Long live the proud son of Africa and our respected statesman.
Achebe the honest and truthful dispenser of both sides of the story. Colonial griots (to borrow Achebe's words) such as Elspeth Huxley and other apologists have for too long been left alone to justify the dispossession of precious lands and cultures. Until the proud son of Africa made them eat their own words and exposed them for what they are. Dishonest griots deftly laying the groundwork for self-enrichment at the expense of peace loving and decent Human Beings.
Chinua Achebe as exemplified by his few but precious books writes not to make money but only when he must say something useful. Unlike modern day "authors" who are more about money than substance. I have no doubt Achebe can write profound and moving accounts of African and world issues at the rate of one book a day but he chose only to spend his time teaching.
It is obvious why the Nobel Prize went to Wole Soyinka instead of Chinua Achebe. Achebe refuses to write for a "foreign" audience and does not take his marching orders from anybody. He is his own man. Africans and honest people all over the world have in their own ways given Achebe the best prize in the world.
Continuous interest in his worthwhile classics such as Things Fall Apart,The Man of the People,No longer at Ease,Anthills of the Savannah, Morning Yet on Creation Day,Hopes and Impediments and many others.

Home and Exile may be a small book but has enough three pence (from Achebes "somebody knock me down and have three pence!") to liberate nations and individuals from the grip and stench of colonial and racist apologia masquerading as literature.

Long live Achebe, proud son of Africa and citizen of the world.
To know Achebe (by reading his books) is to know how to be an unassuming and proud Human Being who quitely and calmly states his truth for the benefit of us all.

Achebe's work was informative, thought provocing, and at times amusing. His work is another example of how important it is for all people to tell their own story/history, especially people who were once disposessed. This little book inspired me to write a few ideas to prevent my experiences from being misinterpreted.

The physical brevity of Achebe's "autobiography" truly belies the intrisic wisdom he so effortlessly spews upon his listeners. Mr. Achebe sets out to deconstruct the manifold, post-colonial ills (endemic to the dispossessed of African diasopora) with the assistance of historical literature, creation fables, and his own personal memories. Indeed, a thought provoking manifesto for any fan of the great Achebe; one which will aid the reader to pursue further literature with a new sense of enlightenment.

This is a story of an eleven year old Nigerian boy (Chike), who moved from the village of Umuofia to live with an uncle in a big Nigerian city (onitsha).

While in onitsha, Chike experienced the urban city life (quite a difference from the village he had left behind), he attended school, made friends, and became fascinated with crossing the river Niger on a ferry boat.

Chike did not have the money required to pay for the ferry boat ride, and so, he tried to raise the money in some strange ways, like going to seek the services of a money doubler, washing cars, etc. He was defrauded by the money doubler (chandus the magician), But was able to raise this money through washing cars and his dream of crossing the river Niger was finally fulfilled.

This is a childrens book, you will not be bored reading it if you are an adult, it is very explanatory, short, and easy to understand. Achebe takes you into the life and thinking of a little African kid, and what it is like to grow up young in Nigeria, you may find yourself revisiting some of the very funny chapters, excellent book.

This book gives an excellent account of what it's like to be a young child living in Africa. It also can help teach children about the consequences of crossing the boundries that adults give them. The book is very descriptive and a fast read.

This is an impressive collection of short stories that covers a twenty-year period of Achebe's writing. They also cover a period of history in his native Nigeria that spans from the late colonial period to the Biafran war. In them Achebe explores various aspects of a predominant theme in his work, i.e. tradition vs. modernism in his country (as introduced by British colonial administration). The various stories offer glimpses into the lives of people from various classes and walks of life. Achebe has a concise and eloquent writing style; he has an almost singular talent for making very pertinent observations in an extremely pithy fashion. Thus, for example, in the few pages of a story like "Dead Man's Path," Achebe brings to life the problems which ensue from the drive for quick modernization, the desire to adhere to tradition and the hypocrisy of Nigeria's colonial administrators. Also impressive is Achebe's mastery of narrative styles, i.e. first person, omiscient, etc. These stories can be read on their own, or as a supplement to Achebe's similarly powerful novels.

Achebe has proven, once again, that he is one of our true masters. The Nigerian writer has chronicled his people's struggles, passions, idiosyncrasies and vices for a half century. In Girls at War (1991) Achebe continues to accomplish something remarkable--he writes a geo-political novel that is not didactic and a topical novel that is personal and humane. In this, his work resembles that of Graham Greene, although Achebe might not altogether appreciate the comparison. In the title story, we find a microcosm of the collection. By exploring the details of a few ordinary people--caught in wartorn Nigeria--we discover the human stories beneath the national, and global, machinery of modern warfare. By revealing to us the role of women and children in our new wars, Achebe also reveals the fear, culpability and pathos that lurks within everyone regardless of age, gender or nationality.

