A review by lauraleafromthelibrary
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

5 ⭐️
  • Part I: early 1960s — Nigeria
    • Ugwu — 13 years old houseboy
    • Roasted chicken + ironing socks — iykyk
      • He’s so protective of Odenigbo.

  • Olanna, the partner
    • Nkem, my own. 🫶🏻
    • Page 37 — “None of them thanked Maxwell. Olanna wished they would; it was such a simple thing to do, to acknowledge the humanity of the people who served them.”
    • Page 65 — “Each time he suggested they get married, she said no. They were too happy, precariously so, and she wanted to guard that bond; she feared that marriage would flatten it to a prosaic partnership.”

  • Richard + Kainene
    • I <3 them.
    • Page 100 — Major Madu Madu: “‘Well, the British have just decided to control immigration from the Commonwealth, haven’t they? They want people to stay in their own countries. The irony, of course, is that we in the Commonwealth can’t control the British moving to our countries.
    • Page 101 — Major Udodi: “‘The white man will poke and poke and poke the women in the dark but they will never marry them. How can! They will never even take them out to a good place in public. But the women will continue to disgrace themselves and struggle for the men so they will get chicken-feed money and nonsense tea in a fancy tin. It’s a new slavery, I’m telling you, a new slavery. But you are a Big Man’s daughter, so what you are doing with him?’”

  • Page 128 — Olanna: “For a brief irrational moment, she wished she could walk away from him. Then she wished, more rationally, that she could love him without needing him. Need gave him power without his trying; need the choicelessness she often felt around him.” After the crazy MIL moment with Odenigbo

  • Page 143 — Richard: “He shouldn’t have been so ill-tempered with the poor man; it wasn’t Harrison’s fault that Okeoma felt he was condescending. It the look in Okeoma’s eyes that worried him the most: a disdainful distrust that made him think of a reading somewhere that the African and the European would always be irreconcilable. It was wrong of Okeoma to assume that he was one those Englishmen who did not give the African the benefit of an equal intelligence. Perhaps he had sounded surprised, now that he thought of it, but it was the same surprise he would express if a similar discovery were made in England or anywhere else in the world.”

  • Part II: Late 1960s, Biafra —
    • The scene at the airport with Nnaemeka + Richard. The second coup. 😭💔
    • Page 205 — Biafran flag: “half of a yellow sun”
    • Page 209 — Richard: “If this is hatred, then it is very young. It has been caused, simply, by the informal divide-and-rule policies of the British colonial exercise. These policies manipulated the differences between the tribes and ensured that unity would not exist, thereby making the easy governance of such a large country practicable.”
      • The foreign papers have it completely wrong.

  • Page 238: Olanna receives a letter from Mohammed and Odenigbo calls him a traitor, like all the others from the North (Nigeria, at this point). *not all Northerns are alike + Mohammed helped Olanna escape during the second coup yet he still has such hate for him

  • Part III: early 1960s —
    • Page 273 — Olanna: “Olanna felt a sudden pity for him, for her mother, for herself and Kainene. She wanted to ask him why they were all strangers who shared the same last name.” I feel that so much. So true.
      • Odenigbo also cheating. 😡
    • Page 290 — Olanna: “‘Nobody dropped you into anything.” Amala is pregnant with Odenigbo’s child. The RAGE. 😡 Odenigbo saying his mother manipulated him, she’s dropped him into her plot, which she did, but really it was him. He had to make the choice, even drunk.
    • Page 290 — Edna, the neighbour to Olanna: “‘Look at you. You’re the kindest person I know. Look how beautiful you are. Why do you need so much outside of yourself? Why isn’t what you are enough? You’re so damned weak.’” Truth hurts — also, she sleeps with Richard. 😳
    • Page 306 — Olanna: “Or she should have told him more: that she regretted betraying Kainene and him but did not regret the act itself. She should have said that it was not a crude revenge, or a scorekeeping, but took on a redemptive significance for her. She should have said the selfishness had liberated her.” I’m not a believer in cheating in any form but it makes sense.
    • Page 319 — Kainene: “‘You’re the good one and the favourite and the beauty and the Africanist revolutionary who doesn’t like white men, and you simply did not need to fuck him. So why did you?’” I just really liked this.
    • Kainene burns Richard’s manuscript. RIP

  • Part IV: the late 1960s
    • The egg yolk story. Lead with kindness. Baby survives. ♥️
    • Ugwu is so helpful + kind; when Olanna insults him by saying his bush village doesn’t matter, that hurt. 
      • Page 359: “I said your hometown is too small! They will not be interested in staying there. There is nothing there to stay for, you see. It is just a small bush.” The fear and stress are really getting to her. The bombings. Starvation. Poor Ugwu takes the hit all the time.
    • Page 435 — Kainene: “There are some things that are so unforgivable that they make other things easily forgivable.” I’m so happy Olanna + Kainene have buried the hatchet. They really need each other. Also on that page, it did not kill me — it made me knowledgeable. ♥️

  • Page 499 — Kainene: “There were tears running down her face. There was something magnificent in her rage. Ugwu felt stained and unworthy as he went about his new duties after the priests left — distributing garri, breaking up fights, supervising the scorched and failing farms. He wondered what Kainene would say, what she would do to him, feel about him, if she ever knew about the girl in the bar. She would loathe him. So would Olanna. So would Eberechi.”
    • Conversation on the corruptive nature of missionary work
    • Dialogue about abuse of power
    • Ugwu — he’s coming from a vulnerable position in life, with no power; but when placed in a military position, he gains power and is more susceptible to the abuse of power.
    • Also a conversation about gender + and male dominance, in both situations — the powerful taking advantage of the weak or the vulnerable

  • Page 541 — Ugwu writes his dedication last: For Master, my good man. 😭

One of the best books I’ve ever read.
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