5 comments about Things Fall Apart (Guided Reader).

1. This book started out slow for me and it did not pick up until part two. I found all the different African names confusing and hard to keep up with. Overall the main character, Okonkwo, was quite depressing. I wish Okonkwo's daughter, Enzinma, character would have been developed more. Enzima was my favorite character throughout the entire story.
   
   Even though the beginning was a somewhat rough to get through, I like how the story developed. Okonkwo was such a complex character. His childhood demons followed him all his life. It was like a dark cloud hovered over his emotions. Personally, I believe that Okonkwo's broken spirit led to his horrible death. The ending really pierced me.



2. Heard masses about this author and the book seemed to be exactly the sort of thing I like (different cultures, Africa, talented black author, good yarn etc.)
   
   I was very disappointed. Maybe I am simply not sufficiently intelligent? or maybe it is 'Emperor's New Clothes' syndrome? Maybe the structure of the story itself follows some ancient format?
   
   I found nothing to engage me with the characters, I found the frequent breaks for fable-telling a bit annoying, and the story had an alien 'shape' for me.
   
   One passage I did enjoy was the White man discussing Christianity with the Elder near the end of the book. The Elder made some convincing arguments that reverence for a stick was a good model for Christianity - that was food for thought.
   
   Otherwise, went right over my head.



3. Things Fall Apart is a remarkably simple straight forward told story about a hard and rough man living in a remote village in Africa. The story begins years before missionaries enter the landscape and begin to change the culture and customs of the land. The novel tells us of life before and after the missionaries came.
   
   Although the novel is mostly about rituals, beliefs and history around this important period in Africa, it chooses to follow a very strong and unlikable character as its main focus. His name is Okonkwo. He came from a lazy father who he hated and is spite of that laziness and hatred of his father, Okonkwo becomes a hard working and ambitious leader in the clan of his village.
   
   Okonkwo is not a good man. He beats his wife and kids regularly. He is a beast with a fierce temper but he is also a very respected throughout the village.
   
   On a night of grieving Okonkwo accidentally shoots another clan member and is cast out for seven years with his family to his mother's homeland. Then the missionaries begin coming into the village during his absence. Okonkwo later disowns his son when he becomes friendly with the missionaries, who Okonkwo despises.
   
   He returns back to his old village to find nothing is the same. The white man and his religion have changed everything. This isn't a book about flowery description and at times is very skeletal in its description but it moves along briskly with its story. There is never any emotional attachment that we develop with any of these characters. The characters seem to be mere vessels to carry the ideas and themes of the novel which really is about the vast differences between cultures and the connections that can unite or divide us.
   
   I found the novel very good because it made me think about these ideas. At times I wondered how anyone could believe such things and there are some odd cultural practices, but then I realized that these people might also think my beliefs just as strange as theirs. The book is simple and interesting.
   
   It is no masterpiece though. I believe the main problem with the book lies with the main character Okonkwo himself. I felt no pity in his demise even if some understanding remained for his firm beliefs and his fight to hold on to what he felt sacred.
   
   Even with great ideas and cultural beliefs, I can't think a book is great unless I feel some connection to the characters and with Things Fall Apart I just couldn't. I just couldn't stand Okonkwo.
   
   Don't get me wrong, I still highly recommend the book for the interesting ideas that one can dissect and discuss. I felt it would have had a stronger main character it could have been much stronger and might even have lifted it to a level of greatness.
   
   Grade : B+



4. Dear,
   First of all,I would like to thank the managers of this site for the enormous effort and help they introduce to their customers. The item I have purchased is in a good shape. It is almost new.However, it is a great pleasure to continue dealing with you in my future purchases.
   All the best,
   Mohammad



5. I had read some reviews that complained that the first part of this novel was very slow paced and that the later part, where the actual plot of the story developed too quickly. I happen to feel that the pacing of the story was perfect. The first half had to spend a lot of time with the characters to acclimate the reader to this society that Okonkwo lives. The story is titled Things Fall Apart and like in real life tragedy tends to strike quickly. Your idea of day to day life and what is considered normal can drastically change within a short period of time. This is exactly what happens to Okonkwo in this novel. While the novel takes place in pre-colonial Nigeria, a world even most modern day Nigerians may not be familiar with, the characters were very real to me. I can definitely relate to the main character. He is essentially a father who has worked hard all his life to gain what he has. To gain what his current society deems as important. He is someone who simply wants what he feels is best for his son and the rest of his family. Unfortunately, the world he grew up in has changed. What was important is not now, what is best for his son is not necessarily what Okonkwo feels is important. Okonkwo is sometimes a stubborn and violent man, but who hasn't known or met a person like this guy. I have to admit the story does start out slow, but it's just so you can get to know the people before the story begins. In fact without the introduction it would be impossible to understand the tragedy that occurs later on.

No comments about A Transformational Grammar of Igbo.

No comments about Learn to Speak the Igbo Language Faster and Easier with Subliminal Programming CD.

No comments about Class, culture, and the colonial context: the status of women in Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood.(Critical Essay): An article from: International Fiction Review.

No comments about Approaches to Teaching Achebe's Things Fall Apart (Approaches to Teaching World Literature).

5 comments about Igbo-English Dictionary : A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Igbo Language, with an English-Igbo Index.

1. The excitement of having a dictionary authored by one of our respected scholars everporates as soon as one sees the "dictionary" itself. Pink cover, few pages, over two thirds of Igbo words ignored. Tiny lettesets, and the whole bit. Why?