I read this as part of my required summer reading for my AP English class, and I have only previously encountered Achebe's work in Things Fall Apart. This collection of essays is often thought-provoking, quite debatable, and never dull. In his opening essay on racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness, it will certainly be more interesting if you have read the novel before reading Achebe's comments. Among his other essays, he reflects on the tremendous and underrated value of literature, while also fleshing out details of his Ibo ancestry. The whole of the collection is far greater than the sum of its parts.

Like all of his many novels, Man of the People is a timeless and beautifully written book. Achebe has a way of charcterization that is masterful, once again creating strong and unique men and women with which he weaves a fast-paced and anthropologically fascinating story.

The book captures the African rhetorical stance, and compares that with the Western European. Dr. Egar is so delicious to read, because he feels that language should be a site for social interaction. He also shows you how the African world view and the Western European seem to complement and yet explode each others ambiguities. I think because of the texture of his language, the book is most suited for graduate studies.

This splendid short novel demonstrates Achebe's continuing ability to depict the challenges posed to African societies by modernism and Western influence. It details the plight of three educated, upper-class Africans attempting to survive in an atmosphere of political oppression and cultural confusion. Set in the fictional African country of Kangan, it is clearly patterned after Achebe's native Nigeria, though one can also see elements of Liberia and Ghana.

This was the first Achebe novel I had read since his classic Things Fall Apart. At first, I thought that Anthills suffered in comparison with that masterpiece, arguably the best known and most influential African novel. After finishing the book, though, I realized that Achebe had very deftly returned to and updated the themes raised in that book.

His protagonists are Ikem, a courageous and opinionated newspaper editor; Chris, his friend and predecessor as editor, now the somewhat-reluctant Commissioner of Information in a military-led government; and Beatrice, a brilliant, beautiful mid-level civil servant, also Chris's lover. Each studied abroad and is comfortable tossing off literary references and cultural cues from the West. At the same time, each is proud of and clearly shaped by his/her African heritage.

Kangan is ruled by a smart but narrow-minded military officer who rose to power following a coup. "His Excellency" is also coincidentally and not at all implausibly an acquaintance of all three main characters, bringing a very personal dynamic to the struggles they face as Ikem sharpens his already bitter criticism of the government, to the professional discomfort of Chris and the personal alarm of Beatrice.

I found the first half of the book a little hard to get through at times. The prose is often overwrought and the narrator changes from chapter to chapter, making it difficult to follow. Further complicating things is the frequent use of West African dialect, especially in dialogue between the lead characers and their less-westernized compatriots. While this brings a ring of authenticity to the work, it also requires close attention by non-African readers to divine the literal meaning of the deceptively familiar words. As the novel progresses, though, the confusing switch-off of narrators ends, the prose becomes sharper, and the storyline clearer.

Achebe sprinkles humor liberally throughout the book. The characters serve up a steady stream of clever, expressive African aphorisms. The most memorable of these are delivered by a tribal elder from Abazon in an impromptu tribute to Ikem. Achebe also paints vivid and funny accounts of a monstrous traffic jam, a confrontation with soldiers at a checkpoint, and an up-country bustrip. those who have spent any significant time on the continent will nod their heads and chuckle at these uniquely African scenes.

As in Things Fall Apart, the insidious influence of the West is depicted mostly indirectly. While there are no major European characters, the cynicism of Western expatriates and the cluelessness of Western journalists are reflected quite well in two minor characters, a British doctor who administers the local hospital and a visiting American reporter. More often, though, the specter of Western influence hovers in the background. One sees it in the alienation of the lead characters from their roots, most vividly in Beatrice's reminisces of her village childhood and university days in Britain.

In the end, Achebe seems not so much to be blaming the West for Africa's problems as pointing out the ways in which, years after independence -- and even longer since things first "fell apart" -- African societies continue to struggle with the legacy of colonialism. The villains are not Europeans but the opportunistic soldiers, politicians, and businesspersons who came to power afer the departure of the colonists.

Achebe's perceptiveness and skillful sketches of characters make this an important work, a period piece as representative of contemporary, post-independence Africa as Things Fall Apart was of colonial Africa.

I just read this book as my summer reading assignment for Enlish 5 and had to do a journal on it. This book is heart wrenching because it is about this poor country called Kangan in Africa that is taken over by the Europeans. Their freedoms are taken away, even their freedom of speech. Everyone is poor while the president has an expensive house and luxuries. It is run by a man who is not really prepared to be president- he was just a good, big military man.

