Half of a Yellow Sun," I wouldn't have read the latter. This book is nothing compared to Half of a Yellow Sun, which I totally enjoyed.

I didn't get the message of the story halfway into the book, I kept waiting for it, waiting for the big thing to happen. It didn't. Then out of nowhere something happens, and before I could understand what had happened, I see "Acknowledgments." I believe the story ended abruptly and a lot of things are still missing. I also don't see the connection between the book description and the story.

I did like some of the characters though, and the few dialogues. Then some of the similes were funny. In all, I like her writing style. Maybe I would read her other two books, but not now.

3 STARS

Literarily Yours,

CMO.