Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Publication Information: Knopf. 2025. 416 pages.
ISBN: 0593802721 / 978-0593802724
Rating: ★★
Book Source: I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.
Opening Sentence: "I have always longed to be known, truly known, by another human being."
Favorite Quote: "Something inside you, not the heart. The spirit. The spirit cannot break, even if your heart break. Your spirit stay strong."
I love the opening sentence of this book. That idea is something most, if not all, of us hold dear. To be seen. To be known. To be heard. The unsaid corollary accompanies. We wish to be seen with all our beauty and all our faults, and we wish for that someone to love for all our beauty and our faults. I am excited to get into the book and follow the idea.
I love the idea of the book - interconnected stories of four women, each independent, each strong in her own way, each weak. each part of a sisterhood holding each other up. I am excited to get into the book and learn more about the story of these women.
I love the presumed setting - the COVID-19 pandemic. We have all just lived it. We have experiences the losses, the isolation, and the heroism. I am excited to get into the book and see perhaps my own experiences brought to life.
I love the author's note at the end of the book. "Novels are never really about what they are about. At least for this writer." ... "Stories die and recede from the collective memory merely for not having been told. Or a single version thrives because other versions are silenced. Imaginative retellings matter." I learn that this story for the author is about her mother. I also learn that one woman's story is also inspired by the story of a poor immigrant woman and what she suffered at the hands of those with more power and money and what she suffered at the hands of the system - "a person failed by a country she trusted." I am excited to get into the book and learn more about this history.
Unfortunately, I struggle with the book itself. The dream of being known devolves into the story of the men who did not "see" rather than of the woman herself. In fact, the stories of all the women become much more focused on the men and the power dynamic of those men in society and in these relationships. The story of the pandemic gets somewhat lost as the women's stories traverse their own histories before and after; the time element becomes less relevant to the book. The historical inspiration I learn from the author's note more so than the story itself.
I find myself putting the book down, reluctant to go back. I persevere, but I am sad, for I so wanted and expected to love this book.
Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.
No comments:
Post a Comment