You meet lovable characters like Chris, the Commissioner for Information, and Ikem, the editor of the GAZETTE. These two friends stick together and fight for freedom in their country.

You meet the lovable African people, who have a beautiful culture and a great sense of humor. They are normal people like you and me, and all they want is for theirr government to listen to them.

If you don't like sad books, then this is probably not the book for you, although I do recommend it to every person who wants to open their mind and learn about the African countries that live in poverty because of their government. I give this book five stars!.

Achebe wrote three classic books in the 1950's and then after a long hiatus returned to the novel with the publication of Anthills in 89. The earlier books dealt with the effect of modern civilization on traditional African life. This book uses one nation as an example of what is happening with many nations as they struggle to find their own version of modern life without altogether letting go of tradition. The characters are all educated, many in the west, but strictly western modes of rule do not work in third world conditions quite as smoothly as they do in industrial conditons. Big changes are needed and a big leader is needed to effect those changes quickly and successfully but that age old maxim applies here as elsewhere: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. A great book showing how good intentions can quickly go wrong. Achebe tells the story through the personalities playing a part in it and so you never feel he is making abstract points. He shows the human side of these dramas we so often see played out on the 6'o clock news. A touching and tragic book. Achebe is a fascinating person to see interviewed as well, perhaps the most articulate and insightful spokesman on modern Africa as it searches to find its shape.

In response to our young friend who was so insidiously "forced" to read Mr. Achebe's works in a 10th-grade English class, I can say this: Since most products of American high schools are so terribly unaccustomed to thought, I'm afraid you really don't know (yet) what you're missing. My first experience with Mr. Achebe was "Things Fall Apart." My response, at age 15, was not much different than yours. However, the characters somehow stayed with me. Don't ask me why--perhaps I always wanted to know what happened to Okonkwo (I never finished it the first time). Ten years later, when I found the book in a Burlington, VT second-hand bookstore, I decided to try it again. Within weeks, I had read and re-read the simple, "polite" prose with great curiosity and awareness. Achebe doesn't fill his stories up with muck like so much MTV-style Hollywood mung. He asks something of his audience; writing about the bitter, yet ultimately unavoidable end to a cultural identity with which most anybody can sympathize. All the while, he refrains from employing flowery rhetoric and ambiguity, instead choosing honesty and simplicity. The message of his writings about the Ibo is, if anything, that nothing lasts forever. Thankfully, this means the MTV generation won't always need to be lead by the hand with flashy prose and speed-of-light transitions. Here's to the thinkers!!

Being Igbo, and having read almost all that Chinua Achebe has written, I can say that this is one of the best literary works I have ever come across. I read Arrow of God for the firs time when I was about fourteen and even at that age, it made a great impression on me. I have read it repeatedly over the years, and with each read, the raw reality of this book thinly veiled by what another reviewer reffered to as "polite prose" completely immersed me in Ezeulu's society, generation and struggle. This was a wonderful story written by one of the greatest story-tellers ever. I recommend this book and all of Chinua Achebe's work to any and everyone.

The entertaining prowess of Professor Achebe makes me wonder how he gets his inspiration.
This well-written, well-edited "Arrow of God" is by every means fantastic. It is a masterpiece whose only functional gear is forward. The novel is so interesting that you will never put it down once you've started reading it.
Having read most of Professor Achebe's works, I acknowledge that his Nobel Prize (in literature) is long overdue.

This is a good little book about Nigeria's problems written by a Nigerian for Nigerians. The edition I read was one of the smallest books I've ever seen - even smaller than some of those Noam Chomsky Real Story tracts - which makes sense since it was published in Nigeria for readers who might not be able to afford paying $8.50 for a book. Therefore the reader should keep in mind the audience this book is aimed at: Achebe is writing to Nigerians about how they can clean up their country. He is not writing a serious book about the current troubles of Nigeria and how they can be solved on an international as well as domestic front: the lack of the words 'Shell Corporation' is conspicuous throughout the book.

That being said, this is a good way for a non-Nigerian to see how Nigeria's problems are perceived internally. Achebe is strong in his condemnation of tribalism, indiscipline and especially corruption and the prejudice agains the Igbo people. While condeming most current (this was written in 1983) politicians, he does praise the famous Aminu Kano and other politicians like Bola Ige, Bisi Onabanjo and Ernest Ikoli for putting the nation's interest first, not their own. Achebe looks forward to a time when such politicians would lead Nigerians, not divide them or waste their money needlessly.

