Daily Independent (Lagos)
Yemi Adebisi
6 July 2009
(Page 2 of 2)
Jane Shilling, The Daily Telegraph
"Almost every story (in The Thing Around Your Neck), in the way only the most satisfying short stories manage, holds the kernel of something bigger in its fist yet is simultaneously a fully realised, standalone entity. They don't aspire to be novels that would be a bad thing, but they hum with potential. I longed to know more about each struggling, grieving character as I turned the last page of each compact and uncompromising tale. And I mean that as a compliment. Adichie is already, at the age of 31, a formidable voice in contemporary West African literature, described by Nigerian heavyweight Chinua Achebe as "a writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers." In the title story that gift is skilfully employed in her use of the second person tense, not easily pulled off. Even when describing something horrific, Adichie remains dispassionate and the control and distance she maintains are what make her such a good writer. At its best Adichie's prose can be breathtaking in the most literal, physical sense. In both (the U.S. and Africa), Adichie's preoccupation is with class, and this is why her voice is so refreshing. Her interests lie in middle class Nigeria and the Diaspora, and she tugs us out of the one-dimensional representation of Africa, the poverty, disease and civil war, that we are usually fed."
Chitra Ramaswamy, Scotland on Sunday
"Adichie grew up in Nigeria; she now lives in the United States. Several stories in her new book engineer a kind of moralising comedy by viewing one country from the perspective of the other, an elegant collection. From beginning to end the prose is serene and the characterisation deft."
Anthony Cummins, The Times Literary Supplement
Source: Kachifo
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