Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Yowza. This novel is electric. Narrator Kambili is at once intuitive, observant, and silenced, leaving the reader with sparse, sensory descriptions that defy time. The language shifts with Kambili’s awakening to a world larger than Mass, prayer, and obedience, revealing a level of insight unexpected in such a passive narrator.
First-person POVs can either frustrate readers or open an entire world to them; Adichie does the latter by creating body languages, undercurrents of specific images, and a simple narrative style driven by dialogue and effective, understated characterization.
For fans of Toni Morrison, the bildungsroman genre, or for anyone looking to get into Nigerian fiction, Purple Hibiscus should not be missed.
Jesse Rice-Evans 