I loooooooooooooooove Chimamanda Adichie. Not in a lesbian way, in a stalker way...hehe...I kid. Kind of. On a serious note this woman is amazing. My first encounter with her (look at me, all stalker-y and stuff) was on youtube. It was 2010 and I'd just been introduced to TED talks (another thing I love but with fewer o's)and I came across her talk on the danger of a single story ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg < and just fell in love. She was so poised and eloquent and pretty...I said I would buy her book IMMEDIATELY. Sometimes when I say immediately I mean in about a year and that's exactly what happened. A year later I'm looking for the 'A Song of Ice and Fire'(ASOIAF) series of books for my sister's birthday (had them on soft copy but she's not into e-books and was waiting to buy the whole set in paperback, why she's fighting technology I'll never know) and I saw Purple Hibiscus. The universe was calling to me, telling me I needed to read this book. Either that or the buy 4 books get one free offer. One of the two. Best decision I made that day. Her characters are so deep. I love those books which as you read, you feel what the characters are feeling, you wonder why they're doing what they're doing. Those characters that make you want to reach into the book to stop them from doing what they're about to do because they're so real to you that you can't help but invest emotionally. Learning that I was mispronouncing Kambili's name in my head and watching Jaja change...and the familiar African things like going to dingy places to get your hair braided...haha! Half of a Yellow Sun was the next one. I invested even more in those characters. I liked how weird Kainene was. She's one of those characters who you really want to know more about, so sure of herself and intimidating but unattractive. Always in the shadow of her hot sister where men are concerned but not in any other sphere of life. I've just finished Americana. Unputdownable! I made the mistake of starting it on a week day. I have done very little work since. So don't start it unless you don't have things to do or have the self control of a celibate monk. I know most people haven't read it yet so all I'll say is if it hadn't ended the way it did I would have been sad and mopey all weekend.
We need more writers like her!