2. Professor Echeruo knows too well that Igbo people live both in the eastern and mid-western parts of Nigeria. The map in the dictionary, while showing this fact, claimed that the Igbo live in eastern part of Nigeria. Also, Mike knows too well that the alphabet "c" does not exist in Igbo orthography. "Chi" is inseparable with the Igbo in philosophy and cosmology. Would Professor Echeruo wish that we begin to spell it "Ci"? I believe that the "dictionary" can be vastly improved with many omitted words and better production.



3. This is a commendable work. Igbo dictionaries no longer exist in the air. Now there is one to read and critique! However,there is no justification whatsoever for the author's introduction of a new orthography for the language. Tone marking was grossly neglected. If this dictionary is to be used by non-native speakers it has to be revised with tones adequately marked, and the alphabet made to conform with existing Igbo orthography. The author may take refuge in the fact that standardization wise the language appears to be in a state of flux. But, a dictionary is the proper avenue towards a standard. In that regard the dictionary falls a little short of expectation. Most of the entries are correctly translated into English, attesting to the authors sound command of both Igbo and English.



4. Being 50% Ibo(that's how my relatives spelled it), I thought it might be nice to learn a bit of the language of a people that make up half my being so I bought this book for a sum signifigantly less than it is offered for on this site at a used book store. I got a bit concerned when I found a bunch of spelling contradictions with the root words for Igbo names as they appeared in a book that I have on that subject("Igbo Names" by Ebo Ubahakwe)as well as running at odds with the spellings of the names of my cousins,uncles and aunts(the name element Chukwu is spelled Cukwu). That's bad enough, but when I couldn't find one of the few words one of my cousins taught me (Gommen, I think, a general greeting)in the 'G 'section at all, I started to get upset. Now I learn that roughly 2/3 of the language isn't even represented, so any thoughs of trying to speak Igbo in Nigeria without looking like either an ignorant/stupid foreigner or a primitive are out of the question. There isn't even an in-depth pronounciation guide in here! Still, it's better than nothing and you don't have to worry about tone if you're using it to translate dialogue or something similar.It's too short for regular dictionary standards let alone translation dictionaries, being a scant 283-page total while the Merriam-Webster's Spanish-English dictionary I have is a whopping 733-pages and the Harrap's Concise French and English Dictionary has a whole 997 pages! A half-way decent start but they need to release an expanded volume or three to make amends for this one.



5. This isn't a comprehensive dictionary, the page count should tell you that. However, it is helpful to use as a reference point when reading emerging and established Igbo authors like Chinua Achebe, Chris Abani and C. Ngozi Adichie. Readers should bear in mind that Igbo is a language with many dialects. As an Igbo person, I'd recommend this book to others who were interested in the language. However, because of its limitations and odd decisions (why spell chi as ci?), I wouldn't pay more than $15 for it. Just keeping it real.

No comments about Igbo Names: Their Structure & Meaning.

1 comments about Talk Now! Learn Igbo.

1. This is a product to avoid at all cost -- truly a waste of money. The vocabulary is so incredibly limited and frequently useless or at least unhelpful as to make this product totally ineffective if one hopes to learn even rudimentary Igbo. For the sparce amount of information this CD provides, it is definitely not worth the money. Granted there are hardly any resources (outside of Nigeria) to learn Igbo, this CD is not the way to go.

1 comments about Igbo Basic Course.

1. Foreign Service Institute Igbo Basic Course Digital Cd ROM Version (Foreign Service Institute African Language Series)
   
   The course is so thorough that native speakers were originally impressed. One teased that if everything in that [thick] book was learned, the language would be known better than he knew it himself. Unfortunately, in going through the audio and pronounciation guides with me...I was unanimously told that the dialect being taught is not the mainstream dialect, and though people from the region this course represents have no trouble understanding the mainstream...the mainstream can have quite a bit of difficulty when trying to understand them. I was basically advised to put the course on a shelf. (And I did...because I do not see the point in putting forth the effort to learn a languange only to have it be in a regional dialect that even the native speakers do not hold the patience to try to figure out.)

5 comments about Igbo-English English-Igbo Dictionary and Phrasebook (Hippocrene Dictionary & Phrasebook).

1. This is an great book. It gives a good introduction to the history and language of the Igbo people and is a dual phrassebook and dictionary. The tones and dots are shown clearly and distinguishes between different pronunciations. (please ignore the review at the bottom; it's probably an old edition that doesn't have the tone markings) However, the vocabulary doesn't seem to be complete, as there are some figurative, modern, and colloquial terms that aren't given. For example, the book says "mgbada" means "deer", but "mgbada" may also mean "victim". Some other words are also not given. Overall, this is a great book that is affordable and suitable for both native and foreign speakers. A great buy.



2. This Igbo-English Dictionary is the best resource I have so far, besides my mom. It really helps, you can go look up words or simply use the back, which shows you how to say tiny phrases such as "Help me" "I'm hungry" "I'm Hot". The back also gives the consumer some cultural insight and history.
   
   My only problem with it, is that verbs are not displayed as either i-dot or i-dotless.verbs should be explained in more detail if you are going to do a section on them in the front, and most dishearting of all is that the top page markers are wrong. on some pages you will find the bolded word in the middle instead of at the end.
   
   However all things considered this is a great assest for anyone wanting to learn Igbo.



3. This book arrived in great condition and ptetty fast I might add. I would buy from this seller again in he future.



4. This is a very useful book. I'm looking to learn something new and, lo and behold, I find this. It's very useful.



5. This dictionary is great if you want a little pocket size Igbo dictionary. I like the fact that it has a very handy and useful phrasebook in the back. This would be very useful for anyone that is traveling to Igboland. The dictionary is not a complete dictionary and does not have all Igbo and English words. Nevertheless it is great. I would recommend it.