Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1)
Author: Chinua Achebe
Rating: â 5/5
Pages: 215
Freshman year of high school, honors English. I was fourteen, and all I wanted was to eventually be granted entrance into the cognoscenti. More than a signed photograph of Mark Hoppus, more than a super-low rise pair of light-wash jeans, which is to say that I wanted it more than anything. There were pretty much three routes out of my one-horse town: a football scholarship, rehab, or an imprudent amount of student loans taken out at a decent university. Being not much of a linebacker, and having no access to meth, I set my sights on the latter option.
Things Fall Apart helped me realize that books would change my life. It transported me to a place that I never knew existed, and put me in the shoes of a people that never got even a perfunctory mention in my world history class. I was a pretty big fish in a claustrophobically small pond, and Things Fall Apart was one of the books that made me realize how little of the world I actually knew.
I was surprised by the extent to which Achebe made me check my assumptions. I was looking for a way out, while Okonkwo desperately tried to maintain his influence in a decreasingly insular society. Okonkwoâs tribe fought to hold onto their traditions; I couldnât wait to shed mine.
Surely, the second coming was not at hand for me, but when youâre a teenager the world revolves around your slightly-tilted narcissistic axis. At the time, this book spoke directory to me, and I couldnât be more grateful.