What's on your nightstand

Which book has moved or engaged you? Please share it with other CCW members. We accept all genres. Tell us what the book is about (without giving away any spoilers), your reaction to it and why. Please send book reviews to Barbara.siebeneick@gmail.com. (Please note that all book reviews are the opinion of the writer and not the Central Coast Writers.) This month’s review is from Barbara Siebeneick

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, 2003 Anchor Books

The story of Kambili and her Nigerian family is so much more than the usual coming of age story that it is hard to categorize. Kambili and her brother, Jaja grow up in an affluent family with a life of leisure. The only thing their ultra-religious father asks of them is perfection. Family meals are spent in silence and family mandatory prayers are scattered throughout their days. The children have a schedule of when they have to sleep, study and pray and any deviance is punished severely.

Behind this mask of a loving religious family is a series of physical abuses of their mother and the children. While their father is a controlling monster at home, he is beloved by his community. He pays for repairs on the church, supports hundreds of children’s schooling and regularly gives money to help other families. He also runs a newspaper that is openly opposed to the current coup and new government.

Kambili is confused by the dual personality of her father, but does not begin to question it until they go for a vacation and stay with their Aunt for a week. There they learn that families can laugh, even when they are living a hand-to-mouth existence, and argue without being punished.

The detail of the two different living circumstances between the father and their Aunt, is rich in detail and lets the reader see the duality of Nigeria and the two families.  Where one family eats spoiled meat because the electricity is spotty, the other has more food than they can eat. At one point, when the Universities are shut down, professors threatened or murdered, and the government makes a hit list of everyone who doesn’t agree with them, there is a debate about leaving the country or staying to try to make a positive change. 

One of the biggest difference is how the two families celebrate their faith. Both are Catholic and while one celebrates with love, the other uses faith to control every aspect of their lives. Kambili’s father won’t even let the children see their grandfather for more than fifteen minutes because he still practices the ancient religion of his ancestors. 

When I was trying to write this review, I had a hard time deciding what kind of book it is. Is it coming of age? A book about religion? Colonialism? Abuse? Inequality? Nigerian culture? Politics? You will have to decide for yourself, but I think it is a little of each, but told so poignantly and beautifully that I couldn’t put it down.