A review by valeriebrett
Half of a Yellow Sun / Americanah / Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

4.0

This is a very good book and the length, as well as method of inserting tons of social commentary via dialogue into a love story reminded me, strangely, of Anna Karenina. I'm not sure the blog aspect of the plot was necessary; to me it felt like overkill. Adichie tries to accomplish SO MUCH in this book. Sometimes it works and other times I just felt like it was too much at once. It was like she tried to fit ALL experiences into one book, when she could've maybe written several books exploring this theme. I didn't feel like it needed to be almost 600 pages long, but I suppose that way she was able to include so many various perspectives and types of characters. The two main characters to me were bleh. They didn't really grow or develop. Ifemelu's life mirrors Adichie's enough to make me wish she'd just written that whole thing as a memoir. I was bored during Obinze's section in London. Overall it just didn't pull on my heartstrings; I wasn't too invested in anyone in this book. That said, Adichie painfully accurately shares her observations on race, and it's a worthwhile and strong read for all people for that reason alone. I do feel like this should be considered a contemporary classic.