Adichie, the Nigerian writer, is like that new kid on the block who has performed a particularly spectacular feat that commands attention. What with the God of African literature, Chinua Achebe enlisting himself among her fans with the generous remark that she is “a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers.” The three-book old author is already the recipient of prestigious literary awards. “And Adichie has become a name familiar even to our roadside book venders that they pick out her book for you at the mere mention of the name,” says Sreebala K Menon.
Bookie listened, amused and all ears, to the inadvertent gynocentric overtones that our conversation had taken on. It was interesting to hear Sreebala, a rare mix of bold stands and a talent to tickle the funny bones (a budding film director who has made a foray into the male bastion out of a passion for the craft, and an author who bagged the Kerala Sahitya Akademi’s award in the category of humour), reflect on how impressed she was by Adichie who writes on grave concerns, pinning the world to vicarious guilt for the sufferings of her people and then looks out of pictures with deceptively dove-like eyes.
Sreebala has read both the books of Adichie, Purple Hibiscus (2003) and Half of a Yellow Sun (2006). But it is the latter that she chose to speak about. The novel which brings alive the 40-year-old history of the Nigeria-Biafra war, is put down in “simple and straight language, the way Achebe did,” said Sreebala, “but it refuses to loosen its grip on you after you are done with it. It’s haunting in that peculiar way, through its construction and the intricacies of the relationships.”
Full report here New Indian Express
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