Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie presents us with 12 stories that introduce  ordinary characters caught up various predicaments such as war, unfaithfulness, prison, death, sexism.

I have no better word than authentic to describe this book. Even though Chimamanda’s stories are fictional they are real in so many ways. The stories do not necessarily have an ending or a closure you would be pleased with. The events each character goes through is more like a passage of life in which problems are not simply resolved. In fact, they highlight the complexity of the characters. We, as human, are multifaceted and complicated so when facing problems, we may not respond and go about them the way our heros would. There are things we do not have control over and Chimamanda explores these aspects in her book. She makes us reflect on deep questions. How to reason with people holding sexist comments? How to explain to a boss that his behavior is borderline when your career is at stake? How to respond to unfair violence perpetrated by those you call when you are in danger, the police? How to mourn your loved one when they are missing? How do you go about life after your child has been killed by the government? How to live with a husband you barely know? And plenty other inextricable questions. Of course, we want the good character to fight the system and win, but realistically that is not what we would do ourselves. And, that is the reason why it is honest. Chimamanda gave a voice to real people through her fictional characters.

The headstrong historian was by far my favorite. It tells the story of a woman, Nwambga, we would quickly describe as strong by our today’ standard of what a woman should be; gentle and quiet, but in fact, is a regular tribe woman, proud of her identity, her belief, her customs and most importantly, proud of being of a woman of her time, who expresses her thoughts and plays an equally important role in the family system as men. After her husband, Obierika, was poisoned by his brothers for his wealth, she sends her son, Anikwenwa, to a missionary school to learn English so he can reclaim what is rightfully his. I love how Chimamanda wrote a mother strategizing her plan and comes think that instrumentalising her son could be a way that would allow him to protect himself and inherit the land his father worked hard for. We understand her thinking process which comes as a result of the stories she hears about the white men (having guns that can destroy a whole village and a language can protect your inherited land in court). When she forces her son to go to this school,she does not realise that with knowledge of another world comes belief. She naively thinks that her son will only benefit from knowledge to protect what was left of her husband but instead as he learns English he stirs away from his identity in fact he rejects it completely and becomes the recipient of the white Christian missionary. He changed his name. He no longer eats the food of his mother and criticized the tradition of his people. Only the teaching of god has a place in his heart. The consequence of the mother’s decision is disastrous and could not even be worse that having her own son child being ashamed of what she is and represents. We later learn that her wit had been passed onto her granddaughter, Afamefuna, whose life was dedicated to bring up the wiped out history of her country before the Eastern people changed it. To me she is seen as the life time rebellious woman going against what a woman is required to be in a remade society. They are other sides of the story that are as thought triggering as this one I just tackled but my review will turn into an essay of the work of Chimamanda if I continue writing.