Title: Purple Hibiscus, Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
On a sultry hot day at the Oxford Bookstore, in Park Street, a friend recommended this book to me with the words "It's a beautiful story. Sad. But beautiful." Right now, I do not disagree.
A purple hibiscus is neither red nor white, it is rebilliously and proudly purple. Bravely defying the norms it blooms and survives ...
Purple Hibiscus, is narrated by fifteen-year-old Kambili who lives in Nigeria with her parents and her brother Jaja. Her father owns a newspaper and is a devout catholic. He is an eminent and well-respected member of the society, but that is outside the four walls of his house, inside he is a tyrant. The author vividly portrays the way Kambili adores and is in awe of her father.
Kambili's father, Eugene, is a man who disowns his own father because he refuses to convert to Christianity and insists on being a pagan. A visit to their grandfather's home, for Kambili and Jaja, is always a fifteen-minute affair where they are not allowed eat or drink anything.
It is very apparent that Eugene is a man who being an abject worshipper of the colonisers, their language and their religion, is now acting as their representative. A theme explored by Chinua Achebe, the author whom Adichie adores and is inspired by. The very first line of the novel pays homage to Achebe's Things Fall Apart.
Kambili's childhood has been one of material comfort, strict routines, long prayers, and punishments, which for her is the norm. Silence and the singular aim of never letting her father down has filled her days. But a crack appears in this picture when Kambili and Jaja go to stay in their aunt's house. Her aunt Ifeoma is a widow who teaches at the university and stays with her children. The atmosphere in that house is radically different from what Kambili has ever seen or known. People there do not have the material comfort that she takes for granted ... but they laugh, they speak, they are devoid of any fear. It is here that she meets Father Amadi who stirs her feelings. And it is here that she and her brother get a glimpse of their origins, and of the persons they truly are.
The story is told in a simple non-overwhelming tone. The pace never slackens and the narrative is beautiful. It effortlessly portrays the dynamics of the relationship between the coloniser and the colonised and shows how a colonised person who internalises an intense feeling of inferiority towards his own origins can often be the most powerful weapon of the coloniser. It is a book of self-discovery, of traditions and of love.Adichie's is a voice that brings alive her world, and the voice is a confident one which I'd love to hear again.
Hutoom strongly recommends this book!
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