This is the second book by Chinua Achebe (Nigerian author) I've read in the last week. As it turns out this is the story of Obi Okonkwo the grand son of the main character in “Things Fall Apart” (I read “Things Fall Apart on December 30th 2007 so I cannot include it in the Expanding Horizons challenge but my review of it is here).Even though it was published only two years later this book is written in a totally different style. It actually reads like a western novel with a near linear story line and does not feel at all like a story from a verbal tradition.
The first thing we find out about Obi, in the first few pages, is that he is going to court for accepting bribes as senior government office worker in
It is hard to really sympathize with Obi because it does seem like he easily feels sorry for himself and easily convinces himself that he has to maintain a certain status. But somehow the sequence of events make sense. They seem absolutely plausible. And when he accept the first bribes the reader cannot be surprised. By that point Obi is in so much financial troubles that it seems nearly like his only chance to make it.
Added later (January 4th): Driving to town today and thinking about it, it occurred to me that in a way the very pride which made Obi so firm in his belief against bribery, is the pride which made him believe that he had to maintain a certain standard of life as senior government officer, which in turn lead him into having to take bribes. Had he not been so strong and proud in his dislike of bribery he might have found himself able to resist it better.
I would recommend this book to anybody who has ever cursed bribery (so that includes me). This book shows how a very honorable person with no intentions of getting caught in that vicious circle can end up giving in. But overall this book does not compare to “Things Fall Apart”, if you are going to read ONE book from Chinua Achebe I would recommend “Things Fall Apart”.