Unfortunately, good leadership is not the only answer to Nigeria's problems. Nonetheless, this is still a worthy read.

I first bought this book from a dusty bin in The Metropolitan Hotel in Calabar, Nigeria. I was there on a thirteen day missions trip during the bloody reign of Babangida and I had already experienced, first hand, the trouble with Nigeria. Achebe had been a favorite author since I read Things Fall Apart during my college days, but with this reading he became more than an author -- he became a friend and guide.

In 63 insightful pages he has written a manifesto for the recovery of people of African descent world-wide, of which I am one. He talks about the need for leadership, the scar of tribalism, and a variety of social ills that, as he puts it, Nigerians have relegated to small talk and I am sad to say African Americans have turned into comedy.

This is a must read for people of African descent and anyone else who would like to understand and help. Just recently, I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing the daughter of former Nigerian President Elect Abiola. Her father died while imprisoned a few years ago. Now a congresswoman herself, she has high hopes for Nigeria, but sees similar social ills here in American and agreed that Achebe's views are accurate and needful.

The trouble with Nigeria and African America is that not enough people have read and applied the principles discussed in The Trouble with Nigeria.

Hailed as Chinua Achebe's masterpiece and sold for millions of copies worldwide, 'Things Fall Apart' is in my opinion an average story that is overhyped.

In the story, Okonkwo is a strong warrior who begins his life with disadvantages but works his way to earn titles, respect and wealth in his village. A manslaughter incident costs him seven years of exile, during which his village as well as the neighbouring villages find themselves changed and divided under the influence of missionaries importing the Christian religion. Okonkwo returns disappointed but determined to unify the clan again, not knowing a worse fate awaits him...

This story is largely about tribal life in Africa, with all its intimate details about customs, beliefs and practices. On one hand, Chinua Achebe portrays suffering people (especially women and children) who are victims of tribal systems. Wives are ill-treated by husbands, while some children become sacrifices for disputes or religion. On the other hand, Chinua Achebe questions the authority and power of the Westerners who attempt to change the villages via import of their own religion and law.

If there is a central theme in this book, it would be division -- as the title itself suggests. This begins only when the missionaries arrive at Umuofia and other villages. Christ says that He brings division, and this prophecy is fulfilled when one of Okonkwo's sons leaves home to embrace Christianity. On a larger scale, people in the village are divided amongst themselves. This division, like all others, leads to inevitable despair.

'Things Fall Apart' is simple in both language and content. It is easy to read and can be completed in a single sitting. However, unless one is interested in the rich customs of African tribal life, this book is otherwise very average and uncaptivating.

This book is strongly recommended for all who are interested in African culture and way of life.

If you are a reader like myself trying to discover the greatness of Chinua Achebe's most famous work, then you may end up rather disappointed by this somewhat average story.

Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" works on many levels, a story of Nigerian tribal life before the colonization by whites, and the tale of Okonkwo, a tribal leader.

The prose is simple, yet descriptive in immersing the reader within the daily life of a village. We learn the customs, see the people both struggle and prosper with their farming, and watch as Okonkwo rises to prominence within his group. Determined not to become like his ne'er do well but well-liked father, Okonkwo is a hard worker, ambitious leader, but cruel to his family. As the story unfolds, he allows his pride and sense of duty to tradition overcome what in his heart he knows must be wrong. There is a moving portion involving an adopted son from a rival village where the reader suspects that a tragic outcome awaits.
Eventually, an accident, but serious transgression, results in his exile from the village. Okonkwo remains determined to return and take his place among the tribal leaders, but then the white men arrive with their new religious ideas.
This is one of those books that you wonder about as your reading, until you've completed it and then realize you have to read it again to catch all of the ideas between the lines.
Okonkwo is a well-drawn character, full of strengths and character flaws that make this novel compelling.
It's a thinker.

I was required to read this book in a college literature class and actually dreaded reading it because I really had no interest in Africa. After reading this book by the amazingly talented Chinua Achebe, I became more interested in Africa than I would have ever thought possible! Achebe has masterful skill in portraying African culture to the readers. He colors Africa in a magnificent yet somewhat tragic shade.

I wrote an essay in college based on the Nigerian folktales in this book and received a 100% from my professor. This book has the power to touch lives and I recommend it to absolutely everybody on the planet. I have given my copy to my brother in hopes of educating one more person in this world on African culture. If you think this book is just for African Americans you're wrong... I am caucasian and this book has become my absolute favorite ever!

Please buy this book and when you've read it pass it along to someone else. This book really enlightens people and makes the world more aware of the great and slightly overlooked continent of Africa - and in particular, Nigeria. I will travel to Africa someday solely because of this book!