##38-42: Things Fall Apart and four others

[puritybrown.livejournal.com]

38: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Classic Nigerian novel originally published in 1958. The title is a little bit misleading, since most of the novel is devoted to showing what the "things" -- i.e. traditional Ibo customs and culture -- were like before they started to "fall apart" due to the arrival of the British. And this is the right way to do it, because without having the detailed portrait of the lives of the people of Umuofia in the first two-thirds of the novel, the destruction of it all in the last third could easily come across as a generic "oh noes the white people are ruining everything" story. I mean, not to deny that the white folks did ruin Nigeria, not to mention the rest of Africa, but what's remarkable about Achebe is his ability to see the pre-colonial society in all its complexity, including the aspects that make some of the people of Umuofia welcome the arrival of a new order (such as the rigid class structure and the ritual infanticide of twins), without losing sight of the tragedy of colonisation. Superbly written and utterly fascinating from the first page to the last.

39: Death Note: Another Note by NisiOisin

A prequel tie-in novel to the Death Note manga; there wouldn't be much point in reading it if you weren't already somewhat familiar with the manga or the anime, since it depends entirely on the reader's expectations to achieve its humour and its plot twists. As tie-in novels go, it's pretty good; the central mystery is ridiculously elaborate and the writing has far too many one-sentence paragraphs, but it's funny and it develops the character of Naomi Misora, who got unceremoniously bumped off much too early in the manga.

I have to admit that I bought it mostly because of its luscious binding: black cloth over a hard cover with a silver embossed title, and a strap jacket with a design that overlaps the embossing on the cover. And a silk bookmark sewn into the binding. Gorgeous work. The book's contents don't really deserve it, but I appreciate a good binding all the same.

40: What the Chinese Don't Eat by Xinran

I previously wrote up Xinran's novel Miss Chopsticks and noted that it didn't really work as a novel, but that I'd be interested to see some non-fiction by Xinran on the subject of contemporary China. What the Chinese Don't Eat is just that: a collection of her columns for the Guardian on Chinese culture and the difficulties of adjusting to life in Britain, where she has been living since 1997. It's fascinating, and often very moving, as when she talks about the girl babies abandoned by their Chinese mothers and adopted by British families; the column format sets a limit on how deeply she can explore any of her subjects, but the insights she provides are well worth reading the book for.

41: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Excellent, exceptionally well-written novel about a Princeton-educated Pakistani and the gap between the feelings and expectations created by his education and those deeply engrained in him by his upbringing.

42: Love as a Foreign Language volume 2 by J. Torres and Eric Kim

Second volume of the culture shock romantic comedy; I wrote up the first volume a while ago, but only just managed to find the second, which wraps up the romance in a very satisfying way, as well as further exploring the difficulties of Joel's stay in Korea and the ways in which he makes trouble for himself -- and how hard it is to adjust when he goes back to Canada.